'The Simpsons' to debut short film before 'Onward'

Pixar’s new film Onward will have a new The Simpsons short attached for its North American release. Playdate With Destiny, a Maggie Simpsons-centric short film will play before the film, but this has not been confirmed for its UK release as yet.

Yahoo has contacted Disney for comment.

We actually have the recent Disney and 20th Century Fox merger to thank for the coming together of these animation behemoths, as Disney own Pixar, and 20th Century Fox has been churning out episodes of The Simpsons since back in 1989.

The Simpsons used its very own Twitter account to confirm the impending pairing of Onward and Playdate With Destiny, which will clearly put Homer and Marge Simpson’s youngest child, Maggie, front and centre.

Shortly after this announcement, Simpsons producer Al Jean spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the short film, which he described as “very romantic” and basically a silent film about the “first blushes of love” between babies who can’t talk, as it will see Maggie meeting, falling for, and then having an adventure with Hudson.

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Veteran writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross actually pitched this idea for a Simpsons episode several years ago. However, producer Jim Brooks quickly noticed the potential for it to be its very own theatrical short, so they decided to delay its release.

Despite dominating the small-screen animation field for over 30 years now, Jean admits that working alongside Pixar has been “an enormous thrill” for The Simpsons team. “Pixar is the gold standard of animation. I think they're just the best, every film."

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While he also teased that he doesn’t “think this is the end” for them collaborating on “theatrical work with Disney,” which suggests that a follow-up to 2007’s The Simpsons Movie could soon be in the works.