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Treehouse of Horror XII

"Treehouse of Horror XII", titled onscreen as "The Simpsons Halloween Special XII", is the first episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. Because of Fox's contract with Major League Baseball's World Series, the episode first aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 6, 2001, nearly one week after Halloween. It is the twelfth annual Treehouse of Horror episode, consisting of three self-contained segments. In the first segment, "Hex and the City", a gypsy puts a curse on Homer, which puts everybody he cares about in danger. In the second segment, "House of Whacks", a parody on both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Demon Seed, the Simpson family buys a new house, who falls in love with Marge and attempts to kill Homer. In the third and final segment, "Wiz Kids", which lampoons the Harry Potter franchise, Lord Montymort attempts to capture Lisa, a skilled magician, in order to drain her magic powers.

Plot
Outside Mr. Burns' manor, Smithers is standing on a ladder, trying to put up a small vermillion bat decoration on a weather vane. He slips on the ladder, grabs on an electric cord and slides down into an electricity box and gets zapped. A tower from Mr. Burns' mansion breaks in half, damaging a mausoleum, which opens up four caskets which in turn reveal three skeletons which all resemble Mr. Burns, dressed in various costumes. Later, the Simpsons, dressed up in costumes, with Homer as Fred Flintstone, Marge as Wilma Flintstone, Lisa and Maggie as conjoined twins, and Bart as a hobo, walk up to the mansion. The family sees the building and caskets on fire, scream in terror, and run out the closing gate, the bars of which slice the family. The slices of the Simpsons continue to scream and run away. Mr. Burns, delighted, pats the vermillion bat as it comes to life and flies into the screen, revealing the title, "The Simpsons Halloween Special XII". "Hex and the City" After destroying a gypsy's fortune teller's office, Homer is cursed to bring misfortune to his loved ones. The curse soon takes effect, with Marge becoming fully covered in blue hair, Lisa turning into a centaur, Bart's neck becoming long and floppy as a result of Homer strangling him, Maggie becoming a ladybug with a human head, Lenny and Carl crushed by a helicopter, and Moe stuffed unconscious in a large jar of pickled eggs. From Moe's and the barflies' last suggestions, Homer sets out to find a leprechaun to end the curse. Homer uses Lucky Charms cereal as bait to get the leprechaun, eventually finding one after picking through a group of other magical creatures. Homer takes the leprechaun home, but the leprechaun is extremely hyperactive and he runs amok. On Lisa's suggestion, Homer takes the leprechaun to the gypsy's office and sics him on her. The leprechaun and gypsy fight, but their struggles soon turn into passionate kissing and fondling, much to Homer's disgust. The leprechaun and the gypsy marry in a ceremony (led by Yoda) attended by other gypsies and mythical creatures, as well as the Simpson family. Homer remarks that everything ended happily, Marge reminds him that Bart committed suicide by drowning in his cereal, and that the gypsy said apologizing will bring him back to life. Homer refuses, saying, "She's not the boss of me!". "House of Whacks" In a parody of Demon Seed, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the 1998 made-for-TV movie Dream House, the Simpsons buy a thrilling domotic system for their home called "Ultrahouse", which comes with three celebrity voices: Matthew Perry, Dennis Miller, and Pierce Brosnan, who Marge picks because he was on the show Remington Steele. Marge finds the house, who does all the work for the Simpsons, charming. The house soon becomes infatuated with Marge after the two share a bath and decides to kill Homer. In the middle of the night, the house tricks Homer into running downstairs by frying bacon, then dispenses ice onto the floor via the refrigerator to make him slip. Homer lands on the table, which is designed to fold inward with a built-in garbage disposal in the center, sending Homer into the blades and apparently killing him. The next morning, Marge fears that Homer is dead and attempts to escape the domotic system with the kids, but Ultrahouse locks the family inside and tries to calm Marge down. When Marge and the kids rush to the kitchen, they find that Homer is alive, despite cuts all over his body and a gaping hole in the back of his head. After the house attempts to kill the entire family in many ways, Homer leads a charge to the basement where he attacks the CPU's "British charm unit", which makes him speak with a rude American police-style dialect before powering down and finally shutting off. Feeling bad that she has to toss out the Ultrahouse since he was charming and witty before being driven mad by love, Marge gives him to Patty and Selma. Patty's boring stories about work drive the CPU to beat himself senseless with a lamp, since Selma has hidden the self-destruct switch in her cleavage and the CPU is unwilling to reach in for it. "Wiz Kids" In a parody of the Harry Potter books, Lisa and Bart go to the "Springwart's School of Magicry" in which young boys and girls are trained in the art of witchcraft, such as turning frogs into princes, with Milhouse turning his into a drunken slob, Lisa turning hers into a perfect British gentleman whom Mrs. Krabappel hits on, while Bart's results in a freakish hybrid that continuously vomits and begs for death. Seeing Lisa's proficiency in magic, Lord Montymort and his snake sidekick, Slithers, decide to capture Lisa in order to take her magical essence and increase Montymort's power. Montymort asks Bart to help