Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?. The film stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer, Stubby Kaye, and Joanna Cassidy. Set in a 1947 version of Hollywood where cartoon characters (commonly referred to as "toons") and people co-exist, the film follows Eddie Valiant, a private investigator who must exonerate Roger Rabbit, a toon who has been framed for the murder of the Acme Corporation's owner.
Walt Disney Pictures purchased the film rights for the film's story in 1981. Price and Seaman wrote two drafts of the script before Disney brought in executive producer Steven Spielberg and his production company, Amblin Entertainment. Zemeckis was brought on to direct the film while Canadian animator Richard Williams was hired to supervise the animation sequences. Production was moved from Los Angeles to Elstree Studios in England to accommodate Williams and his group of animators. While filming, the production budget began to rapidly expand and the shooting schedule ran longer than expected.
The film was released through Disney's Touchstone Pictures banner on June 22, 1988. It received acclaim from critics, who praised its visuals, humour, writing and performances, with critics and audiences considering it to be "ground-breaking". It grossed $329.8 million worldwide, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of the year. It brought a renewed interest in the Golden age of American animation, spearheading modern American animation and the Disney Renaissance. It won three Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects and received a Special Achievement Academy Award for its animation direction by Williams.
In 2016, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
In 1947 Los Angeles, "toons" regularly interact with real people, act in animated shorts and films, and reside in an area known as Toontown. Private detective Eddie Valiant once worked closely with toons alongside his brother Teddy, but sank into depression and alcoholism after Teddy was murdered by a toon during a case.
R.K. Maroon, head of Maroon Cartoon Studios, is concerned about the recent poor performances of one of his stars, Roger Rabbit. Maroon hires Eddie to investigate rumours about Roger's voluptuous toon wife Jessica being romantically involved with Marvin Acme, owner of both the Acme Corporation and Toontown. After watching Jessica perform at an underground nightclub, Eddie secretly photographs her and Acme playing patty-cake in her dressing room, which he shows to Roger, who becomes distraught about his wife cheating on him.
The next morning, Acme is discovered dead in his factory and evidence points to Roger being responsible. While investigating, Eddie meets Judge Doom, Toontown's sinister superior court judge, who uses a chemical substance capable of destroying the otherwise invulnerable toons known as "The Dip". Eddie later runs into Roger's toon co-star, Baby Herman, who believes Roger is innocent and that Acme's missing will, which will give Toontown's ownership to the toons, may be the key to his murder. In his office, Eddie finds Roger, who begs him to help exonerate him. Eddie reluctantly hides Roger in a local bar, where his girlfriend Dolores works. Jessica approaches Eddie and says that Maroon forced her to pose for the photographs so he could blackmail Acme.
Doom and his toon weasel henchmen discover Roger, but he and Eddie escape with help from Benny, a toon taxicab. They flee to a theater, where Eddie tells Roger about the tragic loss of his brother. As they leave with Dolores, Eddie sees a newsreel detailing the sale of Maroon Cartoons to Cloverleaf Industries, a mysterious corporation that bought the city's Pacific Electric transit system shortly before Acme's murder. Eddie goes to the studio to interrogate Maroon, leaving Roger to guard outside, but he is kidnapped by Jessica. Maroon tells Eddie that he blackmailed Acme into selling his company so he could sell the studio, then admits he only did so out of fear for the safety of the toons. Maroon is then murdered by an unseen assailant before he can explain the consequences of the missing will. Eddie spots Jessica fleeing the scene, and assuming she is the culprit, follows her into Toontown. Once he finds her, Jessica reveals that it was Doom who killed Acme and Maroon and that the former gave her his will for safekeeping, but soon discovered it was blank. She and Eddie are then captured by Doom and the weasels.
