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Who Framed Roger Rabbit

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Directed byRobert Zemeckis (live-action)
Richard Williams
(animation)
Written byGary K. Wolf (novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?)
Jeffery Price &
Peter S. Seaman (screenplay)
Produced byFrank Marshall
Robert Watts
StarringBob Hoskins
Christopher Lloyd
Joanna Cassidy
Charles Fleischer
Kathleen Turner
David L. Lander
Mel Blanc
CinematographyDean Cundey
Edited byArthur Schmidt
Music byAlan Silvestri
Distributed byTouchstone Pictures
Release dates
June 24, 1988 (USA)
Running time
103 minutes
Country United States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUS$70,000,000 (estimated)
Box office$329,803,958 (worldwide)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 film produced by Amblin Entertainment and The Walt Disney Company (released on its Touchstone Pictures banner), based upon the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which blends traditional animation and live action. The film takes place in a fictionalized version of Los Angeles set in 1947, where animated characters (always referred to as "Toons") are real beings who live and work alongside humans in the real world, most of them as actors in animated cartoons. It is often considered the movie that brought upon the modern age of animation in the United States.

At $70 million, Roger Rabbit was one of the most expensive films to date at the time of its release. The film proved a sound investment, earning over $150 million in North America alone during its original theatrical release. The film is notable for offering a unique chance to see many cartoon characters from different studios interacting in a single film and for being one of the last appearances by voice artists Mel Blanc and Mae Questel from animation's Golden Era. In addition, Who Framed Roger Rabbit won four Oscars at the 61st Academy Awards ceremony in 1989.

Plot

The movie opens as a Baby Herman short subject, which in the realm of this film is revealed to be a "live action" slapstick short in the midst of production which ends when Roger Rabbit blows his lines for the 23rd time (by seeing birds and not stars). This introduces the film's title character, who plays the supporting comic foil to infant cartoon star (actually a grown man who appears to be a baby) Baby Herman. In the movie's milieu, cartoon characters are a sapient species cohabiting alongside human beings, though unlike them, "Toons," as they are called, are unbounded by the laws of physics, as long as the result is "funny." Eventually, it is revealed that Marvin Acme, the owner of the Acme Company and of Toontown, has been murdered. All signs point to Roger Rabbit, a Toon star at Maroon Cartoons, as the culprit. Roger has recently been shown evidence that Acme and Roger's wife, Jessica Rabbit, a sexy Toon femme fatale (speaking voice by Kathleen Turner, singing voice by Amy Irving), had been (literally) playing pattycake together (with Jessica moaning in a suspiciously sexual manner). This is tantamount to infidelity in the eyes of a Toon.

File:Roger Rabbit.png
Roger Rabbit, as depicted in the opening scene of the film.

The only person who can help clear Roger's name is Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), a washed-up, alcoholic detective who hates Toons because his brother, Teddy, died after a piano was dropped on his head by a Toon during a routine criminal investigation years before. Eddie is reluctantly forced into helping when Roger hides in his apartment. He soon finds himself shielding Roger from Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) of the Toontown District Superior Court and his "Toon Patrol" henchmen, a group of weasels named Smartass, Greasy, Psycho, Stupid, and Wheezy. Meanwhile, Doom's giant Cloverleaf Corporation is plotting to buy out the L.A. interurban railway (the Pacific Electric, nicknamed "the red car") and replace it with freeways. (This story line is based on the General Motors streetcar conspiracy, an alleged effort to dismantle public transportation systems throughout the U.S.).

With Acme dead and no will having been found, Toontown is in danger of being bulldozed in order to make way for the freeway. Eddie and Roger must find the will of the late Marvin Acme, which purportedly gives ownership of Toontown to the Toons, as per Acme’s solemn oath. Judge Doom is also trying to find the will in order to dispose of it, so he can destroy Toontown and build his freeway where the place once stood, making himself a profit out of the deal. If any Toons happen to get in his way, Judge Doom feels no qualms about subjecting them to the "Dip": a mixture concocted of acetone, benzene, and turpentine, which is the only sure way to kill a Toon.

