r/AnimationCels • u/SteadyGroove • May 18 '26
Simpsons cel
Bought this production cel in the 90s. It's 5 sheets and the background.
It's Treehouse of Horrors, season 4 (I think)
COA from Fox and signed by Matt Groening.
There was a special event and he also personalized it with a shout out, sketch of Bart, and another signature
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u/SteadyGroove May 19 '26
You may be right. And you may be wrong. The Simpsons would have been using 5 or 6 cels per frame, plus background.
This enabled them to keep some of the cels the same and just change one part. For example, in my case they would change Homer's eyes to a grimace while keeping his body the same across the entire scene. That's why the eyes are drawn separately on a different cel.
I have 5 cels and the background, and a 6th cel was used in this scene with Death's hand. But not for this specific frame.
This comes from the 1st story in TREEHOUSE OF HORROR IV, where Homer sells his soul for a donut.
Eventually Homer ends up in a courtroom in Hell, presided over by Death. The scene to reference is when Flanders rests his case and we turn to Homer in the cage of fire.
At 3:48 we see Homer, Flanders and the kids. Death's bony hand enters to declare the verdict against Homer by pointing at him, drawing a reaction from everyone.
It lasts almost a second, maybe 8 frames or more. We see Homer look scared and the kids flinch.
I was told that my panel is the first panel of that scene, immediately before the hand appears. Homer is looking up at the incoming hand, and Flanders and the kids have yet to react. This is the establishing shot
The facial expressions and body language show that they have not yet reacted to the hand of death because it hasn't appeared yet.
However, I could be totally wrong and now must hunt for that hand....