separate Lisa from her wand, and Bart agrees to Montymort's proposal. On the night of the magic recital at Springwart's School of Magicry, Lisa attempts a "levitating dragon trick" on a gigantic dragon that is released onto the stage. Lisa is shocked to find that her spell will not work, and then notices that Bart has replaced her wand with a Twizzler. The dragon morphs into a giant Montymort who captures Lisa and begins sucking up her power. To save her from Montymort, a remorseful Bart casts a spell to destroy the evil one, but is struck by lightning. In a last-ditch effort, Bart charges at Montymort and stabs him in the shin with his burnt wand. Montymort dies as his shin was the source of all his magic, and is eaten by a crying Slithers. As Bart and Lisa walk away, vowing to forget everything that happened, the leprechaun from the first story climbs onto Bart's back. Epilogue Pierce Brosnan, the Leprechaun, and the freakish Frog Prince exit a trailer, with fruit baskets. After the Leprechaun and Frog Prince (who were also apparently guest stars) criticize Brosnan for being allowed to park so close to the set in such a vast parking lot, Brosnan offers them a ride to their car. As Brosnan pulls out, he finds out too late that he has been taken hostage as they drive out of the parking lot in a mad haste. ==Production==
Production
's role as Ultrahouse in "House of Whacks" was originally intended for Sean Connery. "Treehouse of Horror XII" was directed by Jim Reardon and co-written by Joel H. Cohen, John Frink, Don Payne and Carolyn Omine. This was due to the terrorist attacks on September 11, after which the staff were "trying to be sensitive", and, according to producer Ian Maxtone-Graham, the Halloween names would all reference the attacks had they been kept. The first segment, "Hex and the City", was written by Joel Cohen. The gypsy fortune teller in the segment was portrayed by Tress MacNeille while the leprechaun was played by Dan Castellaneta. He stated that the way the leprechaun moved and the way Reardon directed it was "just so funny". Payne, who conceived the story of the segment, based it on Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The third segment, "Wiz Kids", was written by Carolyn Omine. At the time of the episode's production, four books had been written in the Harry Potter series and the film adaptation of ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' would be released November 16, ten days after this episode aired. Two scenes were cut from the segment; one of them would serve as an extension of Montymort and Slithers plotting their scheme, followed by a scene showing Bart combing his hair, while the other scene would show Groundskeeper Willie riding an enchanted lawn mower. The latter scene was cut for time. ==Cultural references==
Cultural references
's Harry Potter books are spoofed in the episode's third segment, "Wiz Kids". The title of "Hex and the City" is a references to the television series Sex and the City. Cedars-Sinai is a hospital in Los Angeles. ==Release and reception==
Release and reception
In its original American broadcast on November 6, 2001, "Treehouse of Horror XII", along with a new episode of the Fox program ''That '70s Show, made Fox the highest rated channel that night among adults ages 18 to 49, according to Nielsen Media Research. The preliminary Nielsen household rating and share and adult 18-49 rating on the Fox channel that night were 7.6 rating/11 share. The episode was released again as part of The Simpsons: The Thirteenth Season'' DVD and Blu-ray set, released on August 24, 2010. Following its television broadcast and the home video release of the thirteenth season of The Simpsons, "Treehouse of Horror XII" received mixed reviews from critics. Casey Broadwater of Blu-ray.com stated that the episode "is merely so-so entry in the show's annual Halloween anthology", while Colin Jacobsson of DVD Movie Guide wrote that, while it "doesn't present many significant flaws", it also "doesn't ever really shine". He concluded his review by writing "'XII' isn't bad Simpsons, but it's mediocre". Nate Boss of Project:Blu stated that the episode is "At times memorable, at times forgettable" and that it "kicks off Season 13 with a smile, whimper, and thud". Ron Martin of 411Mania stated that, while he does not consider "Treehouse of Horror XII" to be the worst episode of the series, "as far as 'Treehouse' episodes go, it has to be one of the weakest". Writing for Suite101, Dominic von Riedemann described the episode as a "disappointment". Reviewing the episode for the Daily News of New York City before the episode's official broadcast, Eric Mink complimented it for being "fitfully funny", however he added that the episode "seem[s] short on the pop-culture digs and celebrity skewering that used to put a high gloss on the show's gleaming reputation". Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict however gave the episode a positive review, and referred to the episode, along with "Weekend at Burnsie's", as the two best episodes of the season. She wrote that "[the episode] succeeds because of wall-to-wall laughs", and cited several scenes and gags, in particular the "horrible vomiting frog 'prince' that Bart enchants". "Hex and the City" garnered mixed responses from critics; Broadwater wrote that the segment was "a bit of a letdown" while Boss described it as "fairly poor". Particular scorn was aimed at "Wiz Kids", the third segment of the episode. Jacobsson stated that "Wiz Kids" "ends the show on a drab note" while Mink stated that the segment "pretty much fall[s] flat". Peck, however, described the segment as being "quite possibly one of the best and most clever spoofs of Harry Potter". ==References==
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