Area15’s OmegaMart featured in iconic animated series
Meow Wolf is joining Banksy, Guillermo del Toro, Don Hertzfeldt, Sylvain Chomet, John Kricfalusi, Robot Chicken, Eric Goldberg and Steve Cutts on “The Simpsons” couch-gag hall of fame.
The immersive art-adventure company, which operates the surrealist OmegaMart at Area15, is featured in the show’s extended opening sequence for “Extreme Makeover: Homer Edition.” The double-episode premiered on June 17 and is now streaming on Disney+.
This is the opening scene that leads to the setting of the Simpsons sitting on the couch to watch the show. This segment has started every show in the series’ 37 seasons since premiering on Fox on Dec. 17, 1989, surpassing 800 episodes with “Guess Who’s Coming to Skinner” in December.
The “Extreme Makeover” sequence opens as Marge and Maggie exit the checkout line at an unmarked grocery store. A bottle of Omega Cola pops from their shopping bag to the floor. Marge reaches for the bottle, then sails out of the scene through an Omega Cola cooler.
She is then shown free-falling through a tableau of Meow Wolf and OmegaMart images. Easter eggs include a tribute to the company’s late co-founder, Matt King (as a rainbow wizard), sharing a drink with Barney in Cowboix Hevvven.
The images shift to the physical world, where a team of artists dressed as Otto the bus driver builds an immersive art installation (with a fast-motion, time-lapse effect), themed for the show’s iconic couch scene.
Do not hit “skip intro” on this sequence. Bart reminds you of that on his famous chalkboard punishment scrawling at the top of the scene.
Meow Wolf co-founder Emily Montoya said the animated series was an inspiration for Meow Wolf’s mind-bending sensibilities.
“Getting the opportunity to be part of the show that has warped our minds since we were kids is a huge honor and an experience we will never forget,” Montoya said in a statement, praising “The Simpsons” Showrunner an Executive Producer Matt Selman and his team. “From the beginning, they supported and encouraged all our crazy ideas and helped us hone the piece into its final form.”
Selman is not just a Meow Wolf artistic partner. He’s also a visitor and fan.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Meow Wolf ever since I spent hours losing myself in Omega Mart in Las Vegas,” Selman said in a statement. “After losing myself for many, many, many more hours in the Santa Fe and Denver Meow Wolf installations, I dreamed of trying to steal some of their artist-driven conceptual genius for ‘The Simpsons.’”
The special guest stars are Betty Gilpin, with musical guests Laufey and Tegan and Sara. It is the first of three all-new “The Simpsons” episodes streaming on the platform this summer. It is the only planned collab between the series and Meow Wolf.
“Meow Wolf started out as a DIY art collective, building installations out of junk scavenged from dumpsters, donated buckets of paint and massive amounts of cardboard,” Montoya said. “This project allowed us to get back to those roots and we had a blast revisiting our chaotic improvisational style of collaborative art making.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
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