Oct 4, 2013

Guillermo del Toro directs the ultimate "Simpsons" opening.

If you haven't seen a new episode of The Simpsons in years, Guillermo del Toro has reworked the show's opening credits for Treehouse of Horror XXIV. It is a visually dense, reference-heavy love letter to both Horror and The Simpsons, expertly directed by the show's regular animation artist team. The 2:45-minute piece was posted online ahead of its TV debut this Sunday:

Del Toro explained the opening concept to Entertainment Weekly: "[The show's] set piece, the title, and the connection between the most iconic horror films I wanted to create a connection between the set pieces, the title, and the most iconic horror films, and intersperse my work for the pure enjoyment of the audience. For example, the idea of Ms. Krabappel being outside the school with Alfred Hitchcock is a reference to the sequence in The Birds that takes place outside the Bodega Bay school. All of this seems to make sense in the interconnection, from Chief Wiggum as Harryhausen's Cyclops, to [Lard Lad] Donuts being soaked in a water tank, to nuclear material leaking from Mr. Burns' factory creating zombies. If Homer really did get his hands on a radioactive isotope, he might turn into the Grim Reaper from "Blade". Or the famous shot that always appears in the title, Maggie is driving, and when she retracts her hand, Marge is driving. What if Lisa were in music class? But she's in music class with every "Phantom of the Opera" ever made.