At the Acme factory, Doom reveals himself as the sole shareholder of Cloverleaf Industries and explains his plot to destroy Toontown with a machine fueled with dip to build a freeway full of attractions in its place and force people to drive it once he has the transit system decommissioned in order to control all the profits. Roger unsuccessfully attempts to save Jessica and the couple is tied onto a hook in front of the machine's water cannon. Eddie performs a comedic vaudeville act full of pratfalls, causing the weasels to die of laughter; Eddie kicks their leader into the machine's dip vat. Eddie then fights Doom, who is flattened by a steamroller but survives, revealing himself as not only a disguised toon, but the very one who killed Eddie's brother. Eddie eventually defeats Doom by emptying the machine and drenching him in its dip supply, destroying him once and for all.
The emptied machine crashes through the wall into Toontown, where it is destroyed by a train. As the police and many dozens of toons gather at the scene, Eddie reveals Doom's guilt in Acme's murder to the former, clearing Roger's name. Eddie discovers that Roger inadvertently wrote a love letter for Jessica on Acme's will, which was written in disappearing/reappearing ink, and Toontown's ownership is handed over to the toons. Having regained his sense of humour now that he has avenged Teddy, Eddie happily enters Toontown with Dolores alongside Roger, Jessica and the other toons.
Production
Development
Walt Disney Productions purchased the film rights to Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? shortly after its publication in 1981. Ron W. Miller, then president of Disney, saw it as a perfect opportunity to produce a blockbuster. Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman were hired to write the script, penning two drafts. Robert Zemeckis offered his services as director in 1982, but Disney declined as his two previous films (I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Used Cars) had been box-office bombs. Between 1981 and 1983 Disney developed test footage with Darrell Van Citters as animation director, Paul Reubens voicing Roger Rabbit, Peter Renaday as Eddie Valiant, and Russi Taylor as Jessica Rabbit. The project was revamped in 1985 by Michael Eisner, the then-new CEO of Disney. Amblin Entertainment, which consisted of Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, were approached to produce Who Framed Roger Rabbit alongside Disney. The original budget was projected at $50 million, which Disney felt was too expensive.
The film was finally green-lit when the budget decreased to $30 million, which at the time still made it the most expensive animated film ever green-lit. Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg argued that the hybrid of live-action and animation would "save" Disney's animation department. Spielberg's contract included an extensive amount of creative control and a large percentage of the box-office profits. Disney kept all merchandising rights. Spielberg convinced Warner Bros., Fleischer Studios, King Features Syndicate, Felix the Cat Productions, Turner Entertainment, and Universal Pictures/Walter Lantz Productions to "lend" their characters to appear in the film with (in some cases) stipulations on how those characters were portrayed; for example, Disney's Donald Duck and Warner Bros.' Daffy Duck appear as equally talented duelling pianists, and Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny also share a scene. Apart from this agreement, and some of the original Looney Tunes voice artists being hired to reprise their roles, Warner Bros. and the various other companies were not involved in the production of Roger Rabbit. However, executives at Warner Bros. expressed displeasure at the animators using the Daffy design by Bob Clampett and demanded they use the design by Chuck Jones; in response to this, Zemeckis had separate artists animate Daffy using Jones' design to satisfy Warner Bros. in order to use Clampett's design in the final film. The producers were unable to acquire the rights to use Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Little Lulu, Casper, or the Terrytoons for appearances from their respective owners (King Features, Turner, Western Publishing, Harvey Comics, and Viacom).
Terry Gilliam was offered the chance to direct, but he found the project too technically challenging. ("Pure laziness on my part," he later admitted, "I completely regret that decision.") Robert Zemeckis was hired to direct in 1985, based on the success of Romancing the Stone and Back to the Future. Disney executives were continuing to suggest Van Citters to direct the animation, but Spielberg and Zemeckis decided against it. Richard Williams was eventually hired to direct the animation. Zemeckis wanted the film to imbue "Disney's high quality of animation, Warner Bros.' characterization, and Tex Avery humor."
