The Complicated History of Who Framed Roger Rabbit

when it comes to movies of the past which combine handdrawn animation with live action there's no lack of examples of course some are more famous than others and in certain cases poorly received and controversial but the technique has entertained audiences for well over a century however possibly the most iconic film to use this method was the 1988 Smash Hit Who Framed Roger Rabbit it's a movie full of impressive visuals fantastic storytelling and most most important to us for this episode a production history just as incredible as the film itself from the original version that was cancelled the production problems which nearly caused it to be canceled again and all the unconventional filming techniques that led to a Timeless classic so for once let's take a break from box office disasters and instead take a deep dive into the unconventional history of Who Framed Roger Rabbit's Journey to the big [Music] screen [Music] the story of Who Framed Roger Rabbit begins in 1981 with the publication of who censored Roger Rabbit by Gary K wolf according to the author inspiration for the novel came from his fascination with cartoons comic books and True Crime magazines as a kid then one day while watching 1970 serial commercials as an adult an idea began to form specifically it was the concept of cartoons interacting and talking with real people especially since it was portrayed as totally normal instead of you know somebody must have slipped something into my cereal because I'm talking to a cartoon tiger this observation inspired him to write a mystery novel about a human private detective and cartoon rabbit which ultimately became who censored Roger Rabbit unfortunately with its mixture of adult themes and kids cartoons most Publishers believed it was unmarketable and was rejected over 100 times eventually however author Gary K wolf was able to find one yes with St Martin's price and was officially published in June of 1981 to overall positive reviews now the eventual film adaptation was drastically altered from the original novel so it's worth covering just how different the book actually was first in this version Roger Rabbit is not the star of a cartoon film series but a comic strip and is also described as 6 feet tall the comic strip is owned by two Moguls known as the degi brothers Roco degi and Dominic Dei Eddie Valiant has virtually no backstory and is just a stereotypical grumpy private detective Roger Rabbit hires Eddie Valiant to investigate what basically amounts to a work dispute with the degi brothers which seems a little fishy but makes sense in the end oh yeah and when cartoons talk in real life they have word balloons just like in the comics which is the source of a ton of gags all throughout the book in this version it's set up that Jessica Rabbit recently left Roger as she believes he's a talentless hack and doesn't know what she ever saw in him the person she left him for was Roco degi of the degi Brothers comic strip who is actually her boyfriend before marrying Roger eventually Roger Rabbit winds up getting murdered not framed murdered and is killed the very same night as Rocko de grey which is the central mystery of the novel however it turns out the night Roger died and this is where things get really weird he produced a doppelganger to go shopping you see doppelgangers are mental projections cartoons have the ability to conjure and are used for Dangerous stuns such as getting flattened by Steamrollers this is the version of Roger Rabbit we spend most of our time with as Eddie Valiant his new quirky pal triy to solve the mystery of the real Roger Rabbit's death then comes the big twist as it turns out the real Roger Rabbit actually murdered Rocko de grei out of Revenge for Jessica going back to her ex going further his plan was to frame Edie Valiant for the murder and doppelganger Roger Rabbit was going to be his Alibi as if that wasn't bizarre enough Roger Rabbit was unknowingly in possession of a magic Genie which lived in what he thought was an ordinary tea kettle it turns out he accidentally wished for Jessica Rabbit to marry him but once the magic wore off she grew to despise him he also accidentally wished to be a famous cartoon which is why he's successful despite being described as a talentless hack the reason why he has a genie is a bit too complex to get into here but it once belonged to the degi brothers who were actually cartoons themselves used it to become human and own a famous comic strip yeah the book is pretty Bonkers but lo and behold this is actually an evil Genie and is the one who in fact murdered Roger Rabbit as far as Jessica Rabbit on the night of his death she was on her way to murder rabbit for herself out of Revenge for murdering her boyfriend Roco de grei but ran when she heard the gunshot the book ends with the genie defeated by Eddie Valiant which he does so by placing the magic tea kettle into a tank of water doppelganger Roger Rabbit admits to his deception as he was aware of the plot the entire time but shows zero remorse though he does confess Eddie is a decent human being and a standup guy on the last page because doppelgangers have a short lifespan Roger Rabbit is described as disintegrating into dust the book ends with Eddie Valiant opening a window to quote let the draft have Roger Remains the end so yeah in the original book both Roger Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit are gigantic with Roger committing one real murder getting murdered himself Jessica attempting to murder Roger Rabbit and the copy of Roger ultimately betraying Eddie Valiant after pages of buddy cop comedy and friendship building but this in no way stopped one very powerful person from believing the book had major onscreen potential president of the Walt Disney Company Ron Miller hello I'm Randy cardr and this is roner Randy how are you good to see you this is Randy great way to start the film you see in 1980 just under a year before hitting the shelves of bookstores a photoc copy of the manuscript for who censored Roger Rabbit was anonymously sent to Disney the book and a story analysis eventually wound up on the desk of Disney president Ron Miller who alongside Roy E Disney believed it had potential as a feature film now this probably doesn't sound like the kind of book Disney would have any interest in developing but the 1980s was the beginning of a whole new era it goes back to a few years earlier as most of their liveaction films began to seriously flounder at the box office their animated films while still big successes were also appealing to a much smaller demographic of theatergoers than