Who Framed Roger Rabbit
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 film produced by Disney subsidiary Touchstone and Amblin Entertainment, that combines animation and live action. The film takes place in a fictionalized Los Angeles 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. At $70 million, it was one of the most expensive films ever at the time of its release, but it proved a sound investment that eventually brought in over $150 million 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.
Tagline: It's the story of a man, a woman, and a rabbit in a triangle of trouble.
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Plot
Image:Roger Rabbit.jpg The movie opens, innocently and deceptively, 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 (after the manner of The Three Stooges). 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. 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, who had recently been shown evidence that Acme and Roger's wife, Jessica Rabbit, a sexy Toon femme fatale (uncredited speaking voice by Kathleen Turner, singing voice by Amy Irving), had been playing pattycake together (literally) — this is tantamount to infidelity in the eyes of a Toon.
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, was murdered by a Toon during a routine criminal investigation in Toontown years before when a piano was dropped on his head. Eddie is reluctantly forced into helping when Roger hides in his apartment, and soon finds himself shielding Roger from Judge Doom of the Toontown District Superior Court (Christopher Lloyd) and his "Toon Patrol" henchmen, a group of weasels: Smartass, Greasy, Psycho, Stupid and Wheezy.
Meanwhile, Doom's giant Cloverleaf Corporation is plotting to buy out the interurban railway, the Pacific-Electric Red Car, and replace it with freeways (based on the General Motors streetcar conspiracy and the National City Lines). 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, and make himself 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 he’s concocted of acetone, benzene, and turpentine; it’s 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 speaks to R.K. Maroon, who is shot during the confrontation. 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 brother Teddy’s demise. There Eddie discovers that the assassin was actually Judge Doom, who manages to kidnap Jessica, and later Roger, so he can "dip" them.
In the film's climax, set in the Acme Warehouse, Judge Doom spews "dip" from a huge machine and tries to eradicate Roger and his wife, Jessica. He reveals his plans to then use his "dip" vehicle to erase Toontown. To combat Doom's weasel henchmen, the normally hard-nosed Eddie plays a clown (not completely out of character, as the audience has been shown a photo of him and his brother working for Ringling Brothers earlier in the film), causing the weasels to die of laughter—evidently another way to kill a Toon (or at least the weasels). During the final battle with Eddie, Judge Doom is revealed to be a Toon himself after a steam-roller flattens him, and he reinflates himself by using one of the air tanks, revealing his Toon features. To Eddie's horror, Doom then reveals himself to be not just any Toon, but the one who murdered Eddie's brother. Just when it seems that Judge Doom will get the upper hand, Eddie uses a scissor-spring-loaded punch-glove mallet to knock open the drain valve on the "dip" machine. Judge Doom is drenched with "dip" and melts away.
The police soon arrive, and realize that Judge Doom was responsible for the murders of both Maroon, Acme, and Eddie Valiant's brother Teddy, though no one knows for sure who he was. Marvin Acme's will is found (Acme wrote it in "disappearing re-appearing ink" and Roger used the "blank" paper to write Jessica a love letter), and Toontown is handed over to the control of the Toons, who all cheer and sing a chorus of "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile."
Background
The live-action sequences were directed by Robert Zemeckis and mostly filmed at Borehamwood film studios in Hertfordshire, England. The animated sequences were directed by Richard Williams and produced at his London animation studio. 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. It was released by Buena Vista Distribution under its Touchstone Pictures division.
The lack of question mark in the title is allegedly due to a superstition that films with a question mark in the title do badly at the box office.
The plot of the film is derived from the infamous General Motors streetcar conspiracy, in which General Motors, Standard Oil and Firestone Tires allegedly formed the National City Lines holding company that bought out and deliberately destroyed the Los Angeles Red Car trolley system in the 1940s and 1950s. In the film, the real-life role of NCL is filled by the fictional "Cloverleaf Industries," owned solely by Judge Doom.
Much of the cinematography and several scenes of the film are a homage to Roman Polanski's Chinatown.
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.
A slightly earlier draft of the screenplay revealed Judge Doom also to be the hunter who mortally shot Bambi's mother, thus providing more insight into his sadistic, cruel, and calloused nature towards his fellow Toons. However, Disney allegedly nixed the idea, most likely believing the idea to be overkill and not wanting to scare younger audiences with the character more than necessary for the emotional purpose of the movie. <ref>The idea of a villain killing Bambi's mother was later incorporated into Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and suggested that Gaston was the one who shot Bambi's mother. This mention can be found in the script for "Who Shot Roger Rabbit?"</ref> In the graphic novel Roger Rabbit: The Ressurection of Doom, it is revealed that Doom's real name was Baron von Rotten, and that he played villains in old cartoons, until one day, he was knocked unconscious and woke up thinking he was a real villain.