Casting
Harrison Ford was Spielberg's original choice to play Eddie Valiant, but his price was too high. Chevy Chase was the second choice, but he was not interested. Bill Murray was also considered for the role but, due to his idiosyncratic method of receiving offers for roles, Murray missed out on it. Eddie Murphy reportedly turned down the role as he misunderstood the concept of cartoon characters and human beings co-existing; he later regretted this decision. Robin Williams, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Wallace Shawn, Ed Harris, Charles Grodin and Don Lane were also considered for the role. Ultimately Bob Hoskins was chosen not only because he's a great actor, had "hope", and lastly looked like he belonged in that era. To facilitate Hoskins' performance, Charles Fleischer dressed in a Roger Rabbit costume and "stood in" behind camera for most scenes. Williams explained Roger was a combination of "Tex Avery's cashew nut-shaped head, the swatch of red hair... like Droopy's, Goofy's overalls, Porky Pig's bow tie, Mickey Mouse's gloves, and Bugs Bunny-like cheeks and ears."
Kathleen Turner provided the uncredited voice of Jessica Rabbit, Roger Rabbit's wife.
Tim Curry originally auditioned for the role of Judge Doom but, afterward, the producers found him too terrifying. Christopher Lee was also considered for it but turned it down. John Cleese also expressed interest for the role but was deemed not scary enough. Peter O'Toole, F. Murray Abraham, Roddy McDowall, Eddie Deezen and Sting were also considered for the role. Christopher Lloyd was cast because he previously worked with Zemeckis and Spielberg on Back to the Future. He compared his part as Doom to his previous role as the Klingon commander Kruge in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, both being overly evil characters which he considered being "fun to play". He avoided blinking his eyes while on camera to perfectly portray the character.
Fleischer also voiced Benny the Cab, Psycho, and Greasy. Lou Hirsch, who voiced Baby Herman, was the original choice for Benny the Cab, but he was replaced by Fleischer.
Writing
Price and Seaman were brought aboard to continue writing the script once Spielberg and Zemeckis were hired. For inspiration, the two writers studied the work of Walt Disney and Warner Bros. Cartoons from the Golden Age of American animation, especially Tex Avery and Bob Clampett cartoons. The Cloverleaf streetcar subplot was inspired by Chinatown. Price and Seaman said that "the Red Car plot, suburb expansion, urban and political corruption really did happen," Price stated. "In Los Angeles, during the 1940s, car and tire companies teamed up against the Pacific Electric Railway system and bought them out of business. Where the freeway runs in Los Angeles is where the Red Car used to be." In Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, the toons were comic-strip characters rather than movie stars.
During the writing process, Price and Seaman were unsure of whom to include as the villain in the plot. They wrote scripts that had either Jessica Rabbit or Baby Herman as the villain, but they made their final decision with newly created character Judge Doom. Doom was supposed to have an animated vulture sit on his shoulder, but this was deleted due to the technical challenges this posed. Doom would also have a suitcase of 12 small animated kangaroos that act as a jury, by having their joeys pop out of their pouches, each with letters, when put together would spell YOU ARE GUILTY. This was also cut for budget and technical reasons.
The Toon Patrol (Stupid, Smart Ass, Greasy, Wheezy, and Psycho) satirizes the Seven Dwarfs (Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey), who appeared in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Originally, seven weasels were to mimic the dwarfs complement, but eventually, two of them, Slimey and Sleazy, were written out of the script. Further references included The "Ink and Paint Club" resembling the Harlem Cotton Club, while Zemeckis compared Judge Doom's invention of the Dip to eliminate all the toons as Hitler's Final Solution. Doom was originally the hunter who killed Bambi's mother. Benny the Cab was first conceived to be a Volkswagen Beetle before being changed to a taxi cab. Ideas originally conceived for the story also included a sequence set at Marvin Acme's funeral, whose attendees included Eddie, Foghorn Leghorn, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Tom and Jerry, Heckle and Jeckle, Chip n' Dale, Felix the Cat, Herman and Katnip, Mighty Mouse, Superman, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, the Seven Dwarfs, Baby Huey, and Casper the Friendly Ghost in cameo appearances. However, the scene was cut for pacing reasons and never made it past the storyboard stage. Before finally agreeing on Who Framed Roger Rabbit as the film's title, working titles included Murder in Toontown, Toons, Dead Toons Don't Pay Bills, The Toontown Trial, Trouble in Toontown, and Eddie Goes to Toontown.