in the past the reason for this was due to a growing opinion amongst teens and young adults that Disney films no matter the subject matter were for kids and uncool in the late '70s teens were flocking to movies like Rocky Jaws Star Wars Gree and Superman but Disney films like Herby Goes Bananas the cat from outer space and the Shaggy Dog District Attorney not so much out of my way excuse me ma'am watch out so Disney began to experiment with edgy or PG rated films such as the black hole which despite poor reviews from critics was a decent success around the same time as when development also began on The Chronicles of pran AKA The Black Cauldron this was to be Disney Disney's most mature animated film to date and was another acquisition spearheaded by Ron Miller there was also the incredibly ambitious Tron an Innovative liveaction animation hybrid that would be one of the first films to utilize computer Graphics imagery or CGI Disney was even in the process of establishing a new film division to release more adult oriented movies which would eventually become Touchstone pictures so Ron Miller was encouraging everybody at Disney to be on the lookout for edgier stories to adapt into fature films as if it was willed there by Fate that's precisely when who censored Roger Rabbit found its way to his desk part of what Drew him to the story was the prospect of combining live action with animation as the book was literally about humans living amongst cartoons this would hearken back to some of their most iconic films of the past using the same technique and allow animators a chance to push the medium even further but the first of Roger Rabbit's many production hurdles was that even by Disney's new hip and edgy standards the book was pushing things a bit aside from all the murdering I mentioned earlier there's also quite a bit of risque content with some pretty dark stuff regarding Jessica rabbit's past however even though some of the higher ups at Disney had reservations about adapting the story Ron Miller wasn't too concerned after all most of Disney's iconic animated films also had dark and disturbing sequences in their Source material one example is the death of the evil queen in Snow White who's forced to dance wearing flaming hot iron slippers until she drops dead also don't look up with these were actually based on unless you want some serious nightmare fuel in the original tale of Sleeping Beauty she gives birth to a pair of twins with an already married King before she wakes up Cinderella stepsisters cut off parts of their feet to try to fit inside the gloss slipper Pinocchio kills Jiminy Cricket Peter Pan kills some of the Lost Boys to keep them from growing up you get the picture with who censored Roger Rabbit all they had to do was retain the True Crime Story with humans living amongst cartoons and retool the rest to make it more familyfriendly one of the most outspoken proponents of the acquisition was Disney's head of liveaction development Tom willhite who believed it had major onscreen poent potential he was the one overseeing the production on Tron and felt another ambitious film utilizing both live action and animation could help energize their struggling feature film division in fact by most accounts Tom will height was the one who gave Ron Miller the final push to acquire the property despite some Kickback within the company thus in 1981 Disney purchased the rights for who censored Roger Rabbit for the price of $35,000 or just over $100,000 today the adaptation then received a budget of $12 million and officially began pre-production fall as Who Framed Roger Rabbit uh first the premise I suppose uh basically to tell them that Roger Rabbit is a liveaction picture in which half the cast is made up of animated characters uh it's based on the premise that cartoon characters really live they're not drawn but they exist in this world just like human beings do to oversee the production of Roger Rabbit was the aformentioned Tom will height who was one of the driving forces behind early development of the project to produce the film Tom wi height chose Disney staff producer Mark stent who had recently come off writing the upcoming summer blockbuster cond man at least Disney was hoping it would be Mark Sturdivant was also the one who had gotten the book in original story analysis to Ron Miller and felt it was a chance to integrate live action with animation as more than just a gimmick now because of the combination of the two artistic mediums choosing Roger Rabbit's director of Animation was just as important to production as its liveaction director so Tom will height suggested they go with one of Disney's promising young animators Daryl van sitters prior to Roger Rabbit Daryl van sitters was a graduate of the prestigious cell arts animation program and was officially hired by Disney in 1976 under the leadership and mentorship of Disney's top veteran animators he alongside the other new recruits were trained as the new generation of Disney artists meant to take over the mantle Daryl vitter's first contribution to Disney was on Pete's Dragon another liveaction animation hybrid and was also an animator on The Fox and the Hound he then went on to direct fun with Mr future which was a canceled Epcot TV special that evolved into a short film this is around the time he was offered to come aboard Roger Rabbit to which he happily accepted other young animators assigned to this version of the film were Randy cartright the late Joe ramp and future Frozen director Chris Buck artist Mike Gio was the film's character designer and was the one who solidified this version of Roger Rabbit's appearance but since the interactions between the live actors and animated characters were integral to the ambitious project a number of tests were commissioned as a proof of concept you have beautiful features so strong and well defined M chipped out of granite that's me you will take my case won't you not a chance what do you mean not a chance now the actors chosen for this version of Roger Rabbit were more than likely just for the screen tests for example the standin for Eddie Valiant publicity and test photos was a Disney animator by the name of Mike Gabriel however for the voice of Roger Rabbit himself this was more or less set in stone for the the final film to play this part was to be the late actor Paul Rubin whose then largely unknown character of PeeWee Herman was just about to reach Monumental Fame thank you Mr Valiant I'll guard them with my life and knock off the Mr Valiant stuff call me Eddie like everybody else oh yeah thank you Eddie when it came to Roger Rabbit's story writers Jeffrey price and Peter