The film's credits run for nearly ten minutes. At the time of its release, Roger Rabbit held the record for having the longest end credits sequence in cinema history.
Critical reaction
Although test screenings proved disastrous, Roger Rabbit opened to generally positive reviews on June 21 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]. Rotten Tomatoes lists Who Framed Roger Rabbit as being #34 on its Best Of Rotten Tomatoes list [2] all-time list with 100% positive reviews. As the website was created in 1995, and would only have the option of searching past archives, it is not able to give an accurate contemporary depiction of the review success.
While Who Framed Roger Rabbit is considered a modern film classic, the film has also had its share of criticism. Much of the criticism revolves around the inconsistent tone of the film: the juxtaposition of the zany cartoon characters and the rough film noir story in which they appear. While a blend between the two was the intended result of the producers, some people feel that the tone of the film deviates too much to properly identify it as either a film for children or a film for adults. While sex and violence were very prominent in Golden Age animation, the more blatant and saturated usage of such elements in this film, particularly in the characters of Jessica Rabbit (sex) and Judge Doom (violence), make many American parents and viewers unaccustomed to seeing such elements in animation uncomfortable.
The film's finale, during which its main characters are essentially tied to a rope waiting to be sprayed by a hose, was cited as being weak and unimaginative. The film's animation is also accused of using too much superfluous movement. Held cels are very rarely used in Roger Rabbit, and (for technical reasons due to camera moves) most of the animation is on "ones" (each frame is animated, as opposed to the cheaper, more familiar method of animating every other frame, i.e. "twos"). Even when characters are standing still, they continue to move (particularly Roger, whose ear movements were based upon ballet patterns), and some animators and animation artists have cited the extra movement as unnecessary and distracting.
The movie won four Academy Awards: Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing; Best Effects, Visual Effects; Best Film Editing; and a Special Award for Richard Williams for "animation direction and creation of the cartoon characters". The film received four further nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography and Best Sound.
Many film buffs label Jessica Rabbit a "Frankenstein" of film goddesses: with a Lauren Bacall-ish speaking voice (courtesy of an uncredited Kathleen Turner), Betty Grable's legs, Marilyn Monroe's torso and buttocks, Jayne Mansfield's breasts, Veronica Lake's hair, Marlene Dietrich's eyes, and a Judy Garland-like singing voice (provided by Amy Irving).
Ironically and interestingly, the film was disliked by Chuck Jones, the famed animation director best known for his work at Warner Bros. Jones himself storyboarded the piano duel between Donald and Daffy Duck, but he felt that the version of the scene in the final film was horrible. Jones also felt that Richard Williams had become too subservant to Robert Zemeckis.
Legacy
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is seen as a landmark film that sparked the most recent era in American animation. The field had become lackluster and worn-out 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.
The film featured the last major voice role for two legendary cartoon voice artists: Mel Blanc (voicing Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and also Sylvester in a one-line cameo) and Mae Questel (voicing, of course, Betty Boop). Interestingly, Blanc (who would shortly pass away at the age of 81) did NOT do Yosemite Sam's voice in the movie. (He had admitted that in his later years he was no longer able to do Sam's voice, which was very rough on his vocal cords.)
Also interesting was despite being produced by Disney's Touchstone Pictures division (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, MGM, Republic, Turner Entertainment, 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 screen time. This is why the script had Bugs, Mickey, and Eddie together in one scene falling from a skyscraper; in this scene, the mouse and the rabbit speak the same exact number of words of dialogue, as per the contract. However, a split-second shot of Bugs is seen just before the scene changes to the red car stopping. Also the speakeasy scene features the first and only meeting of Daffy Duck and Donald Duck performing a unique dueling piano act.
Eventually, several additional animated shorts featuring Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, and Baby Herman would be released. These shorts were presented in front of various Touchstone/Disney features in an attempt to revive short subject animation as a part of the movie-going experience. These shorts include Tummy Trouble released in front of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (this was included on the original video release of the film), Roller Coaster Rabbit shown in front of Dick Tracy and Trail Mix-Up shown in front of A Far Off Place. They were all released on video in 1996 on a tape called The Best of Roger Rabbit, and in 2003 on a special edition DVD of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Tummy Trouble was produced at the main Walt Disney Feature Animation studio in Burbank, California; the other two shorts were produced at the satellite studio located at Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida.
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 to rapturous applause 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.
Some parallels between Roger Rabbit and Zemeckis's movie series Back to the Future can be easily drawn. For instance, the scene where the weasels are chasing Eddie and Roger in Benny the Cab which ends with the weasels crashing into a truck is very similar to a scene in Back To The Future, where Biff and his friends are in a car chasing Marty on a skateboard, and they crash into a manure truck. The line "I'm gonna ram him" is said in both movies. Also, part of the mechanism designed for Benny the Car was used in Back to the Future Part III when Marty is dragged by a horse.
