The Simpsons has a very distinct animation style that’s been successfully bringing in audiences for over three decades, but the show has also never been afraid to shift animation styles to either pay tribute, directly parody, or take inspiration from other animated films and shows. The Simpsons has been on the air for 35 seasons, and has endured numerous changes in pop culture and shifting tastes in animation. One of the show’s most consistent ways of poking loving fun at the rest of the animation industry over the years has been adopting other animation styles and shifting the Simpsons into the ensuing new world.
Some of these animation shifts have taken advantage of the non-canon status of couch gags and The Simpsons Halloween specials, reimagining Springfield through a completely different perspective. Others have been direct parodies of other animated styles, poking fun at the history of the animation industry. The best have found ways to retain The Simpsons distinct visual style and bittersweet characters while showcasing the flexibility of the show’s titular cast. Here are the best animation shifts in The Simpsons, ranked.
The Simpsons has adopted plenty of unique animation styles over the years, shifting away from its traditional look as a way of paying tribute to other animated classics. At various points, the show has used the in-universe The Simpsons cartoon Itchy & Scratchy to deliver these riffs, utilizing its looser and more violent aesthetic to include riffs on established animation styles. One of the most memorable of these fully reimagined Itchy and Scratchy in the vein of Fritz the Cat. Based on Robert Crumb’s comic character of the same name, Ralph Bakshi’s Fritz the Cat was full of profanity, sex, and violence.
Bart and Lisa get to see a clip of a cartoon crossover between Itchy and Scratchy with Fritz, which purposefully replicates the scratchy texture afforded to the animation. The result is a short that feels perfectly in-line with Bakshi’s distinctive style as well as The Simpsons‘ traditional look. The etchings of Itchy and Scratchy contribute to the sequence’s effect, with the edgy animation elements of Fritz the Cat elevating the already pretty purposefully obscene Itchy & Scratchy to the next level.
Sylvain Chomet is a French animator and film director who came to increased international attention following the release of The Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist. His distinctly realistic but uniquely characterized style proved to be a surprisingly perfect fit for The Simpsons, who adopted his animation style for the couch gag that accompanied Season 25’s “Diggs.” The sequence fully reimagines the titular family as being a creation of Chomet, including seemingly relocating the characters from the United States to France.
The sequence introduces some of Chomet’s distinctive fluidity to the animation. The couch gag leans into the enduring personalities of the central cast even while embracing a cartoonishly French aesthetic — Homer eats a snail, Bart tries to make foie gras, and Lisa plays the accordion instead of the saxophone. This shift highlights how, even when reimagined for an entirely different culture, The Simpsons characters remain distinct and consistent.
Many couch gags have been used in The Simpsons later seasons to showcase distinctive animators, with many appearing on this list. Others include Bill Plympton, Steve Cutts, Spike R. Monster, and Michel Socha. One of the most memorable guest couch gags focused on an entirely different animated series literally crashing into the long-running show. The couch gag for season 26’s “Mathlete’s Feat” saw Adult Swim’s Rick & Morty drive their ship into the Simpsons household and squish the entire family.
While Morty tries to figure out how to undo the damage they’ve done, Rick spends much of the short messing with the show’s iconography. This includes trying Duff, blasting Ned Flanders with a freeze-ray, and stealing plenty of items from around the house. The episode even ends with a hybrid version of the family and Rick, which takes direct cues from Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s distinctly scratchy series. It’s one of the silliest animation shifts the show has ever employed, briefly shifting the series into the Adult Swim aesthetic (and not for the first time.)
Robot Chicken is a long-running animated sketch show that has steadily become one of Adult Swim’s most consistent shows. Using stop-motion animation, the series has been able to poke fun at almost two decades’ worth of pop-culture. This includes The Simpsons, which fully adopted their animation style for a couch gag that feels very much in-line with Robot Chicken‘s parodies of other shows.
Retaining the original voice cast for The Simpsons, the sequence embraces Robot Chicken‘s over-the-top elements while still retaining some of The Simpsons‘ distinct character comedy. While the multiple character deaths in the short may come as a shock to regular The Simpsons viewers unaware of Robot Chicken‘s tone, moments like Moe’s catchphrase being “I’m lonely” or Ralph giggling over being a “fatality” in Otto’s bus crash are perfectly in line with The Simpsons‘ deceptively dark aspects.
