Homer Simpson: An Overlooked Tale

Homer Simpson: An Overlooked Tale is a 1995 direct-to-video animated comedy film set in the Simpsons fictional universe. It was released to VHS and Laserdisc on August 8, 1995 and was later released to DVD on January 15, 2002.

The film is actually composed of material from three previously aired episodes of the season 6 finale: Fox eventually aired the second part of "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" for the Simpsons season 7 premiere in September 1995.
 * The Springfield Connection
 * Lemon of Troy
 * Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Parts One and Two)

Opening
The home video version shows the premiere of the film, with various celebrities and the Simpson family attending. Everyone goes into the theatre where Channel 6 reveals they have hired Ned Flanders to provide them with a bootleg copy of the film. After this, the film begins.

The Springfield Connection
Homer and Marge, on the way back from an orchestra performance, pass through a seedy part of town. Marge cautions Homer, but gets enticed by Snake's Three-card Monte game. Snake cheats Homer out of $20, but Marge exposes the con and Snake takes off. After giving chase, Marge knocks Snake unconscious with a garbage can lid, giving her a sense of exhilaration. Finding her everyday routine dull and boring, she decides to join the Springfield police force, despite Homer's concerns.

After initially being a successful police officer, Marge becomes unenthusiastic about her job as everyone seems to be breaking the law, including Homer, whom she arrests for taking her hat and taunting her when she tries to write him a parking ticket. After being released, Homer hosts a poker game and finds Herman running a jean-counterfeiting operation in the Simpsons' garage. As Herman and his henchmen are about to beat him up, Marge bursts in. As she is cuffing the rest of the minions, Herman takes Homer hostage and runs to Bart's treehouse, with Marge in pursuit. Herman tries to escape using a pair of counterfeit jeans as a rope, but they rip and he falls to the ground. Wiggum informs Marge that they cannot hold Herman due to the evidence "mysteriously disappearing", with him and the other cops openly stealing the jeans for themselves. Upset at the corruption on the force, Marge resigns.

Lemon of Troy
After Marge lectures Bart on the importance of town pride, he realizes how wonderful it is living in Springfield and becomes upset with anti-Springfield sentiments coming from the neighboring town of Shelbyville. Grampa explains that this rivalry can be traced back to the establishment of the two towns.

The next day, Springfield's lemon tree is stolen by a gang of boys from Shelbyville. Taking his town pride to heart and swearing to keep it, Bart leads Milhouse, Nelson, Martin, Todd, and Database into Shelbyville to search for the tree and bring it back to Springfield. Eventually, the Springfield children track down the tree to an impound lot where the leader of the boys that stole the tree lives.

Back in Springfield, Homer, using Ned Flanders' RV, leads the men to find the boys. When the two groups meet, the boys tell their fathers of the tree being stolen. At the impound lot, the men demand the return of the tree, while the owner of the impound lot refuses and taunts them. Using a plan similar to the Trojan Horse, Bart steers the RV to the outside of the hospital. The RV is taken to the impound lot after it is found parked outside the hospital. When night falls, the Springfield boys and their fathers get out of the RV and tie the tree to the top. They are caught in the middle of this act by the owner but manage to escape, and the tree is returned to Springfield.

Who Shot Mr. Burns?
Principal Skinner walks into school and discovers that the class gerbil has died. As Groundskeeper Willie digs a grave, he unexpectedly strikes oil. Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers lavishly think of ways to spend the school's newfound wealth, taking many student and staff requests, including Lisa's suggestion of hiring Tito Puente as a music teacher.

At the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer is disturbed that Mr. Burns can never remember his name, even after working for him for ten years. He takes a suggestion from Marge and sends Mr. Burns a box of chocolates with a family picture underneath the candy; however, Mr. Burns and Smithers are not interested in the one candy covering Homer's face and discard the box. As a result, Burns writes a "thank you" card only to Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, further angering Homer.