Easter eggs and deleted sections
Image:Jessica Rabbit crotch.jpg Several Easter eggs were hidden in the film by its animators. Tape-based analog video such as VHS did not reveal these, but better image-quality-delivering-technologies such as the laserdisc were said to reveal amongst others the phone number of Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Also, when Bennie the Cab wrecks at night and Eddie and Jessica roll out, there are two separate frames, within two seconds of each other, showing a blurry shot of her crotch. Disney recalled the laserdisc and issued another disc, later claiming that it was an incorrectly painted cel. Oddly, they also stated that the cel in question could be seen on the new disc and on the VHS version, prompting many to raise the question "if it's on the VHS version too, why was only the laserdisc recalled, and if the new discs were reissued with the same flawed cel, why did they go to the trouble in the first place?". The best way to see this on VHS is with a 4-head or 6-head VCR, as these have a clearer pause function than a 2-head VCR with no interference such as noise bars and loss of color while paused.
A brief scene consisting of the toon Baby Herman giving a sexual gesture to a female (human) extra on the set of the opening cartoon 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.
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. He has provided copies of this list to anyone who requests it. Wolf also sued Disney in 2001 for unpaid earnings related to the film.
Anachronisms
Roger Rabbit takes place in Hollywood in 1947. With this in mind, several anachronistic errors are easily spotted. For instance the model sheets used for many of the characters in it, especially the Warner Bros. stars, who were on paid license from Warner Bros., were typically older ones that were not actually in use at the time (Bugs Bunny, noticeably, used an early sheet that was phased out of use at Warner Bros./Leon Schlesinger Pictures in 1943.) It could be, however, that these Toons are still around although retired from films. Also, several characters who were created after 1947 were included at the behest of the film crew; for example, the Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote appear because they are Robert Zemeckis' favorite cartoon characters. The appearance of post-1947 Toons can be explained by the idea that in the universe of the film, Toons are sentient beings who exist independent of humans and that certain Toons were around but hadn't started working in films yet.
There are some anachronisms in the film that aren't so easily explained by Roger Rabbit’s premise. In the scene where Judge Doom comes to the café looking for Roger, Angelo speaks up when he hears that there is a reward for the rabbit. He says: "Yeah, I've seen a rabbit", then he turns around and addresses thin air: "Say hello, Harvey." Many believe this is a reference to the James Stewart movie Harvey and perceive it as an error, because the movie came out in 1950 and Roger Rabbit takes place in 1947. However the stage version of Harvey came out on Broadway in 1944, to which, logically, Angelo could be referring. Further, the question remains whether Angelo, and the fellow café patrons, who clearly all get the joke, are the sort of people who attend the theater. Or how they could have traveled from Los Angeles to Broadway. Another error that can not be justified is the cartoon that plays in the theater where Eddie and Roger hide out in: Goofy Gymnastics, a Goofy cartoon from 1949. In the ending, Porky Pig claims to discover his famous stuttering "That's all folks!" line; but nearly all Looney Tunes cartoons ending with Porky saying that line were made before 1945.
Regarding the errors, writer Peter Seaman said that the aim of the film was "entertainment, not animation history" which explains why these anachronisms were overlooked.
Other discrepancies
Template:SectOR Who Framed Roger Rabbit also contains some striking inconsistencies in the internal logic of the film's fictional universe, all regarding the presentation of how toons behave and interact with the human world.
- In the scene were Judge Doom uses "the old 'Shave and a Haircut' trick" to force Roger out of hiding, he declares that once begun no toon can resist the desire to complete the song by singing "...two bits!" out loud. However, Doom himself is a toon, as are his Weasel henchmen, and yet none of these characters are similarly compelled to sing the concluding line, despite all being equally in earshot. One possible (albeit tenuous) explanation for this discrepancy might be that Doom was exaggerating that all toons share this compulsion, and that the habit actually only applies to comedic/musical or "funny animal" toons and thus could exclude toons drawn in the villainous mould as they are.
- When Eddie chases Maroon's killer into Toontown it is shown that when humans enter Toontown they apparently become subject to "toon physics". Eddie is shown being squashed like a human pancake against the floor of a rapidly-ascending elevator, standing in midair withough falling until he realises there is no floor beneath him, as well as managing to survive plunging dozens of stories and stopping suddenly when caught by his toon paramour. All this suggests that when humans are in Toontown their bodies take on toonlike properties of invulnerability. However, this is glaringly inconsistent with the central premise of Eddie's backstory and character motivation, which states that his brother was killed in Toontown when Judge Doom dropped a piano on his head. A possible fanwank around this would be to theorise that "toon physics" only apply to humans in Toontown as long as they are interacting with toon characters and toon objects. By this logic, if Judge Doom had dropped a real piano on Eddie's brother (as he does outside of Toontown when he kills Marvin Acme with a real safe) it could still have been fatal despite occuring in Toontown.
