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The Simpsons has ruled as the sarcastic and satirical backbone of American animation for over three decades now. The Simpsons Movie was a commercial success in 2007, encompassing humor, romance, and humorously powerful environmentalist messages.
However, the movie, along with the others planned after it, came with a hefty preparation cost that many fans are oblivious to: numerous abandoned ideas that were not even fully formed. Some of these concepts had the potential to completely change the direction of a Simpson movie and are definitely worth consideration.
I believe these eight scrapped ideas were some of the best plots planned for The Simpsons Movie.
1. Bart and Lisa lead a camp rebellion
An earlier concept emerged from the Kamp Krusty episode, where a fictitious summer camp exploits children for manual labor. The campers are subjected to awful working conditions until Bart eventually stages a complete revolt.
In order to try and capture the feel of a full-length movie, James L. Brooks even attempted to extend episode elements by incorporating additional camp song verses.
The team ultimately decided it was not enough to warrant a full-length feature, instead turning it into the Season 4 premiere. While it's still regarded as a classic, many fans feel the concept was best suited for a chaotic and fun coming-of-age movie.
2. Homer films an adult movie to pay off debt
In a scrapped story from 2003, Homer comes to the astonishing conclusion that he can remove his gambling debts by filming an adult movie in the house. Marge discovers this and leaves to meet a manatee conservationist, Dr. Caleb Thorn.
This would later become the episode The Bonfire of the Manatees. Although there were some more serious moments in the episode, it did not have the “cinematic punch” the team wanted for a movie. It’s one of those outrageous ideas that would have made for a very unique feature, daring if you will.
3. A movie about Troy McClure’s comeback
Phil Hartman was the voice behind the charming and washed-up actor Troy McClure. There were plans to make a movie about McClure's fictitious life in Hollywood prior to Hartman’s jaw-dropping death in ‘98. This was inspired by an episode of Selma's wife where she married McClure for his career to jumpstart.
There was also a brilliant musical spoof, “Dr. Zaius,” in the episode, and audiences fully embraced it. While a feature-length film would have been a brilliant parody of Hollywood’s absurdity, it’s such a pity it never came to fruition.
4. Simpstasia: A musical parody that never took off
Initially, Groening had the concept for Simpstasia, which was a parody of Disney's Fantasia. He wanted to do something with the Simpsons that incorporated music and animations in a uniquely Simpson-ish manner.
Disney ended up dropping the entire project as a result of a severely lacking storyline, despite facing so much promising potential. But fans have witnessed snippets of the idea in Disney Plus shorts such as Plusaversary and Welcome to the Club, especially now that The Simpsons are owned by Disney.
5. Spielberg destroys Springfield (sort of)
Yet another scrapped concept was centered on Spielberg blowing up Springfield for Hanks to star in a movie… yes, for real.
The movie never got made, but it did inspire the twist that did make it onto the film: “Spider-Pig.” That amusing jingle led to a cultural phenomenon in its own right and even got translated into 32 different languages.
Of course, in the end, he did partake and endorse the government spending after the town was covered with a dome. Not as amusing as when Spielberg planned to bomb the town, but still entertaining.
6. Hank Scorpio returns as the villain
Fans of the show still mention talking scorpions, a humorous supervillain from You Only Move Twice, as Hank Scorpio. He was supposed to return as the film's antagonist, but that idea changed.
Brooks was set to reprise his role, but the new antagonist—Russ Cargill, of the EPA—came into focus. He cast Brooks' voice, but a lot of fans would have loved to see Hank Scorpio's bizarrely villainous take on Springfield.
7. The Simpsons discover they’re TV stars
Yet another astonishing concept drew inspiration from The Truman Show. The Simpsons were going to learn that their lives had been televised to the world in real-time. It would certainly have been a strange but fun parody of their universe.
But, alas, Matt Groening was not on board. He didn’t want the family to know that they were famous because that would remove the charm. Although this concept didn't get included in the movie, a more streamlined version of the concept did appear in The Simpsons Game, where the characters go absolutely insane with the fourth wall.
8. Sideshow Bob, Minnie Driver, and more—all cut
A number of characters were slated to feature in the movie; however, they were cut after the final editing was done. Sideshow Bob was one of them; Kelsey Grammer recorded dialogue that was cut for the final editing as well.
Other stars such as Minnie Driver, Erin Brockovich, and Johnny Knoxville also had cameos that were cut for pacing reasons. In fact, a measure for maintaining secrecy reached the point where voice actors were instructed to destroy their scripts after recording the material.
So many what-ifs, so much yellow potential
Each idea for The Simpsons Movie had its own quintessentially ‘Springfieldian’ flair, from a Hollywood satire, camp rebellion, or even a musical parody. Looking back, it is apparent there were many alternate paths the movie could’ve taken.
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Who knows? Perhaps one day we will encounter a Disney+ special or a sequel that resurrects these forgotten concepts. But until that day comes, we are left to ponder what could've been.
Also Read: Did the Season 36 finale of The Simpsons say goodbye to two classic characters? Here's what we know
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