Meanwhile, Mr. Burns learns of the school's oil and immediately decides that he must have it, even as Smithers voices his disapproval. After failing to convince Principal Skinner to give him the oil, Mr. Burns establishes a slant drilling operation and beats the school to tapping the oil well. The school is told they have no legal recourse, and Willie and Puente are laid off to cover the school's losses.

Mr. Burns' drilling operation causes further harm and distress to many Springfield citizens: Moe's Tavern is closed due to the harmful fumes from the drilling, leaving Moe and Barney enraged; the drilling destroys the Springfield Retirement Castle, leaving Grampa homeless, forcing him to move in with the Simpsons; and Bart's treehouse is destroyed by a burst of oil from the rig, which also injures Santa's Little Helper.

Mr. Burns then reveals to Smithers his grandest scheme: the construction of a giant, movable disc that will permanently block out the sun in Springfield, forcing the residents to continuously use the electricity from his power plant. A horrified Smithers finally stands up to Mr. Burns, insisting that he has gone too far; Mr. Burns fires him in response.

Later, Homer sneaks into Mr. Burns' office and spray-paints "I am Homer Simpson" on the wall. Mr. Burns catches him in the act, but yet still seemingly does not recognize Homer. In a rage, Homer attacks him and is hauled away by security. All the citizens affected by Mr. Burns' mad schemes, including Homer and even Smithers, swear revenge.

A town meeting is held to discuss Mr. Burns' actions. Mr. Burns arrives, armed with a gun after his encounter with Homer. Despite the whole town standing up to him, he activates the sun-blocking device, thinking himself invincible. He walks into an alley, obscured from view, and struggles with someone until a gunshot is heard. He stumbles out into the open, wounded, and collapses on the town's sundial. The townspeople find him and Marge tells all of them that since Mr. Burns has angered so many people recently, just about anyone could have been the shooter.

As Mr. Burns fights for life at the hospital, the Springfield police are working to find his assailant. Smithers wakes up the next morning and vaguely remembers shooting someone the night before in a drunken rage. Guilt-ridden, Smithers heads for a local church, and is promptly arrested when the confessional turns out to be a police sting. While passing the media on his way to the police station, Smithers makes a witty remark Sideshow Mel recognizes from an episode of Pardon My Zinger that aired at the same time as the shooting. Mel realizes Smithers must have watched it as well, giving him an alibi. As Smithers' memory clears, it turns out he had actually shot Jasper in his wooden leg. Meanwhile, the townsmen pull down the sun-blocker, which crushes Shelbyville to their delight.

With one of the prime suspects cleared, the police, aided by Lisa, eliminate other suspects, including Puente (whose revenge took the form of a "slanderous mambo"), Principal Skinner (who was found by Chalmers to be applying what he thought was camouflage make-up at the time of the shooting), Willie (who cannot fire a gun due to arthritis in his index fingers), and Moe (who is cleared via polygraph test). After a surreal dream about Lisa, Chief Wiggum finds an eyelash on Mr. Burns' suit which matches Simpson DNA. At the same time, Mr. Burns wakes up from his coma, exclaiming "Homer Simpson!" The police raid the Simpson home and find a gun under the seat of their car, covered with Homer's fingerprints and loaded with bullets that match the one fired into Mr. Burns. Homer is arrested for attempted murder, but escapes from the paddywagon when it overturns.

At the hospital, it is revealed "Homer Simpson" is the only thing Mr. Burns can say, suggesting his "accusation" may not have actually been one. Hoping to clear Homer's name, Lisa returns to the scene of the crime to investigate and discovers the identity of Mr. Burns' true assailant. At the same time, Homer arrives at the hospital to confront Mr. Burns and demand his boss exonerate him, despite being impressed that Mr. Burns finally remembered his name. After a police bulletin reports Homer's location, the police, Lisa, and many other citizens of Springfield race to the hospital. Upon entering Mr. Burns' room, everyone finds an enraged Homer vigorously shaking Mr. Burns, demanding he take back his accusation. Homer shaking him returns Mr. Burns' ability to speak normally, and he quickly asks who the person shaking him is. Apoplectic with fury at Mr. Burns again not remembering who he is, Homer aims Wiggum's gun at Mr. Burns' face, demanding he recant his accusations. Mr. Burns laughs at the idea and confirms Homer did not shoot him. He then reveals the true assailant: Maggie.

