Maggie Simpson

The time in “The Simpsons” flows in such a way that the characters of the series do not grow old, although it is assumed that the events in the show take place this year. Some episodes are tied to specific dates, but in different episodes the chronology of previous events may be controversial ^[1] . Maggie is the youngest daughter of Homer and Marge and the younger sister of Bart and Lisa . When Marge was pregnant with Bart, she and Homer got married in a chapel in Las Vegas. To provide a future family, Homer got a job at the Springfield nuclear power plant , making an impression on its owner, Mr. Burns, with his penchant for obedience ^[2] . When Marge was pregnant with Lisa two years later, she and Homer bought a house . Six years later, Homer felt financially secure enough to finally quit his job at the power station and get a job at Barney's Bowlarama's dream job. But when Marge became pregnant with Maggie, she and Homer no longer had enough money, and he had to return to her previous job. By the birth of Maggie, Homer fell into depression, but the birth of a daughter gave his life a new meaning ^[3] .

In the first seasons of the show, Maggie, trying to walk, often stumbled over her clothes, dropping her face down with a thud, ^[4] but this happened less frequently in subsequent seasons. She loves her nipple, which she constantly sucks ^[4] .

Some actions by Maggie suggest that she is a wunderkind. She made a formula from the theory of relativity -${\displaystyle E=m{c}^2}$ {\ displaystyle E = mc ^ {2}}   - from children's blocks, hijacked Homer's car, ran away from Springfield kindergarten, wrote my name on a magic screen ^[4] , played online poker ^[5] . However, other family members do not notice such manifestations of intelligence. Maggie is well aware of what is happening around her and often imitates the actions of others. She is good at using available means: once she hit Homer on the head with a mallet and threw a dart to play darts at his photo, imitating Tickling and Scratching ^[6] . Despite her age, Maggie is a great shooter, as seen in the Who Shot Mr. series . Burns? where she shoots Mr. Burns from a pistol that fell into her hands ^[7] , as well as from the Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge series, where she quickly shot a band of rifle thugs, which she apparently hides in her bed ^[8] .

Maggie usually scares and annoys Homer's attempts to establish closer contact with her, but she saved her father’s life several times - when he almost drowned ^[9] , when they wanted to shoot the mobster ^[8] and Ras Kergill, head of the Environmental Protection Agency ^[10] when the tow truck driver tried to kidnap him ^[11] .

Creation

Matt Groining first came up with Maggie, like the rest of the Simpsons, in 1986 in the lobby of James L. Brooks office. Greining was invited to create a series of short cartoons for the show Tracey Ullman . He intended to introduce an adaptation of his comic book " Living in Hell ." But realizing that creating an animated version of the comic book would require giving up copyright, Greining decided to go in a different direction ^[12] , and hastily sketched his version of a dysfunctional family and named heroes after their own family members. A child from this family named Maggie would be named after Groining's younger sister ^{[13] [14]} . Maggie made her debut with the rest of the Simpsons on April 19, 1987 in the Good Night short film ^[15] . In 1989, the short films were adapted into the half-hour animated series "The Simpsons", which began to appear on Fox . Maggie and the rest of the family remained the protagonists of this new show ^[16] .

Each of the Simpsons got their own recognizable silhouette ^[17] . The whole family was in a hurry, as Greining had little time and presented only sketches for the animators, assuming that they would process them; instead, they simply redraw his drawings ^[12] . Maggie's appearance features were not used to create other characters. The only similarity is only with Lisa, the girls have the same hairstyle ^[18] . Groining explained this by the fact that when he created Maggie and Lisa, he “had no idea about the hairstyles of girls” ^[19] . At the time, Greining created black and white drawings and, when creating Lisa and Maggie, he “just gave them a hairstyle in the form of a prickly starfish, without thinking about the fact that they should be painted in color” ^[20] .

Groining thought it would be fun to create a child character who does not speak or grow, but can demonstrate any emotions depending on the requirements of the script ^[21] . Maggie’s character’s main comedic device is her tendency to stumble and land on her face while trying to walk, and the sucking tendency to nipple, the sound of which became a kind of equivalent to the catchphrase that was originally invented by Greyning during the show of Tracy Ulman . In the first seasons of the show, Maggie sucked on her nipple during other characters' dialogs, but the producers found it too distracting ^[22] .

Voice

With a few exceptions, Maggie never speaks, but participates in events using gestures and facial expressions. The first words of Maggie were told in Good Night , the first short film on the Tracy Ulman show, after the family fell asleep. In this case, Liz George was voiced by Maggie ^[23] .

Although she does not speak Maggie, she is well known for her characteristic smack, which comes from sucking her nipples. This sound effect was originally coined by the creator of the show, Matt Greinging ^[24] , during the broadcast of the first episodes in the Tracey Ullman show, and was voiced by Gabor Chupo ^[25] (who was also the executive animation producer for the first 60 episodes). This sound is heard in all episodes from Maggie to date, and is mounted either from the Graning audio archive or from Choupo's first recordings for the early episodes of the series. In addition to the nipple sucking sound, Maggie also makes other sounds, for example, sometimes crying or babbling . In most cases, these exclamations are voiced by either Nancy Cartwright or Yardley Smith ^[26] .

