UPDATE: If you saw "The Simpsons" last night, you saw the epic intro that Gullermo Del Toro directed with many references to his own films and other scary works. Moviepilot had some extra time in their hands and annotated the opening sequence with all the references. Check It Out Down Below! The Simpsons' annual Halloween special is back with the help of Guillermo Del Toro adding his touch of gore to the title's couch gag. The fantasy and surreal world he created in "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Devil's Backbone" is seen in this epic opening for "Treehouse Of Horror XXIV" that is airing on October 6 on FOX. The director of "Pacific Rim" was initially offered a voice stint, but he went all out and reimagined the intro into a spooky universe that lasts 2 minutes and 24 seconds. “The Simpsons titles are so iconic and yet they’ve never been riffed in this vein,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I really wanted to land the connections between the [show’s] set pieces and the titles and some of the most iconic horror movies, and intersperse them with some of my stuff in there for pure joy.”
"The idea that Ms. Krabappel could be outside the school with Alfred Hitchcock which is a reference to the sequence in 'The Birds' that happens outside of the school in Bodega Bay. To use Chief Wiggum as the Cyclops from Harryhausen, dipping the [Lard Lad] donut in a water tank, to have the nuclear spill from Mr. Burns’ plant create zombies — all of this stuff seems to make sense to interconnect. If Homer really gets a radioactive isotope, he could turn into a reaper from Blade. Or the famous shot that is always in the titles — Maggie driving and then you pull back and there’s Marge driving, right? But in this case Maggie is driving, and she’s driving the car from the horror movie from the 70s called 'The Car,' which is one of my favorite guilty pleasure B-movies. And what if Lisa is in the music class, but she’s in the music class with every Phantom of the Opera ever made? It was a unique opportunity.”
The opening credits have so much details and so many references, it deserves to be viewed multiple times. Del Toro was inspired by "Mad" magazine's Mort Drucker, Will Elder and Harvey Kurtzman. “They would try to cram so many references in,” he says. “You as a kid could spend an afternoon on your bed with your magnifying glass going through a frame of Mad magazine and finding all these references to this and that. I integrated Lisa falling through the couch like "Alice in Wonderland" but in the dress of the girl from "Pan’s Labyrinth," and instead of landing next to the giant toad in Pan’s Labyrinth, she lands next to the Hypnotoad from "Futurama." The Mexican moviemaker's best bit of the intro was when Smithers tends to Mr. Burns in an idea pitched by Guy Davis. “Guy said, ‘Why don’t we have Smithers clean the eyes and he gets eaten?’” Del Todo said. “It defined the relationship between Burns and Smithers perfectly. That was the thing that I enjoyed the most — to take what we feel when we’re watching the title sequence or the characters and make it organic.”
Watch the full couch gag down below and tell us what movie reference was your favorite.
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