gizmomogwai

Like The Grabber, The Quarry is another Are You Scared episode that basically serves as an extended advertisement for another movie/video game. This one is worse; the unoriginal story screams Blair Witch Project, following a group of idiots who venture into the woods and come into conflict with a witch. The cliffhanger ending is equally cliche and uninspired. And despite the script being written by Garrett Werner (a pro who penned several Buzzfeed Unsolved and Puppet History episodes) there's dumb dialogue too. An example of this is seen as Ryan and Shane make fun of one part where the group reacts to finding their friend in a jaw-dropping state.

In the style, this episode takes Are You Scared in unwelcome new directions. Mollie Ong's creepy sketches have always been a hallmark of the show, but this one gives us much more animation in addition to Ong's work. The problem is that the more realistically-drawn animation conflicts with Ong's more impressionistic, horror-driven style. It smothers the atmosphere Ong's illustrations and Ryan's narration often creates.

Longtime fan of Lisa Simpson here. Should have liked this short, and didn't. The Simpsons shorts in the post-Tracey Ullmann era started out good (The Longest Daycare, Willie's Views on Scottish Independence, Playdate with Destiny), and gave a breath of fresh air to these characters having them respond to current events, or explore new directions such as Maggie having a silent little adventure. Since moving to Disney+, it's been generally downhill.

The shorts all seem intended to advertise both the show or other Disney products. Plusaversary was particularly bad with the way it shilled for Disney+, and there's a bit of that with this one too, particularly in the end credits. Three minutes long and not a single laugh, and a few cringey moments too (spiders out of Billie's mouth, eww). I think it's time for The Simpsons writers to stop and rethink, "What are we doing here?"

Pitched as the first NFT cartoon, "The Arrival", a pilot for The Red Ape Family, is complete trash. Everything about it is terrible. The look of the cartoon is ugly as sin; the quality of the movements in the animation (particularly looking at the dogs running) is equally bad.

As a story, the episode has no context, no clear plot to follow, and feels like a mess of non sequiturs; nothing is funny. The voice acting is horrible and unconvincing, which makes assertions like an NFT is more valuable than the entire city of Paris unconvincing and particularly cringeworthy. Kill Red Ape Family before it has a chance to multiply into a series.