Filming
Williams admitted he was "openly disdainful of the Disney bureaucracy" and refused to work in Los Angeles. To accommodate him and his animators, production moved to England where a studio, Walt Disney Animation UK (subsuming Richard Williams Animation), was created for this purpose; located at The Forum, 74-80 Camden Street, in Camden Town, London, while the live-action production was based at Elstree Studios. Disney and Spielberg also told Williams that in return for doing the film, they would help distribute his unfinished film The Thief and the Cobbler. Supervising animators included Van Citters, Dale Baer, Michael Peraza, Joe Ranft, Tom Sito, James Baxter, David Bowers, Andreas Deja, Mike Gabriel, Chris Jenkins, Phil Nibbelink, Nik Ranieri, Simon Wells, and Bruce W. Smith, while Williams and associate producer Don Hahn spearheaded the animation production. The animation production was split between Walt Disney Animation UK and a specialized unit in Los Angeles, set up by Walt Disney Feature Animation and supervised by Baer. The production budget continued to escalate, while the shooting schedule ran longer than expected. When the budget reached $40 million, Disney CEO Michael Eisner seriously considered shutting down production, but studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg talked him out of it. Despite the budget escalating to over $50 million, Disney moved forward on production because they were enthusiastic to work with Spielberg.
VistaVision cameras installed with motion-control technology were used for the photography of the live-action scenes, which would be composited with animation. Rubber mannequins of Roger Rabbit, Baby Herman, and the Toon Patrol portrayed the animated characters during rehearsals to teach the actors where to look when acting with "open air and imaginative cartoon characters". Many of the live-action props held by cartoon characters were shot on set with the props either held by robotic arms or manipulated with strings, similar to a marionette. For example, a test was shot at ILM with an actor playing the detective would climb down a fire escape and the rabbit is supposed to follow and he knocks down some stacked boxes. Naturally, there wouldn't actually be a rabbit during the test, so the camera would go down the fire escape and the boxes would fall when a wire was pulled. The actor who played the voice of Roger, Charles Fleischer, insisted on wearing a Roger Rabbit costume while on the set, to get into character. Filming began on November 2, 1986, and lasted for seven and a half months at Elstree Studios, with an additional month in Los Angeles and at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for blue screen effects of Toontown. The entrance of Desilu Studios served as the fictional Maroon Cartoon Studio lot.
Animation And Post-Production
Post-production lasted for 14 months. Because the film was made before computer animation and digital compositing were widely used, all the animation was done using cels and optical compositing. First, the animators and layout artists were given black-and-white printouts of the live-action scenes (known as "photo stats"), and they placed their animation paper on top of them. The artists then drew the animated characters in relationship to the live-action footage. Due to Zemeckis' dynamic camera moves, the animators had to confront the challenge of ensuring the characters were not "slipping and slipping all over the place." In order to ensure this didn't happen and that the characters looked real, Zemeckis and Spielberg met for about an hour and a half and came up with the idea that, "If the rabbit sits down in an old chair, dust comes up. He should always be touching something that's real." After rough animation was complete, it was run through the normal process of traditional animation until the cels were shot on the rostrum camera with no background. The animated footage was then sent to ILM for compositing, where technicians animated three lighting layers (shadows, highlights, and tone mattes) separately, to make the cartoon characters look three-dimensional and give the illusion of the characters being affected by the lighting on set. Finally, the lighting effects were optically composited on to the cartoon characters, who were, in turn, composited into the live-action footage. One of the most difficult effects in the film was Jessica's dress in the nightclub scene, because it had flashing sequins, an effect accomplished by filtering light through a plastic bag scratched with steel wool.
