The Simpsons has so many supporting characters that there were over 300 different fan contingents who were hungry to see the likes of Crazy Cat Lady, Duffman, Comic Book Guy and Disco Stu shine in The Simpsons Movie. Some will be pleased, others will demand equal time. Cat Lady and Comic Book Guy get some jokes, but Duffman and Disco Stu only appear in crowd shots, never speaking.
“Disco Stu was a pretty good example,” said director David Silverman. “He had a few lines from time to time. A joke went in the movie but didn’t work. [We even tried a] bump at the end which just said, ‘Disco Stu will return in Simpsons Movie 2,’ but the [test] audience just went, ‘Eh.'”
Even recurring celebrity guests did not make the cut. “Sideshow Bob we had a lot of talk about trying to work him into the story,” said producer James L. Brooks.
On the other hand, Flanders gets a major role as a kind of surrogate father to Bart. “Bart’s always kind of a bad kid,” said producer Al Jean. “Having him think about not being so bad, having him think about what it would be like if Flanders was his father, my favorite scene in the movie is the one where Bart’s in the tree looking at the window and the score by Hans Zimmer there and throughout, it just really is a neat moment in the film.”
