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| They're willing to mock them but not enough to go beyond parodies. Seriously, a carrot? |
For some reason, the family leaves Bart home alone for a time. Of course, Bart does something which wrecks everything. Before Homer can yell at or punish Bart, the family gets a visitor who is looking for Bart. The man, who represents a company that makes a wonderful ergonomic chair, reveals that his company wants to make a movie out of Bart's old web cartoon: Angry Dad. In a complete disregard for continuity, the man continues that in 1999, the studio that made Bart's cartoon bought dozens of chairs from his company, then when the studio went bankrupt from the dot com bust which was still about a decade earlier then when this episode aired, they had still owed the chair company for the chairs, so instead they seized ownership of its cartoons, including Angry Dad. So, with Hollywood as out of ideas as always, the company decides to make a movie out of the cartoon, which Bart and even Homer agree to do.
As Angry Dad, Homer is a bit of a celebrity among certain circles, which certainly includes the people hired to make the Angry Dad movie. However, Homer wasn't the voice of Angry Dad in the original web cartoon, but with the original voice basically no longer having a voice, Homer is brought in to provide the voice of his caricature. Soon, the movie finishes production and is given a test screening, however everyone in the theatre hates it. Bart is saddened, but Lisa encourages him to take the movie and cut out the crap to turn into a short film. Some time later, the film gets nominated for a golden globe, and the entire family is invited to the award show. Despite heavy competition from a Pixar parody that makes you wonder why they even bothered avoiding legal troubles, the cartoon wins the golden globe for best animated short. Before Bart can accept the award, though, Homer grabs it instead and takes all the credit for the cartoon's success.
Lisa again encourages Bart by saying there'll be other award shows, but Homer takes all the credit every time the film wins an award time and time again. Late one night, Bart gets a call to inform him Angry Dad has been nominated for an Oscar, but decides not to tell Homer about it, giving him a list of mundane places to visit during the night. Of course, Bart wasn't aware the Oscars are the very essence of drawing things out. Homer learns from people that recognize him that he's missing the Oscars, and hitches a ride with them to the ceremony. Angry Dad does win the award, and as Bart finally gets to deliver a speech, he realizes he can't take sole credit for his film's success. Lisa gets some credit for the idea of making it a short film, and all the animators and production people deserve some credit as well, and even Homer gets a little credit for providing the voice - and the inspiration. Homer arrives just in time to listen to this speech, and apologizes for his behavior. A random celebrity in the audience admits it'd be nice to acknowledge everyone in a film's creation, but you just can't give an Oscar to all of those people. Bart decides instead to take his Oscar and split it into pieces to share with his team, though relieved that Homer can buy replacement Oscars off of Ebay.
Quick Review
The idea behind this episode is weird, odder still when a character in it makes mention of Hollywood running out of ideas, but the episode itself is using a plot line from nine years ago despite the fact its context makes little sense if you try to keep everyone's ages consistent.
This episode has its high moments and its low moments. The low moments are definitely the two times Ricky Gervais appears on screen. The first time he just drags on talking and talking and talking, none of it funny, really dragging the episode down. He next appears during the credits, and that provides a smidgen of comedy, but overall his appearance really hurt the episode.
The best the episode offered was in the 'short films' that was shown during one award ceremony or another. The films, which ranged from a parody of Pixar's tendency to make characters out of things like toys or cars to a deep Russian whatever, were for the most part excellent and a worth a watch by themselves. Unfortunately, between Ricky Gervais and the rest of the episode, the short films do not help the episode too much, leaving it as one of the season's weaker efforts.
Final Score: 6.9
