I’d seen it in other movies based on TV shows.
The idea of aSimpsonsfilm had been floating around almost as long as the show had existed.
At another point, there was a never-pursued suggestion of doing an anthology-style “Treehouse of Horror” movie.
Credit: Everett Collection
The producers latched on to the pig idea but absorbed the town-destruction angle from the Spielberg story.
Initially it was not Grampa Simpson but Marge who had that crazy vision in church.
“a thousand eyes!”
Everett Collection
“trapped forever!”
and “eepa!”
was originally animated with Marge in that role.
“It had some jokes and setups and payoffs but overall it wasn’t entertaining,” recalls Silverman.
“You’re sort of waiting for it to be over.
Once we put Grampa in there, the scene became funnier and actually made more sense.
With Grampa, you already accept it.
That helped her story even more, than if she experienced it and nobody did anything about it.”
“They were too sad that Marge was crazy.”
The star-making moment for the pig, a.k.a., Spider-Pig, was born from a scrapped pedicure.
(The punchline involved Groundskeeper Willie, who was also getting a pedicure, complaining about their gossip.)
And Al Jean said, ‘Yeah, he could be the amazing Spider-Pig!’
“The next thing we knew, it was half the ads,” recalls Jean.
“That was the one thing that was a very late addition that suddenly took over the whole movie.
I wished they hadn’t advertised it quite as much because it was really just a little joke.”
“And Al was like ‘Oh, I think we’re tired of Spider-Pig at this point.’
Yeah, you’re probably right.”
A moment between Homer and the pig rubbed a test audience the wrong way.
“That was a mistake,” he admits.
“We took that out, immediately.
It was one little thing, but it made a huge difference.
I hate to be numeric about it, but his character likability fell 10 points.”
The producers wondered if Bart’s naked skateboarding scene would saddle them with an R rating.
“There was talk back and forth,” remembers Silverman.
“We were legitimately nervous of what the MPAA rating would be because we had no idea.
We were very happy when we got PG-13; we weren’t going to release an R-rated movie.
It was so silly and nonsexual that it got past.”
Silverman remains proud of the sequence.
“That was the thing that nobody would do,” he says.
“If you did that in live-action, you’d have a R-rating immediately.
In animation it’s possible for you to get away with it.
Although probably not with Homer.
Somehow with Bart we can get away with it.”
There it is!'
People say, ‘What was your yardstick of what size to make it?’
It’s whatever seemed to make us laugh the most."
NEXT PAGE: Dome concerns, Will there be aSimpsons Movie 2?
There was concern about the dome plot after Hurricane Katrina.
Nobody’s going to make the connection."
“Thank god thatUnder the Domedidn’t come out until after we did that,” says Jean.
“I don’t know what we would thought if that come out in 2006.”
The angry mob scene was in search of a punchline.
The scene was incredibly intricate to bring to life, requiring up to 3,600 drawings.
“It took us the longest time: ‘Well, what happens at the end of this push-in?’
We originally ended up on Lenny and Carl and Moe, and they say some joke.
And then they pushed in and we ended with Sideshow Bob saying ‘Kill Bart!
‘No, we’re killing Homer!’
And he walks away disgusted.
and they stop and turn.’
It sure took us a long time to figure that one out.”
and then you cut to a group that’s the Springfield dyslexics and they were going ‘Llik!
It didn’t work."
The writers had a tough time thinking outside the bubble.
“And that I still think is a little rough.
“We thought visually that the snow would look cool.
You have the jokes with Homer and the dogs, and Homer and the snow.”
Several scenes that depicted life in domed Springfield after the Simpsons had left were jettisoned as well.
They were more interested in what was happening with the family.
People had more empathy and sympathy and interest in how the family was doing and what wastheirstory.
It wasn’t as necessary as we thought it was.
We were answering questions nobody was asking.”
I thought that was pretty funny."
(He also went by Scummo in another version.)
“I think Matt pitched it,” says Jean.
“He remembered this clown who was kind of sleazy and who was always making fun of everybody.
He had a long series of jokes taunting people.”
(Scummo called passersby everything from “flat-top” to “skinnie-minnie” to “high-pockets.")
Yet another vestige of that part of the movie found life eventually somewhere else.
“And Homer says, ‘That boy has got to get over his fear of coffins.’
We used it in the show.”
[See: Season 19’s “Funeral for a Fiend."]
The film’s central villain, Russ Cargill, was less menacing at first look.
Cargill looked different more harmless in his original conception.
“He was more of a design like Kirk Van Houten.
Silverman marveled at the transformation in Brooks’ performance.
He was like, ‘Well, is that what you want?’
He never had that before.
Anytime we pitched him a character, he would run with it.
And then when we came up with this approach to him, he could run with it.
That gave us great confidence.”
The original Cargill lives on, though.
Because the marketing tie-in products had to ship early, Burger King offered up the meeker version of him.
A few songs and celebrities wound up on the outside of the dome looking in.
But what were some of these roles?
Brockovich appeared in connection with “the environmental disaster and her fight against cancerous chemicals,” says Jean.
So we decided to take it out.”
Will there be aSimpsons Movie 2?
“I’d love for there to be another one,” says Silverman.
“We’re still a ways away from it.
We talk about this and that.
We’re thinking it over, but nothing’s happening just yet….. “I’d say [it’s in] the very earliest stages.”
Right now, “I certainly am cautious about a couple things,” says Jean.
I would want it to be a really great movie.
I personally feel no need for another one unless it’s great.”
