It was a matter of "when," not "if" Disney's $71 billion acquisition of Fox has already resulted in one lousy attempt at synergy, May's "The Force Awakens from Naptime" (a three-minute short featuring Maggie Simpson in a Star Wars-themed daycare) So a parody of The Avengers seemed inevitable

Disney Plus announced that "The Good, The Bad, The Loki," an animated Simpsons short parodying "The Avengers," will be released on July 7 In addition to featuring characters such as Ralph Wigham as the Hulk, Tom Hiddleston will voice Loki

Disney has positioned this as "the ultimate crossover event," which could be bigger than "Avengers: Infinity War" itself: it could be bigger than "Infinity War" itself In it, the God of Mischief joins forces with Bart to create an adventure in the world of The Simpsons

The title itself is an homage to the 1967 Clint Eastwood film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly However, there seems to be no deep reference to this classic spaghetti western

This is the third such animated Simpsons short to come from Disney Plus, the first being "Playdate with Destiny," which was previewed during the release of the Pixar film "Onward It is a nonsensical animated hijinks with endless references to Maggie Simpson and "Star Wars"

Given that Maggie rarely speaks, these shorts were largely based on physical gags and other bouts of silly adventure; in The Good, The Bart, and The Loki, there is room for stories that would appeal to adults as well as children

In the case of "The Force Awakens," many of us asked "Why?" was the question There seemed to be no great significance other than that Disney owned both properties and found a gentle way to mash them up The whole thing was a lame exercise in how many Star Wars references could be crammed into a three-minute short And existence for existence's sake seldom produces clever programming

We wouldn't be too surprised if the story of "Good, Bart, Loki" is little more than an artificial attempt to cram in as many MCU-costumed Simpsons characters as possible This is because, as has been the trend with "The Simpsons" over the past decade, references alone make up for the lack of clever and original storytelling