Music
Regular Zemeckis collaborator Alan Silvestri composed the film score, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) under the direction of Silvestri. Zemeckis joked that "the British musicians could not keep up with Silvestri's jazz tempo". The performances of the music themes written for Jessica Rabbit were entirely improvised by the LSO. The work of American composer Carl Stalling heavily influenced Silvestri's work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The film's soundtrack was originally released by Buena Vista Records on June 22, 1988, and reissued by Walt Disney Records on CD on April 16, 2002.
On January 23, 2018, Intrada Records released a three-CD set with the complete score, alternates, and a remastered version of the original 1988 album, plus music from three Roger Rabbit short films, composed and conducted by Bruce Broughton and James Horner.
The film features performances of "Hungarian Rhapsody" (Tony Anselmo and Mel Blanc), "Why Don't You Do Right?" (Amy Irving), "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" (Charles Fleischer), and "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!" (Toon Chorus).
Release/Reception/Box Office
Michael Eisner, then-CEO, and Roy E. Disney, vice chairman of The Walt Disney Company, felt the film was too risqué with sexual references. Eisner and Zemeckis disagreed over various elements of it but since Zemeckis had final cut privilege, he refused to make alterations. Roy E. Disney, head of Feature Animation along with studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, felt it was appropriate to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner instead of the traditional Walt Disney Pictures banner.
The film opened in the United States on June 22, 1988, grossing $11,226,239 in 1,045 theaters during its opening weekend, ranking first place at the US box office. It was Buena Vista's biggest opening weekend ever. It went on to gross $156,452,370 in the United States and Canada and $173,351,588 internationally, coming to a worldwide total of $329,803,958. At the time of release, it was the 20th-highest-grossing film of all time. It was also the second-highest-grossing film of 1988, behind only Rain Man. The film was accompanied by the NFB short, The Cat Came Back. In the United Kingdom, the film also set a record opening for a Disney film.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit received near-universal acclaim from critics, making Business Insider's "best comedy movies of all time, according to critics" list. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 97% based on 67 reviews, and an average rating of 8.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit is an innovative and entertaining film that features a ground-breaking mix of live action and animation, with a touching and original story to boot." Aggregator Metacritic has calculated a weighted average score of 83 out of 100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Who Framed Roger Rabbit was placed on 43 critics' top ten lists, third to only The Thin Blue Line and Bull Durham in 1988. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four, predicting it would carry "the type of word of mouth that money can't buy. This movie is not only great entertainment but [also] a breakthrough in craftsmanship." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune praised the film's "dazzling, jaw-dropping opening four-minute sequence", while noting that the sequence alone took nearly nine months to animate. In reviewing the film, Siskel gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four. Ebert and his colleague Siskel spent a considerable amount of time in the Siskel & Ebert episode in which they reviewed the film analysing its painstaking filmmaking. In evaluating their top ten films of the year, Siskel ranked it number two while Ebert ranked it as number eight. Janet Maslin of The New York Times commented that this is "a film whose best moments are so novel, so deliriously funny and so crazily unexpected that they truly must be seen to be believed." Desson Thomson of The Washington Post considered Roger Rabbit to be "a definitive collaboration of pure talent. Zemeckis had Walt Disney Pictures' enthusiastic backing, producer Steven Spielberg's pull, Warner Bros.'s blessing, Canadian animator Richard Williams' ink and paint, Mel Blanc's voice, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman's witty, frenetic screenplay, George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic, and Bob Hoskins' comical performance as the burliest, shaggiest private eye." Gene Shalit on the Today Show also praised the film, calling it "one of the most extraordinary movies ever made". Filmsite.org called it "a technically-marvellous film" and a "landmark" that resulted from "unprecedented cooperation" between Warner Bros. and Disney. On CNN's 2019 miniseries The Movies, Tom Hanks called it the "most complicated movie ever made."