Seaman were chosen to adopt the book into a screenplay previously they'd written one of Disney's first ever adult Centric films trench coat which in part led to Touchstone pictures as far as who was to direct all the liveaction aspects of Roger Rabbit was filmmaker Robert zamus well almost you see it turns out Disney reached out to zamus to possibly Helm the feature who at this point in his career wasn't all that well known his first two feature films had been on want to hold your hand and used cars which were both critical successes but flops at the box office although it's important to mention that the executive producer of both of those movies and mentor to Robert zamus was none other than director Steven Spielberg their relationship began a few years earlier as Spielberg saw his 1972 USC short film a field of honor and was incredibly impressed this led him to Executive produce his first two feature films and was how zamus wound up on Disney's Radars Roger Rabbit's prospective live action director now the term that I use are uh Mentor you guys are my mentor mentors this guy helped me in my to give me my uh break as a writer and this guy my break as a director which is uh why I'm in the middle anyway Robert zamus did have an interest in joining Roger Rabbit and was even invited to Walt Disney Studios to see all the production work done thus far however negotiations ultimately fell through but precisely why is a bit moddel some sources claim it was due to the poor box off his performance of his two previous films which gave Disney a case of cold feet the other reason is from the director himself as he asserts Disney just wasn't all that serious about the project and failed to show him they had the resources to do it properly another reason is given by by producer Mark stent who said zam's vision for the film and darl Van sitters weren't properly aligned although curiously within a 1983 Disney news magazine it goes out of the way to list Robert zamus as the film's liveaction Director even though it was never official directors John Landis Ron Howard and Joe Dante were also serious contenders but in the end there was never a live-action director involved with this version of the movie but you might be wondering just what was the story of this version of Roger Rabbit going to be to quickly summarize the first incarnation of the script Roger Rabbit and his wife Jessica Rabbit are the stars of rabbit on the lamb the new movie from the degy Brothers cartoon studio in Hollywood when the producer of that film is murdered Roger becomes the primary suspect and teams up with private detective Eddie Valiant to prove his innocence eventually there's a major twist as it turns out Jessica was having an affair with the producer to secure her part in the film but upon learning her part was going to be cut murders that same producer and Frames her husband Roger Rabbit Jessica Rabbit winds up getting her just desserts with Eddie Val and Roger becoming Partners in a private investigator business however problems for this version began to unfold with animation Director darl Van sitters as he quote really hated the script most of his objections had to do with an overabundance of gags and humor especially the ones he viewed as inor taste and stereotypical but more importantly he disliked how they made Roger Rabbit more of a goofy sidekick whose presence was often for comedic relief and rarely taken seriously at all this was in stark contrast to how darl van sitters envisioned Roger as the hard and soul of the movie A misunderstood sad clown of sorts who evoked pity and sadness he was also strongly opposed to the inclusion of Toontown both in terms of a plot device and as a reference to where the tunes came from this stemmed from his feeling that the movie should have a much more serious undertone with avoiding over-the-top animation dned out of place Tex Avery style gags what's a Tex Avery style gag well since it is important information for later it refers to the comedic style of Animation director Tex Avery you see back in the 1930s the Looney Tunes were basically a Shameless ripoff of Disney's animated shorts they even initially featured a character named Foxy the Fox until Disney threatened a lawsuit for the extreme similarities to Mickey [Music] Mouse but then Tex Avery was signed on by Warner Brothers as the Loney Tunes new animation director and took the series in a different direction all together this was done in collaboration with other animators like Chuck Jones Bob clampit Robert mckimson and associate director Frank tashlin under Tex Aver's leadership they introduced a new kind of sense of humor with maniacal cartoon violence fourth wall breaking interactions with the audience satire irony and a general sense of well lunacy now Tech Avery wound up leaving Warner Brothers over creative differences before the Looney Tunes truly took off and began producing cartoons for MGM Instead This is where he developed his signature comedic style even further and would also create a host of new characters and now iconic comedy routines and gags back over at Warner Brothers those who were mentored by Tex Avery on the Looney Tunes used his comedic sensibilities as a foundation to develop theirs examples include Chuck Jones antics of Wy coyote and the Roadrunner the shenanigans of fris freeling Twitty Bird and Sylvester or Bob clamp with signature of turning cartoons into liquid other shows that came after like Tom and Jerry were also influenced by this brand of humor as some of those involved had also come off the Looney Tunes so all the above gets lumped into the term of Tex a reanimation humor which was much more aggressive than the comedy within Disney shorts when it came to Roger Rabbit darl V sitters wasn't altogether against using teex Avery humor but was strongly opposed to how much how often and the way the original writers used it in the script he also felt the used Tex Avery gags and animation stereotypes as a crotch and lacked a true understanding and respect for the art form in the words of character designer Mike G van sitters believed animation was hanging on by a thread and wanted the film to be taken seriously this came from a very real concern as animation was seen by most of the public as a slowly dying art form designated for Saturday morning cartoons and serial commercials another major roadblock for this incarnation of the movie was a lack of collaboration from other Studios regarding their characters you see the original Roger Rabbit script called for a bunch of appearances and cameos of famous cartoons however aside from Woody the Woodpecker every other request was denied even at the