Eddie goes to the studios of Maroon Cartoons, Roger's employer, to help clear the rabbit's name. There he interrogates R. K. Maroon, who is shot twice in the back and is killed. Thinking the shooter to be Jessica Rabbit, playing Roger for a patsy, Eddie chases the assassin all the way into Toontown, despite his trepidation; Eddie has not set foot in Toontown since his brother Teddy’s demise. There Eddie discovers from Jessica that the assassin was actually Judge Doom, who also murdered Marvin Acme. The weasels are homing in on the two; Benny the Cab arrives in time to get them to safety. Once outside the tunnel leading to Toontown, Benny slips on some Dip in the road dumped there by Doom and crashes into a light pole, ejecting Eddie and Jessica out of him. Doom then kidnaps the two of them and takes them to the Acme factory. Roger then shows up in Eddie's battered car, that he stole earlier. Benny informs him that Doom has Jessica and Eddie, and "drives" the two of them in Eddie's car to the factory.

In the film's climax, set in the Acme Warehouse, Roger manages to gain entry through the plumbing, but is ultimately caught after one of the weasels drops a ton of bricks on his head. Judge Doom then spews "dip" from a huge machine and tries to eradicate Roger and Jessica. He reveals his plans to then use his Dip vehicle to erase Toontown. To combat Doom's weasel henchmen using their one weakness, the normally hard-nosed Eddie draws upon his past experience as a clown at Ringling Brothers circus and performs a slapstick comedy dance. In doing so, Valiant causes the weasels to literally die of laughter. As the Weasels, except for Smart Ass (who was killed when a kick to his crotch from Eddie sent him flying into the dip mixer) and Psycho (who fell into a spining part of the machine and flattened), fly into Heaven, the dipmachine misfires (thanks to Psycho's ghost), almost killing Roger and Jessica. Eddie turns it off, but has a battle with Judge Doom.

During the final battle with Eddie, Judge Doom is revealed to be a Toon himself after a steam-roller flattens him, where upon he reinflates by using an air tank, revealing his Toon features of red fiery pupils and a very squeaky voice. To Eddie's horror, Doom then reveals himself to be the very Toon who murdered Teddy Valiant. He fights Eddie by turning his limbs into a veritable arsenal including buzzsaws and anvils. Just when it seems that Judge Doom is about to win, Eddie uses an Acme scissor-spring-loaded punch-glove mallet to knock open the drain valve on the Dip machine, drenching Judge Doom and draining the Dip. Doom melts away and the Dip machine breaks through the wall, entering Toontown. Fortunately, it drives right in front of a passenger train almost instantly. Eddie then washes the Dip from the factory floor using the factory's hydrant system and frees Jessica and Roger. The police soon arrive, and realize that Judge Doom was responsible for the murders of Maroon, Acme, and Teddy Valiant, though no one knows for sure who he really was, due to a rubber mask he wore over his toon face. Marvin Acme's will is found (Acme wrote it in "disappearing re-appearing ink", whereas Roger had inadvertently used the "blank" paper to write Jessica a love letter earlier in the story), and Toontown is handed over to the control of the Toons, who all cheer and sing a chorus of "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile."

Production

Filming

The live-action sequences were directed by Robert Zemeckis and mostly filmed at Cannon Elstree film studios in Hertfordshire, England. Though Disney was the studio behind the film, the animated sequences were mostly done in London because Richard Williams refused to work in Los Angeles.[1] The film stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy and the voice of Charles Fleischer. The screenplay was adapted by screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from the 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf, and the music was composed by perennial Zemeckis film composer Alan Silvestri and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

As many as 100 separate pieces of film were optically combined to incorporate the animated and live-action elements. The animated characters themselves were hand-drawn without computer animation; analogue optical effects were used for adding shadows and lighting to the Toons to give them a more "realistic," three-dimensional appearance. This being before reliable computer effects were developed, a human operator could not be digitally "erased" from a scene, and all physical effects had to be done mechanically, using the "Toons" to cover the rods, wires and other machinery.

Since the animated Roger was added in post-production, Bob Hoskins was effectively acting against empty air during the shooting of his many scenes with Roger. In order to facilitate Hoskins' performance, Roger’s voice actor Charles Fleischer (dressed in a Roger bunny suit) stood in for Roger in some scenes.

Much of the cinematography and several scenes of the film are an homage to Roman Polanski's Chinatown. Chinatown's screenwriter, Robert Towne, had intended to write a trilogy, but it never materialized. One planned installment was a drama called Cloverleaf, with the plot revolving around the creation of the freeway network and the decline of the Red Cars. Probably one of the most obvious references is the scene in which Roger is shown the pictures of his wife cheating on him, which is very similar to the opening scene in Polanski's film. Also J.J. Gittes in Chinatown and Eddie Valiant are both pastiches of the same stock character, that of the hard-boiled private detective. Both plots involve a corrupt establishment and a femme fatale whose intentions are at first unclear to the protagonist and viewer.

