Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a half-hour commercial. You see, LEGO and the Simpsons have finally teamed up, and in celebration, this is what we get. In fact, I'm expecting a few clever moments. Let's enjoy the ride.

No opening credits. Homer wakes up, making a few jokes about selling out, and greets his lovely wife. Everyone is LEGO and no one seems to care. And can I say, they're freakin' adorable. Marge in particular is the sweetest thing. Santa's Little Helper rips off her arm, and destroys a whole bunch of bricks, but that's okay, Marge has a drawer full of spare parts. I like this episode already.

We get lots of excuses for brick puns, meta commentary on how weird things are, and the revelation that babies are Duplo. Every frame is glorious and filled with humor. This is a pause/play episode for sure. On the way to buy his daughter a birthday present, Homer runs over (and dismantles) Krusty, but that's okay, they just put him back together, though Mr. Teeny has taken the opportunity to switch legs and run away.

Milhouse brings a skunk to school, which promptly runs away and sprays everyone. It hides in the wall. Milhouse and Bart begin to take the school apart to find it, but Groundskeeper Willie stops them and goes after it himself (for dinner). Unfortunately, he collapses the school while doing so, and accidentally reveals Chalmers' affair with Lunchlady Dora. (And no, Edna does not appear in this scene.) Bart is tasked with rebuilding the entire thing. Solo. Fortunately, there's an instruction manual! MUST BUY INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE TOY.

Homer goes to the Android's Dungeon, where he buys a princess item for Lisa (and CBG reveals himself to be a princess fan, in an obvious Brony parody). Picking up the box, he has a flashback to 2-D cartoon times, when he bought Lisa the same castle and they assembled it together. He even found it fun, though he admitted to Lisa that most grown-ups hate playing with their kids. He flips out at the thought of a universe with no bricks, and runs out screaming. Later, Marge tries to comfort him, but he's still rattled. To make him feel better, she suggests they make love, and they do so under a shining brick disco-ball moon. Homer is indeed cheered up, but this doesn't last, since he looks in the mirror and sees a cartoon face!

He goes for a walk to calm down, but is confronted by the cartoon in every reflective surface. He screams at Apu and Moe. The latter offers him a drink, but Homer is horrified to find that it's liquid.

Bart continues to rebuild the school. Finding the design boring, he waits until the groundskeeper takes a nap and makes a new school, complete with ziplines, skate parks and climbing walls. Skinner is dismayed, to say the least.

Marge has decided that the cure for Homer's problem is a nice session at church. Apparently, their religion is entirely based on brick-building. Lots of Lego jokes and meta product placement. Homer talks about the new world he's been seeing, but they dismiss it as his imagination. Also, their viewpoint is very Huxleyite - "a perfect world where everyone fits together". Yikes. Maybe these guys should have written the adaptation of The Giver. 

However, everything changes when the congregation realizes they can see Homer's cartoon hands, too. They freak out and shun him. Marge vows to stick by him, but she, too, is disgusted. Rev. Lovejoy admits that their religion may not be true. Homer returns to the comic shop, where he takes the princess toy to trigger another flashback. We see Cartoon-Homer-and-Lisa building a Springfield out of bricks. And guess what! You can do it, too! They see an ad for a building contest and decide to enter their project. However, Lisa is torn when her friends offer her tickets to the latest "Survival Games" movie. (Since when does Lisa have friends and why are they so cool?) Unfortunately, Homer comes in and behaves as his usual oafish self. Lisa gently tells him that she's going to the movie, not the competition. Homer is heartbroken. Marge assures him that Lisa's just growing older. Finally, he enters the competition solo. As he looks at his brick town, he wishes that he could live in "little Springfield". Just then, CBG's model of the Katniss Everdeen knock-off falls on Homer's head.

Hey, whatever happened to CBG's wife?

So it turns out the whole thing is Homer's fantasy. However, if he doesn't snap out of it soon, they'll be permanently trapped. Homer loves this idea. He promptly goes on a Lego rampage. Now things are perfect, and he will never lose his daughter. They have a wonderful tea party. Homer vows to be a great father from here on in. It helps that he's in a perfect world.

Bart finishes rebuilding the school to standard specifications. However, Skinner knocks a piece of it over again. Back to the drawing board.

As it turns out, Homer realizes that living in a perfect world means that he'll have to stay the same forever, never growing or having new experiences. He decides that it's fine to have his kids grow up, and goes to CBG to send him back to normal Springfield. CBG explains that he has the box to the real world - but he likes this world, so he's not going to let Homer go. Homer cries for someone to save him. Bart, miserably picking up bricks, overhears. Soon enough, he's built a giant robot, which kicks the town to pieces. Homer finds the box, says goodbye to Brick Marge and returns to his home.

At the competition, Homer wakes up to find a concerned Lisa. She ditched the movie to spend the time with her dad. Homer generously lets her go anyway. They hug, and we get an inexplicable shot of the entire universe, probably to pad the episode, but whatever, the first nineteen minutes had to have blown their budget. Oh, no wait - the universe is made of Lego! Go figure.

Tag scene: A pitch-perfect parody of The Hunger Games. Homer moans about how girly it all is while Marge admits she's into it.

This was a great episode! Perfect adventures, little humorous twists and some excellent characterization. Even if it was product placement gone insane, it worked. The animation in particular was outstanding, Well done, team - a Season 25 episode people might actually have a chance at remembering!

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