behest of Roy Disney himself so in the middle of 1983 between licensing issues script headaches and friction between the writers and an director production on Roger Rabbit began to falter to get the film back on track a search was held to find a collaborator outside of Disney and well established in the film industry to join the Endeavor this led to none other than director Steven Spielberg who was asked to come aboard as the film's executive producer one of the most interesting things that I've read about you was a headline which said Steven Spielberg is making movies and a fortune while he's still growing up he's really just a big kid is that how you see yourself is that a reasonable comment I think it's reasonable me we have to understand how how do you define a a big kid now for those unaware when the initial development of Roger Rabbit was going on at Disney Steven Spielberg's career as a filmmaker was skyrocketing he directed box office hit after box office hit and was quickly proving himself as the most successful director in Hollywood history even the one movie he directed that was a critical flop the World War II comedy 1941 was able to make a substantial profit despite the harsh reviews ET the Extraterrestrial was his most recent film which wound surpassing Star Wars as the highest grossing film of all time he had also just begun his Venture as a producer first with the movies of Robert zamus as mentioned earlier and then in 1982 with the horror film portug though to be fair most assert he basically directed the movie himself without official credit as director because in this case he was very Hands-On so Spielberg was looking for even more films to produce and assist in getting made which is when he was approached for Roger Rabbit by most accounts he was very interested and was even sent a few mettes the script and test footage various meetings also took place at Spielberg's production offices at amlin and for a time it did seem like he was going to come aboard unfortunately the prospective partnership ultimately fell through possibly due to his producing fee being much higher than Disney was willing to spend although funnily enough at this point Spielberg was unaware they had reached out to Robert zamus a year or so earlier and zamus was unaware they were now reaching out to Steven Spielberg but without either of the two filmmakers Roger Rabbit's production had a bit of a change of course as screenwriters Jeffrey price and Peter Seaman walked away in their place were writers Lao Gans and babalo Mandel who had just written the screenplay for Touchstone picture's first official release Splash this version of Roger Rabbit was much more complex and a bit overstuffed dealing with World War II Nazis and had a much more serious undertone it featured Roger Rabbit as a hasb been a quirky cartoon who was once a star but is now down on his luck the sad clown of sorts darlan sitters had wanted it was also much more in the genre of film Noir with the drama and action elevated much higher than the previous script there was still plenty of Comedy but the jokes were drastically toned down with any Tex Avery type of humor used sparingly also now is a good time to mention the source for this and quite a bit of the information in this episode pulling a rabbit out of a hat by Ross Anderson the author was also a tremendous help in both researching this episode and tracking down visuals so I recommend his book for an even more thorough Deep dive into Roger Rabbit's Journey to the big screen now to quite a few of those involved this incarnation of the script was actually seen as an improvement with the director of Animation believing it to be more respectful of cartoons producer Mark stent was also a fan of this new take so the entire screenplay was storyboarded with additional teston but just as work on this version of the movie seemed to pick up steam and without any warning Roger Rabbit's production units was suddenly shut down now we're entering Daryl van sitter's room who is working on Roger Rabbit explain something about Roger Rabbit Daryl Daryl's good at this [Music] stuff what's these he's working harder than he was in the last film this is Roger someday you might see him someday you might not that's the way things go around this place this is Captain Cleaver nice huh this is a hammer clay this is what I've been using and uh that's it that's it that's Roger Rabbit that's about all that you're ever going to see on Roger Rabbit the reason for the shutdown of Roger Rabbit's production units isn't entirely straightforward as there were a number of factors at play one reason had to do with the head of liveaction development Tom will height who had lost a lot of the influence he once had with the ambitious project you see in 1983 Disney chose to reform its liveaction film division as Walt Disney Pictures Tom will height was given the title of Vice vice president with former 20th Century Fox executive Richard berer named as president and his Superior however the two were constantly buting heads and the power Tom will height once had over the division's projects such as Roger Rabbit went out the window to make matters worse though far from a flop Disney Executives were sorely disappointed by the box office returns of Tron since Tom will height oversaw its production and was the one who pushed Disney to acquire the project he was the scapegoat there was also the issue of the film's budget of $12 million as it turned out this wouldn't be nearly enough for a cartoon liveaction hybrid of its magnitude so with all the delays hiccups and unavoidable budget increase Tom will height lost a lot of support for keeping Roger Rabbit a flow and wound up leaving Disney a few months after it was shut down although fun fact a few years later he was the driving force behind the production of the Brave Little Toaster a movie that for '90s kids like me holds a ton of nostalgia although in retrospect it's also Relentless in showing the main characters in a state of constant fear and anxiety and I'm sure led to at at least one person's irrational fear of air conditioners broken appliances and clowns anyway another reason that led to Roger Rabbit shutdown had to do with former Disney president Ron Miller remember he was a major proponent of Roger Rabbit very early on but with his rise to CEO in 1983 his priorities shifted and seemed to have lost interest in the project so when the new president of Walt Disney Pictures expressed concerns about the adaptation and with Tom will Hey by the wayside Roger Rabbit no longer had Ron Miller support but more than anything at this point in time Disney just wasn't an a position to