Rating

The film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for Mild Profanity and Cartoon Violence.

Release

International premieres

Critical reaction

Roger Rabbit opened to generally positive reviews on June 24 1988. Both Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert included the film on their lists of ten favorite films of 1988, with Ebert calling it "sheer, enchanted entertainment from the first frame to the last - a joyous, giddy, goofy celebration" [1].

Academy Awards

The movie received 7 Academy Award nominations.

Winner of 4 Oscars:

3 additional nominations:

The movie has a 100% "freshness" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

Controversies and Easter eggs

Several Easter eggs were hidden in the film by its animators. Tape-based analog video such as VHS did not reveal these, but technologies with better image quality, such as the laserdisc, were said to reveal, amongst others, the phone number of then Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Also, when Benny the Cab wrecks at night and Eddie and Jessica roll out, there are two separate frames (2170-2172 on side 4 of the laserdisc version), within two seconds of each other, showing a blurry shot of what seems to be her with no underwear. Disney recalled the laserdisc and issued another disc, later claiming that it was an incorrectly painted cel. Disney also stated that the cel in question could be seen on the new disc and on the VHS version.

Two DVD versions edit the scene where Jessica Rabbit rolls out of the cab after Benny the Cab crashes. The 1999 DVD version reanimated the scene so that Jessica is wearing white panties underneath her dress. When the DVD set was reissued in 2002, the scene was reanimated so that a piece of Jessica's skirt strategically covers Jessica as she rolls down the hill.

Just before Eddie falls off the building, the words "For Good Times, call Allyson 'Wonderland'" can be seen on the wall behind him.

A brief scene consisting of the toon Baby Herman passing by a female (human) extra on the set of the opening cartoon and sticking his middle finger up her dress, and then coming back from under the dress with a drool of spit on his lip. This was edited out of the first DVD edition of the movie, though it can be found on editions of the VHS, laserdisc, and DVD issues.

In the sequence where Bob Hoskins is seen falling an incredibly long distance flanked by Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, Bugs at one point does a finger twiddle with the hand holding his carrot. For one frame in the middle of this, animator Dave Spafford deliberately drew Bugs as flipping Mickey off, and requested that the animator working on Mickey respond with a shocked expression.

Gary Wolf, author of the original novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, corresponded with many fans of the film through written letters and the Internet, compiling an exhaustive listing of the many hidden "easter eggs" in the film and in the later Roger Rabbit short films. Wolf also sued Disney in 2001 for unpaid earnings related to the film.

In the piano duel scene with Donald Duck and Daffy Duck, Daffy says "I've worked with a lot of wise-quackers, but you are despicable." and, according to some, Donald replies, in his kazoo-like voice, "God damn stupid nigger...." Snopes, a noted debunking website, debunks this with the closed-captioning which records Donald as saying "Goddurn stubborn nitwit," though Snopes actually believes he's saying something akin to his typical exclamation, "Doggone stubborn little...That did it...waaa-aaaghghgh!" as is heard in many old Disney cartoons. The Vista Series DVD release uses the latter quote in its closed-captioning. [2]

Legacy

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is seen as a landmark film that sparked the most recent era in American animation. The field of animation had suffered a recession during the 1970s and 1980s, to the point where even giants in the field such as The Walt Disney Company were considering giving up on major animated productions. This expensive film (production cost of $70 million - a staggering amount for the time) was a major risk for the company, but one that paid off handsomely. It inspired other studios to dive back into the field of animation; it also made animation acceptable with the movie-going public. After Roger Rabbit, interest in the history of animation exploded, and such legends in the field as Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and Ralph Bakshi were seen in a new light and received credit and acclaim from audiences worldwide. It also provided the impetus for Disney and Warner Brothers' later animated television shows such as Darkwing Duck, Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures.