Richard Corliss, writing for Time, gave a mixed review. "The opening cartoon works just fine but too fine. The opening scene upstages the movie that emerges from it," he said. Corliss was mainly annoyed by the homages to the Golden Age of American animation. Animation legend Chuck Jones made a rather scathing attack on the film in his book Chuck Jones Conversations. Among his complaints, Jones accused Robert Zemeckis of robbing Richard Williams of any creative input and ruining the piano duel that both Williams and he storyboarded.
Budget $50.6 million
Box office $329.8 million
My Review
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is a wonder in the art of making films. Because it mixes live-action and cartoons, it was a challenge to be made. But that's exactly what makes it so distinguish and unique, especially considering that the idea works out so well. It's a different and original movie experience, a real winner.
Yet, the film is more than a combination of live-action and cartoons. It has a dark atmosphere with lots of suspense, almost like a thriller. Classic humour isn't forgotten either, with numerous funny lines and hysterical gags, as well as humorous characters. The joke about «uncle Thumper» is one of the funniest, but there are many others. There's also a hilarious piano acting with Donald Duck and Daffy Duck, which they play the same piano song as in Tom & Jerry's short "The Cat Concerto" and have their hilariously silly battle. In fact, the soundtrack of the movie is excellent, including Jessica Rabbit's song "Why don't you do right?" and a suspense music very similar to one from the original "Back to the Future".
Other movies that successfully mix live-action and cartoons are "Mary Poppins", "Pete's Dragon" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks". Like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", those three movies combine this "marriage" very well. On the other hand, other movies such as "Space Jam" tried this idea but without the same success.
I believe that this movie was made in a unique moment of inspiration. The sceneries are great, the designs, the cartoons, the backgrounds, the details, the animation, the special effects, the artwork... everything was carefully made and I much welcome that. This is one of the greatest Disney films.
Great actors make the difference too. Bob Hoskins is English but speaks with an excellent American accent, not to mention that he does the amazing thing of acting against the air. Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer, Alan Tilvern, Stubby Kaye, Cristopher Lloyd and Kathleen Turner are awesome too. Kathleen Turner is the voice of Jessica Rabbit, with that sexy and sensual voice. And... guess what! Even the singer Frank Sinatra has a minor role in this film as the hilarious but useless Singing Sword. Even without looking at the credits, who wouldn't recognize that great voice? Frank Sinatra's voice is just as recognizable as Nat King Cole's or Sterling Holloway's.
As for the characters, the weasels are a perfect example of chronical stupidity. They're humorous because they're always laughing, even though they know what happens to someone who can't stop laughing.
Marvin Acme is «the king of the jokes», always humorous and cheerful and at his funniest with his mythical hand-buzzer. Angelo is an idiot, drunk and greedy guy, but funny at the same time. Dolores is a great character. R. K. Maroon is an interesting character with half a dark side and half a good side. Judge Doom is a great villain, humorous, mysterious and somewhat sinister. Roger Rabbit is hilarious and very jolly - that's his only purpose as a cartoon, like he says himself. Jessica Rabbit is a very sexy cartoon, one of the most beautiful and sexiest ever - she's not bad, she's just drawn that way. Benny the Cab is funny. Baby Herman is a bit annoying - he might look innocent at first, but he is extremely rude and he loves to woo women. Eddie Valiant is another great character - grumpy, serious and funny sometimes. And he looks very much like my godfather in appearance.
The movie takes place in Hollywood, 1947. It does recreate the 40's very well. That influence is notorious in many ways, including the cars used.
Before finishing, let me say that I like rabbits very much. They're adorable and very cute animals, although in the cartoons they aren't as cute - but they're usually funny in cartoons.
This should definitely be on Top 250. 9.8/10
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