pull off such a Cutting Edge and ambitious film you see underneath the surface there was a growing tension between the older and more seasoned animators and artist at Disney and the new generation of talent from Cal Arts the veterans at Disney wanted to keep animation and storytelling very traditional and to stick with what always worked for them in the past as one high-ranking Disney veteran once said we may bore you but we'll never shock you conversely the new generation of artists and animators at Disney wanted to innovate and push boundaries within the medium and were often seen as overzealous and naive due to their pent up Creative Energy the culmination of this friction was most evident with the disastrous production of the Black Cauldron where the two generations of Disney artist buted heads over almost every aspect of the film it was a tug-of war between conflicting ideas character designs story Direction and who was really in charge which led to a revolving door of artists animators and directors so in the same vein Roger Rabbit would have required everybody at Disney to work together on a singular vision for the film but as evidenced by the production troubles on the Black Cauldron this was easier said than done in fact any true form of leadership within the animation Department was virtually non-existent even with the animation under the direction of darl Van sitters Roger Rabbit would have almost certainly succumbed to the same problem too many cooks in the creative kitchen Disney's liveaction feature film division wasn't up to the task either as it was too stuck in the past and cut off from the rest of the entertainment industry more often than not instead of innovating or exploring new territory those in charge were still using the Mantra what would Walt Disney do the attempt to Wrangle in Spielberg was a step in the right direction as someone of his caliber outside of Disney would have helped to solve this issue of course that didn't happen so the lack of a strong driving force to oversee the film's production hurdles proved to be its detriment moving on a short time after the shutdown of this version of Roger Rabbit producer Mark stent was another one to leave Disney animation director darl Vin sitters and Roger Rabbit's character designer Mike G did stay at Disney but were moved off the main lot instead they were reassigned to a special animation unit in Burbank California as their frustration with Disney's animated feature film department was no secret this is where they were put on sport Goofy and soccer Mania which was an attempt to revitalize the classic sport goofy shorts however the two never gave up hope on Roger Rabbit with their fingers crossed work on the ambitious film would one day resume they even put a cameo of their version of Roger into a scene of sport goofy but unbeknownst to them this would be his last official appearance ever what little interest if any Ron Miller had left in Roger Rabbit would also go out the window as after a controversial green mail Scandal he was ousted from Disney in September of 1984 the rest of the artists and animators involved would also move on to other projects such as the in development Bassel of Baker Street AKA The Great Mouse Detective so by all accounts the ambitious liveaction animation hybrid was dead in the water or so it seemed so I always remember my first day at Disney when I um I showed up and I went to Michael's office and uh he said come over here I want to show you something and I walked over and he was looking out his window he pointed down to uh the ink and paint building and he said you know what they do down there and I said no he said well that's where they make the animated movies I went really he said yes and he said and that's your problem the story of Roger Rabbit picks back up in September of 1984 with the hiring of Michael De Eisner and Frank GW as president and CEO of the waltt Disney Company you see with the expulsion of Ron Miller a CEO it was decided to look outside the company for his replacement usually they would have looked inward either those who had risen the ranks at Disney or someone from within the Disney Family such as Ron Miller who was Walt Disney son-in-law but for the first time in the company's history there was an external search specifically for those who were well established in the film industry this was done as an effort to save their floundering feature film division ASAP and to address their Achilles heel which was lack of relevancy and connections to the rest of Hollywood so for the new president and CEO of Disney they chose two Executives from Paramount Pictures Michael Eisner and Frank Wells two other Outsiders brought into the company was theater director Peter Schneider and Paramount's production president Jeffrey kenberg Peter Schneider became Disney's vice president of feature animation with kenberg put in charge of the company's entire Motion Picture division as a whole now at some point the new Disney Executives were made aware of the abandoned Roger Rabbit project which hadn't seen any of official development in about a year between the four completed scripts and numerous pre-production tests there was enough to convince Jeffrey kenberg Peter Schneider and eventually Michael Eisner it was worth developing further but they also realized in Roger Rabbit's current state Disney had neither the resources or the corporate Manpower for producing it without outside help as fate would have it eventually the executives were made aware that Steven Spielberg at one point at least had shown interest in the project not only that but they also learned filmmaker Robert zamus had once been considered as its director however now Zas had directed not just one but two major Hollywood Blockbusters with Romancing the Stone and Back to the Future Romancing the Stone was a throwback to classic TV serials of the past and was the fifth highest grossing film of 1984 Back to the Future was an even bigger success with a blend of 1950s Nostalgia and science fiction and was the highest grossing film of 1985 it also just so happened to be executive produced by Steven Spielberg who is intimately involved in the entire production from start to to finish so the feeling over Disney was that if there was any chance of Roger Rabbit living up to its potential it was through the PowerHouse of Steven Spielberg and Robert zus the power of Spielberg's name is such that these days any film with which he's Associated seems to become automatically a colossal box office hit such indeed has been the case in America with Back to the Future which took even more money than the popular but deplorable Rambo I reckon