Mr. Burns reveals, after leaving the town meeting, he came across Maggie eating a lollipop in the Simpsons' car. Mr. Burns decided to try stealing candy from a baby, but Maggie would not let go of the lollipop, resulting in a struggle. As he finally yanked it away, his gun slipped from its holster into Maggie's hands and fired at Mr. Burns. The gun and lollipop both fell beneath the car seat; Homer would later unknowingly leave fingerprints on the gun while feeling around under the seat for an ice cream cone he accidentally dropped. Lisa guesses with his last strength, Mr. Burns pointed to the "S" and "W" on the sundial (with the "W" appearing as an "M" from his perspective) to identify his assailant. Mr. Burns corrects her, saying he fell across the sundial in order to swallow his gold fillings to prevent them from being pilfered by paramedics; the positions of his arms was purely coincidental.

Mr. Burns demands for Maggie to be arrested, but he is dismissed by Wiggum, who says no jury would convict a baby for a crime. Marge also adds the shooting must have been an accident, considering Maggie, being an infant, is very unlikely to know how to operate a gun. In the final shot, Maggie is shown with shifty eyes, suggesting that she may have shot Mr. Burns deliberately.

The Afterparty
In another home video addition, Kent Brockman talks with the fans and asks them how they liked the film, receiving some positive feedback. After this, Kent asks the family what they did before the show's premiere. Homer talks about why he was an angry dad. Bart talks about why he is a troublemaker. Marge talks about how she found Homer and how she and Homer got married. Lisa talks about how she got so smart. The film ends with the screen pulling back, revealing it to be on another TV screen. As Homer Simpson gets up from the couch with the TV remote in his hand and heads over to the television set, he turns off the knob of the TV then turns around and faces the camera holding his remote. He says "Goodnight" and turns off the viewers with his remote.

Cast

 * Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson, Abe Simpson, Groundskeeper Willie, Krusty the Clown, Sideshow Mel, Mayor Quimby, Barney Gumble, Hans Moleman, Santa's Little Helper, Shelbyville Martin, Groundskeeper Wilma, Squeaky Voiced Teen
 * Julie Kavner as Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier
 * Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson, Maggie Simpson, Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders
 * Yeardley Smith as Lisa Simpson
 * Hank Azaria as Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Carl, Dr. Nick, Chief Wiggum, Professor Frink, Captain McCallister, Officer Lou, Snake Jailbird, Gary Chalmers, Kirk Van Houten, Larry, Dr. Colossus, Benevenstanciano, Jericho, Shelbyville Manhattan, Milhouse (Shelbyville), Shelbyville Nelson, Shelbyville lemonade boy's brother
 * Harry Shearer as Mr. Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Lenny, Dr. Hibbert, Kent Brockman, Seymour Skinner, Otto Mann, Jasper Beardly, Officer Eddie, Herman Hermann, Jedediah Springfield, Shelbyville Abe, Shelby's Father
 * Pamela Hayden as Milhouse Van Houten, Jimbo Jones
 * Tress MacNeille as Shelby, Database, Agnes Skinner
 * Marcia Wallace as Edna Krabappel
 * Russi Taylor as Martin Prince
 * Doris Grau as Doris Freedman
 * Maggie Roswell as Maude Flanders, Luann Van Houten, Miss Hoover, Shelbyville lemonade boy
 * George Balmaseda as Gulliver Dark
 * Phil Hartman as Lionel Hutz
 * Tito Puente as Himself

Trivia

 * On the DVD version, the 1994 20th Century Fox logo has the 1997 fanfare instead of the 1994 fanfare.