"The Simpsons" will be returning to the big screen this summer, reports EW.com's Inside TV. The show has a dialogue-free 3-D short in the works that will air before the film "Ice Age: Continental Drift," the story reports.

The four-and-a-half minute film, called "The Longest Daycare," will debut July 13 with "Ice Age," the story says.

”[Executive producer] Jim Brooks thought we should do an animated short -- a la the ones Pixar does before their features, a la the cartoons you used to see in the theater years ago -- as a fun thing to give our fans,” executive producer Al Jean said.

"The Longest Daycare" is directed by David Silverman, who also directed "The Simpsons Movie," and follows Baby Maggie as she returns to the Ayn Rand School for Tots, the story says.

http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwire/2012/05/the-simpsons-headed-back-to-bi.php

http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/maggie-simpson-longest-daycare-fox.jpg


EW is reporting that the short, which features Maggie Simpson, will focus on her return to the Ayn Rand School for Tots. It is here that she is in the company of her only friend, a butterfly.

Show EP Al Jean tells the publication, "They put each baby through an airport security-style testing machine to measure their future and [Maggie's] says 'Nothing Special,' so they put her in an area that's not great...It has a number of twists and turns...It's very sweet but funny."

This venture into making short films is probably a surprise to many fans of the long-running series. Jean explains that they were inspired to do so by the past and by one of the industry's biggest hitters.

"[EP] Jim Brooks thought we should do an animated short -- a la the ones Pixar does before their features, a la the cartoons you used to see in the theater years ago -- as a fun thing to give our fans," Jean says. "We just wanted to do this as a way of saying, 'We appreciate how much people have stayed with the show and watched it for 25 years.'"

"The Longest Daycare" will play before "Ice Age: Continental Drift" when the movie starts in theaters July 13.

http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2012/05/the-simpsons-details-emerge-about-maggies-animated-short.html

Gotta see that!

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I plan to see it this weekend.