that if you were making a film and you let it be known that Spielberg had merely visited the set you could look forward to box office records in a case of true Serendipity just as Disney was toying with the idea of Reviving Roger Rabbit its future filmmakers were discussing the very same project you see one day over at Steven Spielberg's amlin production offices he had a visitor Robert zus by sheer coincidence Spielberg also had a copy of the Roger Rabbit script sitting on his desk which was possibly sent by kenberg to renew his interest the script evidently caught the eyes zcas during the visit and this sparked a conversation about how the two had almost signed on to the film years earlier it also turned out each was unaware the other had been asked by Disney to be involved and how both were attracted to the project the discussion led to Spielberg suggesting should the opportunity arise that they could possibly do it together back over at Disney the original director of animation for Roger Rabbit Daryl V sitters was now in between projects as he had been taken off and replaced as the Director of sport Goofy and soccer Mania you see evidently initial Praise of his work turned into harsh criticism once it was finished and was deemed as unreleasable this more than likely had to do with office Politics the new change in Disney management and the company's Venture into television animation around the same time others say it was due to his animation style which was quite a bit different from Disney's animated shorts of the past either way when Roger Rabbit was once again in talks as a possible feature film Daryl V sitters was once again attached as its animation director a short time later Disney officially reached out to Robert zamus and Steven Spielberg about the project and a meeting was arranged over at Ulin entertainment to represent Disney and the skit together Jeffrey kenberg chose Daryl Vin sitters Mike GI and Peter Schneider in attendance would also be Steven Spielberg Robert zamis Cathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall so basically the most powerful people in Hollywood the Gathering was of course regarding Roger Rabbit's future and both Spielberg and zamus were very interested in coming aboard but and this is a big butt according to Peter Schneider Steven Spielberg had absolutely no faith in Disney's creative contributions whatsoever keep in mind this was before the Disney Renaissance Era and their last animated feature film was the box office disaster The Black Cauldron their most recent live-action feature film was also a dad with Disney's One Magic Christmas so neither of Disney's feature film divisions had produced anything remarkable in years and this was a major sticking point in the meeting to make matters worse soccer Mania was shown as Daryl vitter's most recent examples an animation director and it didn't go well both Robert zekis and Steven Spielberg were extremely unimpressed with the cartoon which only further amplifi their hesitation to join Roger Rabbit at least with darl v sitters attached as animation director by his own admission zamus was also uncomfortable with the animation director as the two had altogether drastically different ideas on how to approach the film for one zamus wanted to bring back the original writers Jeffrey price and Peter Seaman as he much preferred their version of the script zamus also felt an abundance of Tex Avery gags and humor was essential to making Roger Rabbit work which if you remember van sitters had been opposed to suffice it to say it was all too clear the live action director and animation director were not destined for a partnership so before negotiations went any further as a way to keep zamis and Spielberg interested darl V sitters was taken off Roger Rabbit once and for all after nearly half a decade of intimate work with the project he understandably felt betrayed by the decision and for those at Disney not having his back the rest of Daryl vitter's time at the Mouse's house was filled with tension and a growing friction with Peter Schneider didn't help so 5 months after that fateful meeting he left Disney to be an animation director over at Warner Brothers and would have no further involvement with Roger Rabbit whatsoever Roger Rabbit's character designer Mike G also joined sitters over at wner Brothers although he would return to Disney in the 9s during the Renaissance Era in a way this gave Roger Rabbit a clean slate as aide from the screenwriters everybody who worked on the first iteration was either off the project or gone from Disney entirely that said Spielberg and zamus did eventually agree to come aboard but with the stipulation that Disney would have virtually no involvement Beyond financing and distribution of course this meant finding a new director of Animation ASAP ultimately it was decided to look outside of Disney as they felt the younger animators lacked experience and more seasoned animators were quote asleep at the wheel luckily however the search didn't take long as the filmmaker soon became aware of a brilliant animation director named Richard Williams Bob zus said to me right away he said listen I want to do I want to have three things in the animation Disney articulation so Disney skill if you like uh Warner Brothers characters the characters should look like they came out of Warner Brothers shorts and teex Avery humor but not as brutal for just a bit of backstory Richard Williams got a start within the field of Animation in the 1950s primarily working on TV commercials then came a tital wave of critical success with his animated short films the little island and love me love me love me which won numerous prestigious Awards this enabled him to establish Richard Williams animation a small Production Studio in London before long Richard Williams and his team became the go-to for highquality commercial animation work producing cartoons for countless tv ads which garnered even more Awards Within These he often implemented the Tex Avery style of Animation mentioned earlier both in terms of characterization movement and gags he and his team also did the iconic opening sequence for the Pink Panther and received an Academy Award for a new rendition of the Christmas carol but as far as what got him involved with Roger Rabbit it was two very specific specific and groundbreaking projects a series of fan to commercials featuring Disney characters and the thief and the cobbler now the entire story of the trbl and complex history of the thief on the cobbler is way too much to get into here so for those with an interest Beyond this episode check out the documentary Persistence of Vision by