UPDATED: New 3D Simpsons Short to Precede Ice Age 4!

It was just announced last night that Maggie Simpson will star in her very own short film, "The Longest Daycare"! The short will show before Blue Sky Studios' (who're also owned by Fox) Ice Age 4 later this year. You can view a short promo for the short film above.

"The Longest Daycare" is touted as being in 3D, and hopefully this just means it will have stereoscopic 3D effects, and not that it's animated using CGI - it would just not look right for The Simpsons.

This is very exciting news for several reasons: it's Maggie's first starring role, it's the first Simpsons theatrical short film, and indeed the first Simpsons short film since 1989! If you weren't planning on seeing Ice Age 4 before, it's just became a must see.

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift hits cinemas on 13th July.

Via Cartoon Brew.

Update:

Entertainment Weekly's site sports a mini-interview with Simpsons Exec. Producer, Al Jean, about "The Longest Daycare", which gives us a sizeable about of information about the short.

Jean says:

"Jim Brooks thought we should do an animated short — a la the ones Pixar does before their features, a la the cartoons you used to see in the theater years ago — as a fun thing to give our fans. We just wanted to do this as a way of saying, ‘We appreciate how much people have stayed with the show and watched it for 25 years."

The EW article also tells us that the short sees Maggie returning to the Ayn Rand School for Tots (need reminded?) and that it'll be 4 minutes long and directed by David Silverman. It also seems that in the short (rather than as hoped above) the "3D" doesn't mean the film will be in 3D, rather that it will be animated using CGI. Meh, I'd rather see it animated in the normal Simpsons mould, but I suppose it will give it a different feel and it worked rather well for Looney Tunes.

Also, of note, Al Jean spoke briefly about the long speculated The Simpsons Movie 2:

“There are no immediate plans for a feature, although as you see with this, you never know. It certainly made us excited to think that if we did another feature, maybe 3-D would be the way to go.”

Be sure to read the full article here!

Update 2:

Pardon my misreading, the director of The Simpsons Movie and "The Longest Daycare", David Silverman, told us on Twitter "Nope! - its 3D not CG. Drawn like the show, but several levels of cleanup, using After Effects to create 3D."

Phew. Like I said, I'm sure it would've been good as CG, but it'll be so much better without!

The Simpsons at 500

The Simpsons, Matt Groening's brainchild, the most iconic show in recent memory, the mould from which shows like Family Guy and South Park seek to establish themselves, has reached the gigantic milestone of 500 episodes. The show, which started on The Tracey Ullman Show way back in 1987 as a series of shorts, has been a mainstay on TV as a series for 23 years.

The practically unparralleled achievement is a true feather in the cap of arguably one of the greatest TV shows of all time and The Simpsons has been getting a lot of well deserved coverage because of the approaching accomplishment. The Guardian has compiled a list of the top ten episodes of The Simpsons here, crowning the 007 spoof, You Only Move Twice the greatest episode of The Simpsons ever. Personally, I'd agree with The Guardian's choice of that and of Cape Feare as the top two, although I'd probably rank their first full episode, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, in the top three though. Although, fans and critics alike seem fairly unaminous that the show's finest hours were in its first decade or so, there is no arguing with the fantastic brilliance of the show, and recent episode's like Angry Dad: The Movie showed the show's timelessness and how it is still capable of utter brilliance and witty self-parody. The Guardian also has an article about its choice of the top ten things that make The Simpsons great.

BBC News has a couple of clips from the upcoming 500th episode here, as well as some words from Wallace and Gromit creator and Aardman head honcho, Nick Park, about the honour of guest starring in The Simpsons.

Matt Groening has also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Valentine's Day (read more here).

The Simpsons' 500th episode will feature guest appearences by controversial WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange and will air in the US tomorrow.

For more on the show's creator, Matt Groening, read our Bitesized Biography about him.

Classic Cartoons #2 - Good Night

As our second 'Bitesized Biography' was dedicated to The Simpsons creator, Matt Groening, and that the function of 'Classic Cartoons' is to share some of the best, most influential and most timeless cartoons and shorts of all time with the masses, it seemed fitting that today's 'Classic Cartoon' be the short that started it all: 'Good Night', the very first Simpsons short. Before 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire' became the first ever full length Simpsons episode in December 1989, 'Good Night' grabbed the attention and adulation of audiences everywhere on The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987.