Watch Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare" For Free

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

A Masterpiece!

It's one of the most original films you'll likely see all year, which, depending on your threshold for certifiably crazy storylines, could be a rewarding experience or one that frustrates you.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

I would usually be careful with such a statement as I have not seen a single Simpsons episodes in its entirety for years, but this 5-minute short film was truly forgettable. I thought it had really only one single moment, which was kinda good, namely when Maggie did not get to sit and play with the gifted kids but with those who had no future and we see her disappointed face there. The rest (which was basically Maggie going against a mean little boy) was neither funny, nor somehow dramatically relevant. One interesting aspect is that, fittingly with Maggie, there is no dialogue in this short film. Then again, we see nobody but Marge from the family and also only for a very short period of time.There is some irony to the fact that it was actually the smallest Simpson who got them their first Academy Award nomination after the full feature film from 2007 came short and "only" managed a Golden Globe nomination. Then again, I probably should be more surprised that "The Longest Daycare" actually managed nominations at the Annies and Oscars. In my opinion, it was far inferior to the actual winner "Paperman" and also worse than most of the other nominees. Oh well.. in any case this did not get me motivated at all to get back to watching the Simpsons again. Maybe, I will give it another go if they make another theatrical release at some point, but I haven't heard about plans for that. For these five minutes here, not recommended.

The question The Longest Daycare raises is "what is the point?" Overall, it's an interesting enough experience, and it is certainly an antidote to the spectacularly awful standard of the television show for the last few years. But as a standalone experience, it just seems kind of pointless.For starters, the story isn't exactly the most original ever conceived. We see Maggie being dropped off at daycare by Marge, and she is then left to fend for herself against her arch-nemesis, baby Gerald. Let alone the fact that this kind of story has already been done in various different ways a couple of times, it has also been done much better. The television episode "A Streetcar Named Marge" deals with Maggie being sent to Daycare, and we've seen baby Gerald several times also, so there really isn't many new ideas raised here.Also, Maggie is actually quite a strong character considering she rarely, if ever, talks, but despite this she is the one Simpson that tends to be forgotten about, so a short based solely on her probably was never going to work particularly well anyway.It does, however, allow the writers to work without dialogue, which is an interesting idea that we haven't seen from the Simpsons before, and is the strongest aspect of the short, and is certainly the best way to deal with a story based on Maggie.Unfortunately, this doesn't save the story from being weak, and the adventure Maggie embarks on in daycare is pretty lacklustre and not particularly exciting or entertaining. Couple that with the brand-new animation, which I firmly believe only reminds us that this isn't the same show that was so legendarily hilarious and of such high quality back in its prime, and we're left with merely another hollow shell of what The Simpsons used to be.The Longest Daycare is another example of the traps the show has fallen into these last few years. The new-age animation can't make up for poor stories, unfunny scenarios and wasted characters. This kind of material is fine for low-rated, low-quality shows struggling to get by, but it shouldn't be enough for The Simpsons.

I heard of this short film because it was screened about 6 times in one day in the UK when it was released and the weekend paper informed me that it was one of the animated shorts up for the Oscar this year, so I figured I should give it a look. The plot sees Maggie enrolled in daycare only to find another baby in the "meh" class is smashing butterflies. Maggie saves a caterpillar from a similar fate and tries to keep it safe until it can become a butterfly. The plot is simple but it is played out wordlessly and with a sense of operatic melodrama that is clever despite not totally working.It is clever, but not as clever as it should have been; it is funny, but never as funny as it should have been and it is sweet, but never as heartfelt as expected. The biggest problem it has is the stable that it comes from, because the legacy of The Simpsons is a massive shadow to escape, either generally or specifically. I say specifically because this short film is in the shadow of not only the golden era of the show but it isn't even the best "Maggie in the nursery" that the show has produced, since the Great Escape sequence in the Streetcar episode was stronger and funnier than this.It is still good though and it is worth a look even if it isn't up to Simpsons at its best but then, in fairness, what is?

This is a short (5 minutes) film featuring Maggie at her daycare centre: denied the stimulus of contact with the brightest kids, she is placed with her nemesis, the thuggish monobrowed baby who, in this story, kills butterflies.There is no dialogue, just a simple story, loaded with sight gags, and with a terrific payoff. It is in the familiar Simpsons animation style, albeit in 3D which is reasonably effective but far from essential. It works well, as an ice-breaker (pun deliberate) for the 4th Ice Age movie, which it precedes.A minimal, but welcome, addition to the Simpsons canon.