Onward landed on Disney Plus a week ago, which meant that the animated film’s accompanying short was sure to follow.
Except, when Onward was in theaters about a month ago, in lieu of the traditional Pixar short, a Simpsons cartoon, entitled Playdate with Destiny, played before it. That’s some sweet corporate synergy right there.
The short centers around the youngest member of the Simpson family, Maggie, who has a meet-cute with a dashing stranger at the park and spends a blissful day doing baby activities with him on the playground (which in her imagination turns into a luxurious romantic affair). But the playdate is soon over and Maggie spends the rest of the short yearning for her missed connection and almost but not quite reuniting with him. The tension! The drama! The pining!
Playdate with Destiny includes a few background gags to please any Simpsons fan, but the bulk of the comedy comes from the fun juxtaposition of how Maggie views the world in her baby eyes and what the word is actually like. While Maggie pictures dining on chocolate-covered strawberries in a fine restaurant, her baby boyfriend is actually shoving sand into her mouth.
While Playdate with Destiny is the first Simpsons short attached to a Disney movie, it’s not the first Simpsons short attached to an animated movie. In 2012, another Maggie-focused short entitled The Longest Daycare premiered before Ice Age: Continental Drift (and also ... The Life of Pi), and even earned an Oscar nomination in the Animated Short category. So while it’s certainly odd to see the Mickey Mouse logo turning into Homer’s smiling face, The Simpsons team lending characters to more family-friendly bites isn’t something unique to their new Disney family.
Playdate with Destiny is available on Disney Plus.
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