I have been going to the theater on a pilgrimage for quite a few years now each January-February to see the annual showings of the Best Animated and Best Live Action Shorts. I am lucky enough to live in one of the few places in the country that shows it each year. Now what I am about to say might offend some, but it seems that compared to most years, this year's crop of animated shorts is not as good as usual. While I liked a few films, I didn't love any of them--and no really memorable film was in the lot (such as a couple recent winners, "Logorama" or "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore"). Now this is not to say not to see them--but none bowled me over, that's for sure.

I enjoyed "The Simpsons: The Longest Daycare" quite a bit--and the people in the theater seemed to like it as I heard a lot of laughs. However, I wonder how it got nominated. Apart from being shown in 3-D as a short before a feature film, it just felt much like seeing a TV episode of "The Simpsons". While this TV show is great, it isn't original and I can't see rewarding a film for giving us more of what we've been seeing for over 20 years. Good but nothing special.

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.

I enjoyed the fact that the daycare Maggie is left in is named after Ayn Rand. She experiences the whole "virtue of selfishness" thing, being pushed around. I've been through the whole Rand thing, suffering through pretentiousness. Look at our world today! Anyway, Maggie doesn't succumb to the slings and arrows and manages to think her way through the long day