8 Ways The Simpsons Movie Could Have Turned Out Completely Differently

3. The Musical

Again, Groening and the Simpsons creative team showed off a love of the musical by originally planning to make The Simpsons Movie a song-and-dance affair. The idea actually got far along in the process, while the musical South Park movie Bigger, Longer & Uncut served as a prime inspiration. According to Groening, however, The Simpsons Movie was rewritten as more of a straight film as production neared, when the team found they were continually interrupting the songs "to stop people getting bored". Apparently, the songs became shorter and shorter until the writers decided to just drop the idea of designing the film as a musical altogether. The final film as written, animated and recorded did feature musical numbers, but these were all cut for the theatrical release. One song, created for the Alaska segment of the film and featuring Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, did according to Al Jean get "pretty far along in the animation", but it was again cut because it was felt the music only made the film drag.