With Halloween season here, one of the best new releases to watch with a Disney+ subscription to get into the spirit of things is the new Simpsons short “The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.” The new collaboration between the beloved TV family and the Disney universe is a great time, but if you get curious about the A Clockwork Orange reference, I have answers.
“The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” has Sideshow Bob getting his revenge on the Simpsons by tying them up in their home and singing a parody to the classic Christmas song and making tons of references to Disney Villains as they terrorize Springfield. Bart Simpson finds a way to fight back, but not before wearing a Halloween costume of Alex from one of the most famous and controversial X-rated movies, A Clockwork Orange.
During CinemaBlend’s conversation with The Simpsons writer/producer Al Jean, here’s what he said about the reference:
We've done so much Kubrick. We did a full Clockwork Orange parody and Bart’s had that costume, so I knew it was one that we could get cleared because we'd actually had it on the show at one brief time… We had a joke about The Old In-Out on a Halloween episode and it was just them jumping into a quickie bar going in, out , in and out, and it's insane we're doing this in a cartoon for the children are watching, you know?
So while someone jumping into the animated short after not watching The Simpsons (or not watching in a long time) might raise eyebrows as the costume reference, Bart channeling the Stanley Kubrick antihero is a total callback to the original series. Jean also said this:
I was like that as a kid. Yeah, you would learn everything from reading Mad Magazine, you know, you would read about The Godfather or Midnight Cowboy and learn about it from them before you saw it in the theater.
That’s one of the beauties of The Simpsons, isn’t it? Its comedy is a pop culture minefield in so many ways, and has been across its 36 seasons, and it can either go over one’s head or inspire them to explore the reference further. Or, for example, if a kid watched this short and didn’t understand, years down the line when they learn about the Kubrick classic and disturbing 1972 movie, they will remember Bart Simpson in the costume.
Sure it would have been easy for The Simpsons to have Bart dress up like one of the many Disney characters now available to them through the series being under the House of Mouse’s umbrella, but as a longtime fan of the series who watched it growing up, I kind of love that they made this reference to the original series and kept the edge of the cartoon, even for a Disney+ exclusive short.
During my conversation with Al Jean, we also talked about the sweet reason behind parodying a traumatic scene from Bambi. The writer/producer also discussed getting Agatha Harkness in Simpsons form for the first time at the same time Agatha All Along is dominating. You can stream the short now on Disney+.