- A minor inconsistency involves toons' use of real versus "toon" weapons. In most cases toons (particularly the Weasels) are shown holding weapons from the real world, possibly with the indication that toon weapons would not be lethal against humans. This would partly explain why Eddie uses a toon gun when chasing Jessica Rabbit into Toontown, perhaps suggesting that the reverse also applies; that only toon weapons can harm toons. However, there are several moments in the film where the weapon usage is inconsistent. While the Weasels use “real” guns, there are several shots where they can be seen to use “toon” switchblades, as when they cut the cord suspending the “ton of bricks” above Roger's head. Also, when Jessica shoots past Eddie at Doom further down the alley, she is clearly holding a toon gun and yet it appears to fire real bullets.
- There is a shot where Eddie enters the aforementioned alley and his toon gun clearly lacks the animation used in the surrounding footage as he is holding a visibly solid prop. The real world explanation for all of these discrepancies is obviously that the technically challenging task of having toons manipulate real props was too difficult to be worthwhile in some brief shots. Within the fictional logic of the film, one could argue that toon switchblades could still be effective against inanimate real-world objects and that Jessica's toon gun could possibly still be loaded with (and fire) real bullets.
- It was established that blunt tramua does not affect toons. Early in the film, Roger has a refigerator dropped on his head. Shortly thereafter he willingly bangs a frying pan over his head repetedly with no ill effects: “no pain; no pain; no pain . . .” Yet, later in the film, Roger is knocked unconsious with a fryingpan by Jessica. This could be explained away by the fact that some things only happen, as Roger said earlier in the film, "If it's funny".
Main Cartoon Characters
The Weasels
- Smartass(Cartoon Character)
- Psycho(Cartoon Character)
- Wheezy(Cartoon Character)
- Greasy(Cartoon Character)
- Stupid(Cartoon Character)
Cartoon characters that make cameo appearances
Disney
- Mickey Mouse
- Minnie Mouse
- Donald Duck
- Daisy Duck
- Goofy
- Pluto
- Pete
- Horace Horsecollar
- Clarabelle Cow
- Clara Cluck
- Peter Pig
- Brer Bear from Song of the South.
- Hummingbirds from Song of the South
- Sis Moles from Song of the South
- Dumbo
- Mrs. Jumbo
- Casey Junior
- Crows from Dumbo
- Various Fantasia characters: broomsticks from The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a dancing hippo and ostrich from Dance of the Hours, mushrooms from Nutcracker Suite and cupids and a Pegasus from The Pastoral Symphony
- Jose Carioca from Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Pinocchio
- Jiminy Cricket
- The Witch from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Bambi
- The Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs
- The Reluctant Dragon
- Bill, the lizard with a ladder from Alice in Wonderland*
- Maleficent's goons from Sleeping Beauty*
- Mr. Toad from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad*
- The penguins from Disney's Mary Poppins*
- Peter from the Peter and the Wolf segment of Make Mine Music
- Tinkerbell*
- Sheep from So Dear To My Heart
Warner Bros.
- Bugs Bunny
- Daffy Duck
- Porky Pig
- The Road Runner*
- Wile E. Coyote*
- Yosemite Sam
- Speedy Gonzales*
- Tweety
- Sylvester
- Foghorn Leghorn
- Marvin the Martian*
MGM
Paramount/Max Fleischer
Walter Lantz
Screwy Squirrel and Chilly Willy are mentioned
(*) Denotes anachronisms; these characters (or, in the cases of characters such as Tinkerbell, the animated versions of them that appear in the film) were created after 1947.
External links
- Disney's official site for this film
- {{{2|{{{title|Who Framed Roger Rabbit}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
- Filmsite.org - Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- Dave Mewhinney's Pacific Electric Photos - Roger Rabbit Collection
- The Sad Tail ... I mean "Tale" ... of the stalled Roger Rabbit sequel
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 096-284445-4.
- Chuck Jones Conversations. Edited by Maureen Furniss. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-729-4.
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Template:Disney animated featuresde:Falsches Spiel mit Roger Rabbit es:¿Quién engañó a Roger Rabbit? fi:Kuka viritti ansan, Roger Rabbit? fr:Qui veut la peau de Roger Rabbit ? it:Chi ha incastrato Roger Rabbit? pt:Who Framed Roger Rabbit? ru:Кто подставил кролика Роджера? (фильм) sv:Vem satte dit Roger Rabbit