In the same episode as The Simpsons‘ tribute to Fritz the Cat, The Simpsons also included a direct parody of Schoolhouse Rock!. The series of 1970s animated shorts was focused on being entertaining and educational introductions to concepts like math, grammar, history, and politics. Geared towards young audiences, Schoolhouse Rock! remains a memorable entry in the American animation canon. The Simpsons paid tribute to the series in “The Day The Violence Died,” which quietly poked fun at many different chapters in animation history.
Notably, the Schoolhouse Rock! parody is lovingly animated in a way that references the softer-edged original while retaining The Simpsons‘ specific animation touches. While the characters retain their yellow coloring and overbite, the short also uses the lessened motion and curves of the original shorts. The short also retains much of The Simpsons‘ sardonic approach to culture. Schoolhouse Rock! is reimagined as a champion for police brutality and harsher laws in a direct parody of “I’m Just A Bill,” while Bart and Lisa complain about the generation the originals were targeting.
One of the most expansive animated tributes The Simpsons have ever attempted, the couch gag for season 28’s “Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus” effectively fused the cast of characters from The Simpsons with the larger universe of Adventure Time characters. The Cartoon Network series was an expansive and impressive fantasy world that utilized the distinct animation style of creator Pendelton Ward. Ward even sings a modified version of the Adventure Time theme song, which has been tweaked to feature Bart as Finn and Homer as Jake.
Beyond recasting the two leads, the Adventure Time-inspired couch gag also combines numerous other characters from across both franchises. While the short is more clearly designed with Adventure Time‘s rubbery animation style and character models, The Simpsons characters remain iconic enough that they remain clearly recognizable in the new form. It’s a testament to both shows that their individual styles can still stand out, even when working to complement each other.
Walt Disney Animation has been an undeniable influence on almost every Western cartoon ever produced, and The Simpsons has frequently poked fun at the company that would eventually own them. Some of the best examples have utilized a more distinctly Disney animation style applied to characters like Itchy and Scratchy, with season 6’s “Itchy & Scratchy Land” featuring parodies of Fantasia and Pinocchio that feel in line with the originals and The Simpsons in equal measures.
The most impressive Disney-style remix of The Simpsons came in the couch gag for season 27’s “Fland Canyon.” Animated by Disney Animation and Warner Bros. Animation veteran Eric Goldberg, the short reimagines the Simpsons family through different Disney films. Most impressively, each one also moves differently to correspond to the difference in era. Maggie’s rubber-limb movement is a clear reference to the earliest Disney cartoons, while the fusion of Homer and Baloo from The Jungle Book reflects that film’s scratchy animation style.
Don Herzfeldt is one of modern animation’s most distinctive voices. The twice Oscar-nominated animator’s stories are often deeply bizarre and pointedly satirical, and his couch gag is no different. Similar in function to the Banksy couch gag, Hertzfeldt’s time with the series is used to point out underlying problems with The Simpsons that develop over time.
While Banksy used the show’s traditional style to draw attention to poor conditions for international animators, Herzfeldt used his hand-drawn look to draw attention to how much The Simpsons could transform. The couch gag imagined Homer being flung into the distant future, where The Simpsons is still running centuries later. The characters are almost unrecognizable, however, demanding the viewer buy products while robotically repeating the show’s central emotional tenants. It’s a surprisingly somber animation shift that highlights how the show has changed over the years.
A common place to find The Simpsonsexperimenting with animation style is in the show’s annual Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials. A non-canon collection of shorts, Treehouse of Horror episodes tend to be scarier and more violent than most episodes of The Simpsons. They’ve also featured some solid animation shifts, like the Dr. Seuss-inspired “Oh, the Places You’ll D’oh” from season 25’s “Treehouse of Horror XXIV,” the Coralie stylized visuals of season 29’s “Treehouse of Horror XXVIII,” and the Pixar parody in season 32’s “Treehouse of Horror XXXI.”
One of the best was featured in season 34’s “Treehouse Of Horror XXXIII.” “Death Tome” is a direct The Simpsons parody of Death Note, and reimagines the entirety of Springfield and The Simpsons through the lens of an anime. It’s a pitch-perfect riff on both animation styles, and benefits from the involvement of DR Movie, the South Korean animation studio that was heavily involved in the original Death Note. In terms of redesigning all of The Simpsons in a different style, “Death Tome” is an incredibly impressive piece of animation.