filmmaker Kevin Shrek it also has a ton of archival footage by artist and filmmaker Garrick Gilchrist some of which is repurposed here so I recommend it for a proper Deep dive into the subject but long story very short the thief in the gobler was Richard Williams incredibly ambitious animated feature film its first iteration goes all the way back to the 1960s which began production as nazarine however in the 70s he wound up losing the rights to the book series the story was based on and had to start from scratch over the years the film had a ton of setbacks story changes and even name changes and was largely self- financed by Williams with the profits of his commercial work then sometime around 1982 he was given $100,000 to complete a 10-minute sequence which was the most elaborate within the entire film it took well over a year to finish with two Miss deadlines and over twice the estimated budget which caused investors to back out of any future involvement nevertheless the sequence was hailed as one of the most impressive Feats of animation ever put on film it was so impressive in fact that it was eventually screened for the vice president of Lucas film Robert Watts Robert Watts then brought the film back to California to screen it for George Lucas who was unfortunately not interested in backing the film but then Robert thoughts took the sequence to Steven Spielberg over at amlin just as him and zus were looking for a new animation director and Spielberg was incredibly impressed going further he'd also been just as impressed with the animation within a new series of fanta commercials which by another sheer coincidence had also been done by Richard [Music] Williams now now the reason why these commercials stood out to Spielberg was because of how they showcased a new form of innovative animation techniques you see liveaction films mixed with animation always had a major limitation and that the animation itself never seamlessly blended into the world it was drawn into for example in Pete's Dragon the lighting of the surrounding environment doesn't always fall into the dragon realistically he's uniformly lit in almost every scene and is virtually unaffected by shadows and highlights of the liveaction footage no matter what lighting is around him the dragon also appears flat without any real Dimension or depth and appears sort of pasted into the three-dimensional environment which of course he was this was also the case for commercials of the time in that the cartoons lacked realistic shadows and highlights to better match up with the liveaction world enter Chris not an effects artist at Richard Williams animation who came up with an ingenious new technique to rectify this issue we'll have a much more detailed and thorough breakdown of this method a bit later as it requires examples from the eventual film but to overly simplify for now it was basic basically a way to apply sculpted tones shadows and highlights onto the animation itself this achieved a much more realistic blending of the two mediums and also gave the animation a rounded three-dimensional look the technique also utilized fog filters and multiple exposures to change focus and sharpness of the cartoons which further helped it blend into the liveaction environment so between the thief and the cobbler sequence in these Fanta commercials Spielberg and zus knew just who they wanted for Roger Rabbit's animation director the filmmakers then took a plain trip to London as they were determined to convince Richard Williams to sign on to the project initially however the animation director was incredibly reluctant as he had always had a sort of disdain for Disney bureaucracy and big studios in general what ultimately convinced him to join Roger Rabbit were the words of producer Robert watts and that if the film were a success it would help him secure funding to complete the thief and the cobbler he would also be allowed to choose his own team of artists and animators and instead of having to work in the US could do his work in London at the newly established Walt Disney UK in his own words Richard Williams said quote the last thing I ever wanted to do was Roger Rabbit I did the rabbit in order to be bankable nevertheless with Williams on board one of his early contributions was a total redesign of the cartoon rabbit the most recent version had actually been done by artist Mike G before leaving Disney as zamus had asked for a rendition that resembled Michael J fox but instead of using that or the original version Robert zamus commissioned Richard Williams to create a new iteration of the character from scratch so he used a combination of Bugs Bunnies body and cheeks droopy hair Porky Pig's bow tie Goofy's pants 1930s Mickey Mouse's gloves and the color scheme of an American flag the end result was a mixture of classic Warner Brothers characters and Disney characters and there were virtually no revisions to Richard Williams initial design but there was still the matter of a rather important question could Roger Rabbit as a feature film even work so I said to Bob I know you can use a moving camera we have to draw every frame and we have to draw every frame in perspective as the camera's coming closer going around him so there a lot of work for us and very expensive but that's going to make it work you see for the filming of Roger Rabbit Robert zamus wanted to have the ability to move the camera without restricting the action or cinematography however this went against most liveaction animated films of the past which would either lock the camera down to one place or stick to simple pans left and right there were a few exceptions of course but the unspoken rule was to move the camera as little as possible zamus wanted to break this rule which meant the animation process would be much more expensive far more labor intensive and altogether tedious he also envisioned every interaction between the cartoon characters and liveaction characters to be as realistic as possible in the past these effects were also restricted to simple gimmicks and camera tricks which for the time was impressive but zamus wanted to improve upon this with new mechanical devices and Cutting Edge technology so before proceeding any further the filmmakers decided to put together a short proof of concept test now the film's production decisions were to be handled by amlin entertainment but Disney was supplying all the cash and extra support this is where production manager and producer Don Han comes into the picture as he was assigned by Peter Schneider to manage the animation Department spending he was given the job do in part to his experience on Pete's Dragon a decade earlier