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The Simpsons Season 19 Episode 18

Any Given Sundance

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8.0

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 5/4/08

Lisa makes a documentary of her own family for a school project, and the film is so impressive that Superintendent Chalmers and Principal Skinner push her to enter the documentary in the Sundance Film Festival.

Fan Episode Reviews (5)

not very good.

3.3

By coolchris44, Nov 02, 2010

Lisa captures th elives on the simpsons on film and with the help of skinner and chalmers is able to get it to the sundance film festival. her family begins to get mad at her for the way she shows them in her film becuase she made them look like monsters. it was not a very good episode and more proof that the simpsons is going downhill fast. the tialgaiting part was not funny either. poor ralphie eating his own hand was in poor taste in my mind. the simpsons is really losing its luster latley. well hopefully things will change.moreless
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An episode that in my opinion could have been much better. I excepted a little more from the writers

7.9

By Iverson82094, Nov 02, 2010

The Simpson family heads to a tailgate party, and while Homer and Bart steal other tailgaters' food, Lisa busies herself by filming the events for a school project, and notices life in its own perspective. Lisa shows the film to her teacher, who reviews her film and says he enjoys it, but says it lacks drama. Principal Skinner reveals he has a secret cinema passion. He forces Lisa to create a film that will include plenty of drama, and Lisa concludes that the only true source of drama is her family. Lisa stars to video her family doing their everyday activities.

Superintendent Chalmers takes notice of Lisa's filmmaking and convinces Skinner to enter Lisa's film in the Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance organizers agree to premiere Lisa's film, as she's an intellectual misfit. Lisa's movie, Capturing the Simpsons is accepted. When the family learns Lisa's film had been accepted, they all go to Park City, Utah to see the premiere. The family is anxious to see the premiere of the film. Skinner and Chalmers try to enter but are turned down. Capturing the Simpsons, produced by "Chalmskinn Productions" begins. Lisa shows her family in all of its dysfunction. Audience members begin giving sour remarks about her family. One scene features Bart breaking dishes and Homer walking in with bare feet. Marge cleans up after them and Lisa wishes her a "Happy Birthday," embarrassing the entire family. The film ends, and receives a standing ovation. But Homer, Marge, and Bart, and Maggie are all appalled at how the film portrays them and cannot believe Lisa would do such a thing. Comic Book Guy posts a glowing review on his blog, so that the whole world would know about the film. Lisa thinks that her family may be monsters.[3]The family ignores Lisa, which makes her want to take back her film. Meanwhile, some distributors find Skinner and Chalmers and want to buy Lisa's movie. Skinner negotiates the terms of the sale, which include access to the most exclusive VIP tent at the fest. The film becomes very popular, but Lisa's family realize others hate them because of the way the were portrayed in the film. Lisa feels sorry for what she did to the family, and while deep in thought, Jim Jarmusch approaches to her and says he can relate because his movies are also about "social misfits experiencing the dark side of the American dream". Lisa however, feels that she may have, deep inside, humiliated her family on purpose. He tells her the answer to her question of whether or not her family will forgive her is in a film: Life Blows Chunks, a documentary by Nelson Muntz, produced by Chalmskinn Productions. It shows Nelson's struggling life, where Mrs. Muntz is a thief and drinks heavily. When his film ends, Lisa learns that although her family may embarrass her, humiliate her, or infuriate her, there are other families with tougher problems. She apologizes to her family, and they gratefully accept her back. Nelson and Mrs. Muntz, who are now in the spotlight, enjoy the attention.[3][1]

In the end, we see Skinner and Chalmers with John C. Reilly, who is trying to audition for Chalmskinn's next movie, Ghostmoreless
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Lisa makes a Simpsons movie.

8.0

By jimbo_001, Oct 10, 2008

While this seemed like a remake of the classic A Star is Burns, just replace Nelson's movie with Barney's, and is half as funny, Any Given Sundance is still a very good Simpsons episode, though certainly not the best of the season. Lisa's embarrassing movie was hilarious, as was Chalm-Skinn, speaking of which, both characters had some hilarious lines. Lisa is a great character, and this is much better than the last Lisa episode revolving around second hand smoke, but I'll always be a Homer fan first (or Chief Wiggum, but let's keep it within the central family) and the lack of stupidity in the episode was noticeable, but all the same it was balanced out by some quite "smart" comedy by the brainy bunch. There were a few dull scenes, but all in all, this is a great contribution to the nineteenth season.moreless
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Not my favourite storyline fits the classification closest to whats available. But I thought of the episode as below average and not what A Simpsons viewer would normally expect.