The film featured the last major voice role for two legendary cartoon voice artists: Mel Blanc (voicing Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird and also Sylvester in a one-line cameo) and Mae Questel (voicing Betty Boop, but not Olive Oyl, who did not appear in the film). Blanc (who would shortly thereafter pass away at the age of 81) did not do Yosemite Sam's voice in the movie, done instead by Joe Alaskey. (Blanc had admitted that in his later years he was no longer able to do the "yelling" voices such as Sam's, which were very rough on his vocal cords in old age. There was a Foghorn Leghorn scene recorded, but cut, which also utilised Alaskey for the same reason.) Blanc also does Porky Pig, who gets the last line of the film, dressed as a police officer.

The film was also the next-to-last screen appearance for veteran actors Alan Tilvern, who portrays R.K. Maroon in the film, and Stubby Kaye, who plays Marvin Acme. Tilvern appeared in only one other production before his retirement, the 1993 television version of Porgy and Bess, in which he played the non-singing role of the Detective. Alan Tilvern died in 2003. Stubby Kaye, best known for playing Nicely Nicely Johnson in the original stage and screen versions of Guys and Dolls, died in 1997.

Despite being produced by Disney (in association with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment), Roger Rabbit also marked the first (and to date, only) time that characters from several animation studios (including Universal, Walter Lantz Studios, Paramount Pictures, Fleischer Studios, MGM (though the characters are owned by Turner Entertainment since 1986), Republic and Warner Bros.) appeared in one film. This allowed the first-ever meetings between Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse. A contract was signed between Disney and Warner stating that their respective icons, Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, would each receive exactly the same amount of "air time" (they also had the same number of lines). This is why the script has Bugs, Mickey, and Eddie together in one scene falling from a skyscraper. (However, Bugs Bunny can be seen for a second in the studio lot near the beginning of the film, and Mickey has a second of free time before Bugs arrives.) Also the speakeasy scene features the first and only meeting of Daffy Duck and Donald Duck performing a unique dueling piano act. Finally the unique pairing is given a final send off at the end of the film when Porky Pig faces the audience and says the traditional Warner Brothers animation closing line, "That's All, Folks!" just before Tinker Bell appears to tap the scene in the traditional Disney ending manner.

Eventually, several additional animated shorts featuring Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, and Baby Herman would be released.

In 1991, the Disney Imagineers began to develop a new land for the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California, completely based on the Toontown of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Mickey's Toontown opened in 1993 and spawned "Toontown" (without the Mickey's prefix) at Tokyo Disneyland in Japan. The Californian and Japanese Toontowns feature a ride based on Roger Rabbit's adventures, called Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.

The film was referenced in the 2000 film, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, which has some elements similar to Roger Rabbit. Benny the Cab and Judge Doom's Weasel gang were featured as guests on Disney's House of Mouse.

Prequel

A prequel entitled Roger Rabbit II: Toon Platoon was planned in 1992. Set in 1940, the script had Roger expose the manager of the radio station that Jessica works at as a Nazi spy. However, having made Schindler's List, Spielberg rejected making a film with cartoonish Nazis in it. Who Discovered Roger Rabbit was being written in 1994 by Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver, which focused on Roger looking for his mother during the Great Depression. A parody of classic Hollywood musicals, Alan Menkin volunteered to serve as executive producer and wrote five songs for the project. Walt Disney Pictures was planning to create the cartoon characters with computer animation. Michael Eisner pulled the project in 1999 when the budget rose to over $100 million, believing a prequel to a film made twelve years before would not be successful.[3] In December 2007, Frank Marshall told MTV that he was willing to revive development of the film.[4]

Merchandising

The success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit led to a moderate degree of merchandising for the film. In October 1989, McDonald's made a Halloween themed certificate offer for a free VHS copy of the film as well as a Roger Rabbit doll. Other memorabilia included cookie jars, Christmas ornaments, music boxes, snow globes, pinback buttons, three videogames, and a novelization of the film. While much of the merchandise was produced throughout the 1988–89 promotion of the film, other items would later be offered as commemorative collectibles in celebration of Disney-related anniversaries.

In 1989, Marvel Comics commissioned a special graphic novel as a novelization in comic-book form. The novel featured several ideas for the plot scrapped from the original film, such as Roger and Eddie actually making a getaway in Dooms' squad car (until the engine blows up after Roger constantly hammers the pedals), as well as the deleted Pighead sequence featured on the Laserdisc version of the DVD releases (as well as on its first broadcast on CBS). Today, these Graphic novels are collectors' items due to their rarity. A follow up Graphic Novel titled Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom was also published, which was later continued by Disney Comics with their own Roger Rabbit comic-book series, which lasted 18 issues.