While Maggie speaks in scenes that play up fantasies or dreams of characters, Maggie speaks her first word, in the usual timeline of the series, in the Lisa's First Word series, when she was voiced by Elizabeth Taylor ^{[27] [28]} . Although it was only one word - “dad” - Taylor had to write it down many times before the producers were satisfied ^[29] . James Earl Jones was voiced by Maggie in the episode of Treehouse of Horror V ^[30] . Later, Maggie’s remarks for a small monologue in the Treehouse of Horror IX series were voiced by Harry Shearer , who used the voice with which he voiced Kang ^[31] . In the early episodes, Yardley Smith was voiced by Maggie when she squealed, cried, laughed, and so on ^[32] , but then did Nancy Cartwright (including one single word spoken during the final credits of the film “ The Simpsons in the Movies ”) ^[33] . Maggie as Howard Roarke , appeared in season 20 in the episode of Four Great Women and a Manicure , was voiced by Jodie Foster ^[34] .

In some episodes, when “The Simpsons in the Future” are shown ( Lisa's Wedding , Bart to the Future , Future-Drama , Holidays of Future Passed , Days of Future Future ), although Maggie is shown matured, but as she never speaks gag in these episodes and the voices of the actors are not used.

Nancy Basil of About.com said that her favorite scenes with Maggie are those that show that she behaves more like an adult, and not like a one-year-old child. Her favorite scenes are from the episodes of Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song and Lady Bouvier's Lover , where Maggie meets her sworn enemy with a one-brow child Gerald , and one scene from Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie , in which Bart has to look after Maggie, but she escapes and steals Homer's machine ^[35] . Basile also added that “when Maggie watches Happy Elves or falls, she is the cutest child in the Simpsons family” ^[35] . Comedian Ricky Gervais called the episode of And Maggie Makes Three his second favorite episode in the show and said that the scene at the end where Homer puts photographs of Maggie over his desk “forces a lump to the throat when you think about it” ^[36] . Todd Everett of Variety called the scene from Lisa's First Word , where Maggie says her first word, “forcing your hearts to melt” ^[37] .

In 2006, Elizabeth Taylor won the thirteenth position on the IGN 's Top 25 Guest Stars in the Simpsons list for voicing the role of Maggie in the episode of Lisa's First Word ^[38] . James Earl Jones, Maggie's voice in Tree house of Horror V, got the seventh line on this list ^[38] . In 2000, the stars of the Simpson family, including Maggie , appeared on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ^[39] .

Four children's books written by Maggie Greining (after which Maggie was named) and illustrated by Matt Greing, called Maggie Simpson's Counting Book , Maggie Simpson's Alphabet Book and Maggie Simpson's Alphabet Book were released on September 12 1991 ^[40] . Other products such as dolls, posters, action figures, puzzles, and T-shirts are also produced with the images of Maggie ^[41] . Maggie's figurine was created for the World of Springfield line of toys; the Living Room game set was also released, representing Maggie and Marge in the interiors of the Simpsons home living room ^[42] . Maggie also appeared in commercials Burger King , Butterfinger , CC Lemon , Domino's Pizza , Ramada and Subway .

The youngest daughter of the Simpsons appears in other media based on the series. She is a character in all video games developed on the basis of the Simpsons , including The Simpsons Game ^[43] . Along with the TV series Maggie regularly appears in comics for the Simpsons, which were first published on November 29, 1993 and are published monthly ^{[44] [45]} . Maggie is also present in the attraction The Simpsons Ride , opened in 2008 in two amusement parks, in Orlando (Florida) and in Hollywood ^[46] . In addition, she became the protagonist of the 3D short films The Simpsons: Anguished after-show, which was shown in cinemas before the cartoon Ice Age 4: Continental Drift in 2012 ^[47] .

On April 9, 2009, the US Postal Service released a five-mark series of 44 cents with images of Maggie and four other members of the Simpson family. They were the first characters of the television series who received such recognition before the end of the show ^[48] . These brands, designed by Matt Graing, went on sale on May 7, 2009 ^{[49] [50]} . According to the postal service, the brand with the image of Maggie was the most popular of the entire series ^[51] .

• Matt Groening. The Simpsons: A Guide to Our Favorite Family / Ray Richmond; Antonia Coffman. - New York: HarperPerennia, 1997. - ISBN 978-0-06-095252-5 .
• Chris Turner. Planet Simpson: How it made a cartoon masterpiece. - Toronto: Random House Canada, 2004. - ISBN 978-0-679-31318-2 .

• Maggie Simpson (Eng.) On the Internet Movie Database
• Maggie Simpson on TheSimpsons.com
• Maggie Simpson on ign.com
• Maggie Simpson (Eng.) On the site Wikisimpsons