The Longest Daycare

Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare, or simply The Longest Daycare, is a 2012 American traditionally animated 3D comedydrama short film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. In the film, Maggie Simpson is enrolled at a new daycare facility where she squares off with the foultempered Baby Gerald when she befriends a caterpillar. The short originated with Simpsons producer James L. Brooks, who enlisted longtime veteran of the series, David Silverman, to direct the film. The picture was written by producers Brooks, Al Jean, David Mirkin, writers Michael Price and Joel H. Cohen, as well as show creator Matt Groening.

Marge Simpson drops off Maggie at the Ayn Rand School for Tots, where, after going through a security screening, she is classified as being of average intelligence, upon which a guard carries her past the Room for Gifted Babies and puts her in the Nothing Special dreary corner. The playtime items are either taken away or eaten by the other babies. A butterfly then makes its way into the room as Maggies nemesis, Baby Gerald, squashes and kills it on the wall with a mallet and draws a box around it with a crayon. A second butterfly also meets the same fate. Maggie finds a caterpillar and a popup book about the life cycle of the butterfly. Realizing that the caterpillar could also meet the fate of the first two butterflies, she tries to protect it from Gerald. The caterpillar later encases itself in a chrysalis and starts to transform. Once the newly formed butterfly emerges, Maggie tries to help it fly out of the window, but Gerald kills it by shutting the blinds on it as it attempts to pass through. Maggie acts as if it was the worst thing she has ever seen and mourns as she falls to the floor. Marge then arrives to pick her up, when it is revealed Maggies scene was only a ruse to cover the truth she had slipped her hair bow onto the windowsill and wore the butterfly on her forehead in its place. She then sets the butterfly free as Marge drives her home.The origins of The Longest Daycare came about when The Simpsons executive producer James L. Brooks proposed the idea of making a short film and releasing it in cinemas in front of a feature filmsimilar to how animation film studio Pixar creates shorts to play before their feature films. He wanted the short to be a fun gift for the fans of The Simpsons, and according to the series showrunner Al Jean, We the staff just wanted to do this as a way of saying, We appreciate how much people have stayed with the show and watched it foryears. Brooks picked David Silverman, longtime veteran of the series and director

Source: Wikipedia