Animated characters

Main cartoon characters

These characters were all created for and made their first appearances in the film.

Cartoon characters that make cameo appearances

These characters had all appeared in either film or cartoon shorts made by various studios.

Disney

Warner Bros.

MGM

Paramount Pictures/Fleischer Studios

Walter Lantz

(*) Denotes anachronisms; these characters (or, in the cases of characters such as Tinker Bell, the animated versions of them that appear in the film) were created after 1947. But as screenplay writer Peter S. Seaman said, "The aim was entertainment, not animation history."

Cast

Human actors

Actor Character
Bob Hoskins Eddie Valiant
Christopher Lloyd Judge Doom
Joanna Cassidy Dolores
Alan Tilvern R.K. Maroon
Stubby Kaye Marvin Acme
Richard LeParmentier Lt. Santino
Richard Ridings Angelo
Joel Silver Director Raoul
Eugene Guirterrez Teddy Valiant
Betsy Brantley Jessica's Performance Model
Paul Springer Augie
Edwin Craig Arthritic Cowboy
Lindsay Holiday Soldier
Mike Edmonds Stretch
Morgan Deare Editor
Danny Capri Kid #1
Christopher Hollosy Kid #2
John-Paul Sipla Kid #3
Joel Cutrar Forensic #1
Billy J. Mitchell Forensic #2
Eric B. Sindon Mailman
Ed Herlihy Newscaster
James O'Connell Conductor
Christine Hewett Ink and Paint Club Patron (uncredited)
Kit Hillier Ink and Paint Club Patron (uncredited)
Derek Lyons Drunk in Bar (uncredited)
Ken Ralston Judge Doom when he runs away in Toontown (uncredited)

Toon voice actors

Character Voice Actor Original Voice
Roger Rabbit Charles Fleischer characters
original
for the film
Benny The Cab
Jessica Rabbit Kathleen Turner (speaking)
Amy Irving (singing)
The Weasels David L. Lander
Charles Fleischer
Fred Newman
June Foray
Baby Herman April Winchell (child voice)
Lou Hirsch (adult voice)
Mrs. Herman April Winchell
Sylvester the Cat Mel Blanc
Daffy Duck
Bugs Bunny
Tweety Bird
Porky Pig
Hippo Mary T. Radford
Yosemite Sam Joe Alaskey Mel Blanc
Foghorn Leghorn
Woody Woodpecker* Cherry Davis
Betty Boop Mae Questel
Donald Duck Tony Anselmo Clarence Nash
Goofy Tony Pope Pinto Colvig
Big Bad Wolf Billy Bletcher
Mickey Mouse
Wayne Allwine Walt Disney
Pinocchio
Peter Pewety Dickie Jones
Droopy Dog Richard Williams Bill Thompson
Minnie Mouse Russi Taylor Marcellite Garner
The Bird N/A
J. Thaddeus Toad
Les Perkins Eric Blore
Bullet #1 Pat Buttram N/A
Bullet # 2 Jim Cummings
Bullet #3 Jim Gallant
Singing Sword (archive sound) Frank Sinatra
Lena Hyena
Toon Hag		 June Foray
Bongo the Gorilla Morgan Deare
Dipped Shoe (uncredited) Nancy Cartwright
Dumbo/others (uncredited) Frank Welker
  • While Mel Blanc was the first voice-actor for Woody Woodpecker, for the bulk of the character's original run, his voice was provided by Grace Stafford, aka Mrs. Walter Lantz.

See also

References and footnotes

  • "Behind the Ears: The True Story of Roger Rabbit". (2003). Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Vista Series [DVD]. Burbank: Buena Vista Home Video.
  • Gray, Milton (1991). Cartoon Animation: Introduction to a Career. Lion's Den Publications. ISBN 0-9628444-5-4.
  • Chuck Jones Conversations. Edited by Maureen Furniss. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-729-4.
  1. ^ Stewart, James B DisneyWar, page 87. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. ISBN 978-0-74-326709-0
  2. ^ http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/donald.htm
  3. ^ Rich Drees. "Who Delayed Roger Rabbit?". Film Buff Online. Retrieved 2007-10-05.
  4. ^ Shawn Adler (2007-12-11). "'Roger Rabbit' Sequel Still In The Offing? Stay Tooned, Says Producer". MTV. Retrieved 2008-01-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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