4.5

By vishus1990, Jun 09, 2008

This has to be one of the worst Simpsons episodes I have seen.

It wasnt horrible, but I have come to expect better quality form the Simpsons. It wasnt so bad that I couldnt watch it, but I was definately quite near to getting up and doing something else. Its definately not an episode I would sit through and watch again during reruns. Whereas with other Simpsons episodes I would gladly watch the 2nd, 3rd or even more times.

It didnt live up to the clear and strong standard that Simpsons usually sets in their episodes (based on my view, and mostly through level of humour and sotryline).moreless
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love it bcoz it is funny and the plot never bores me.

10

By jowee01, May 13, 2008

i love this episode and its funny and the plot never bores me i mean seriously i did get the exact concept it's scribble blah blah etc.,hahaha... the humor was a mild on moistness and was more dry and all i can say is that its a good episode id put it as my second or most favorite ( itch and scrathcy and poochy show would be my best i just abosolutely love that episode i have a headache hearing that wierd dude's voice and stuff) sorry about saying stuff about itchy and scratchy and poochie show thing because i barely cared for that episode so not cruddy episode ...... yeahmoreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Dan Castellaneta	Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, and others
Julie Kavner	Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier, and Selma Bouvier
Nancy Cartwright	Bart Simpson, Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders, and others
Yeardley Smith	Lisa Simpson
Hank Azaria	Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Lou, and others
Harry Shearer	Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, Waylon Smithers, Kent Brockman, and others

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Jim Jarmusch	Himself	Guest Star
John C. Reilly	Himself	Guest Star
Tress MacNeille	Agnes Skinner, Brandine Del Roy, Dolph and others	Recurring Role
Pamela Hayden	Milhouse Van Houten, Rod Flanders, Jimbo Jones, and others	Recurring Role
Karl Wiedergott	Additional Voices	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (9)
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- Principal Skinner: (to Lisa) Seymour Skinner never puts all his eggs in one basket. That's why they call me "Two Basket Skinner." (pause) What? They do.
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- Lisa: No toupees.
  Homer: Whaaat, I'm going for the Shia LaBeouf thing. Not quite a nerd, not quite a hunk. Shia LaBeouf!
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- Homer: I never wanted to be famous for being mean. I wanted to be famous for catching Santa Claus.
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- Marge: Call me old-fashioned, but I usually don't like movies that humiliate our family in front of the world.
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- Jim Jarmusch: I can eat a raw onion without crying.
  Homer: Oh yeah? Prove it, Hollywood!
  (Jim Jarmusch eats an onion and tears up)
  Homer: Hey, you're crying!
  Jim Jarmusch: Yes, but I'm crying about something else.
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- Superintendent Chalmers: (about the Springfield Creative Arts School)The whole school is made up of modeling clay! Every afternoon, they re-shape it just to get my goat!
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- (Narration during Nelson's documentary)
  Nelson: I like to cry at the ocean, because only there do my tears seem small.
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- Marge: Thank God they're not jeering at us anymore.
  Homer: I know. (pause) Kinda miss it.
  Bart: I know! We'll be in another movie. And this time we'll act really bad!
  Marge: No more Simpsons movies! One was plenty.
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- (After seeing Nelson's documentary)
  Man: Hey, Nelson! Say something poor!
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NOTES (1)
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- Blackboard Joke: None.
  Couch Gag: A pair of hands opens up a pop-up book titled The Simpsons, the family pops up seated on the couch and Maggie sucks her pacifier.
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ALLUSIONS (7)
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- The Shining
  The Simpson family driving up the winding road towards Sundance is a reference to the The Shining, where the Torrance family drives up a similar road with similar ominous music.
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- Comic Book Guy: Landerspeeder, do not Bantha, to your nearest cinema...
  Comic Book Guy makes a reference to Star Wars.
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- My First Sony
  Aside from being a My Little Pony reference, Lisa's "My Little Sony" camcorder is also a reference to the "My First Sony" product line for kids, starting in the mid-1980s.
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- Ain't It Cool News
  Comic Book Guy posts his review on a website titled "Ain't I Fat News", which is a takeoff of the "Ain't It Cool News" entertainment news website.
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- The 400 Blows
  The ending of Nelson's film is an homage to the ending of the 1959 Francois Truffaut film The 400 Blows.
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- Homer: Robert Redford? Guess what. A scissor runs through it.
  Homer's comment as he starts to cut Lisa's letter is a reference to the 1992 Robert Redford film A River Runs Through It.
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- Any Given Sunday
  The title of this episode is a play on the the title of the 1999 Oliver Stone film, Any Given Sunday.
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