in which he served as an assistant animation director for the Roger Rabbit test sequence he was able to negotiate $100,000 or close to a million dollar today to produce a one minute short The Hope was to convince Disney to invest even more into the film as the newly estimated budget wasn't $12 million but upwards of $30 million if given the go-ahead this would make it the most expensive animated film ever made of course if the test wasn't a success Disney would simply cut their losses and finally move on from the project once and for all but thankfully they wouldn't have to Roger what the hell are you doing here I need a place to hide I'm in trouble Ed why' you run in case you haven't noticed I'm a rabbit right and you're not going to get away from me again this time are you of course my lady [Music] never the concept test wound up surpassing everybody's Expectations by far and was proof the ambitious project could actually work the test was especially well received by Steven Spielberg who believed it was nothing short of groundbreaking in fact he referred to it as one of two historic achievements in film he'd ever personally witnessed for himself the first one being the special effects test for Star Wars and this one for Roger Rabbit there was also another test done for the first iteration of Jessica Rabbit although footage of this one has yet to see the light of day but the tests were enough to give Disney confidence to fully back the film and Who Framed Roger Rabbit was officially given the go-head to begin production as far as who was chosen to play the character of Roger Rabbit the part went to an actor who was also a comedian but by the name of Charles fer in addition to his comedy routines he also appeared in quite a few major TV shows and was also cast as Dr King in the horror classic a nightmare in Elm Street Roger Rabbit was to be his first ever starring role in a feature film or at least his voice would be although he did have a costume made so he could dress like the character on set he wore the costume every single day which led to a rumor amongst other Productions that this is how Roger Rabbit would appear in the final film well I just approached this like I would approach any Ro I don't consider this to be a voice of or if anything it had to be categorized it's off camera acting I'm just there doing that preparing the same way I would prepare for any role casting the part of Eddie Valiant was a bit more challenging as it was first offered to Harrison Ford Chevy Chase Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy however Harrison Ford was too expensive Chevy Chase wasn't interested the Enigma known as Bill Murray couldn't be reached and Eddie Murphy thought the movie was destined to be a disaster a slew of other actors were also considered and some actors like Ed Harris and James Wood were even screen tested but no one seemed to fit the part finally Steven Spielberg and Robert zamus Came Upon Bob Hoskins Who is fairly welln to UK audiences but not so much in the US hoskin's first major role in a feature film was in the crime drama good long Friday and just prior to Roger Rabbit another crime drama named Mona Lisa his performance in the film was getting Oscar buzz and caught the attention of the filmmakers and after a very impressive audition was cast as Eddie Valiant in another crime drama Romancing the Stone actress Kathleen Turner would voice Jessica Rabbit who did the film as a favor and asked Robert zamus to not be given official credit or so The Story Goes to play the part of Dolores was actress Joanna Cassidy who had also appeared in the science fiction classic Blade Runner a few years prior but before going forward we have to talk a little bit about the script because the newest version now featured a villain by the name of Judge Doom if you remember from earlier the original screenwriters for darl Vin sitter Roger Rabbit were given a second chance by Robert zamus as he much preferred their interpretation of the book but while the overall tone was kept as well as the cartoon producers murder the story itself took an even bigger departure from the original novel it was now inspired by the real life great Transportation conspiracy long story very short back in the 1930s and 40s public transportation in the city of Los Angeles was done by way of Pacific electric red cars then at the height of their popularity a corporation by the name of national city lines gained controlling interest in the Los Angeles Railway system over the next decade or so the city's trolley cars and street car Network was systematically replaced with vehicle transportation and buses not only that but this also led to a rise in the construction of freeways gas stations tire stores auto part stores service stations Etc however by no coincidence the controlling investors in National City lines was General Motors Firestone Tire and standard oil so the conspiracy was and still is that these major companies sought out to destroy the public trolley car system solely for their own financial gain this became a central plot for Who Framed Roger rabbit only in this version the corporation was a fictional company by the name of Cloverleaf the owner of this company was the villainous judge Doom who was originally revealed as the one who killed Bambi's mother mother he was also to have had a pet vulture named Vol who alongside the weasels was to be one of Judge Doom's evil henchmen his pet vulture made it so far into the script's development that it was actually part of a judge Doom action figure which was probably a bit confusing to those who would eventually see the finished vultur lless film the creation of Judge Doom was also a way to give Eddie valiant's character a deeper backstory but just in case somebody watching hasn't seen the movie I won't go into why as it's a massive spoiler the last major change that had to do with judge Doom was the introduction of dip a special concoction made to kill a cartoon which most had thought was previously impossible also fun fact the original demonstration of dip was on a cute and cuddly gopher who begs for his life as he screams bloody murder and dissolves on screen as far as the actor who was to play judge Doom the filmmakers initially wanted Tim Curry however he proved a bit too scary when doing his audition and they feared he would also be too scary for kids Monty Python's John CLE also auditioned for the role but he was deemed not scary enough but then Robert zamus reached out to actor Christopher Lloyd whose rise to fame began in the 70s with the television sitcom taxi his first feature film debut was in one Fu over the cuckoo nest with his most recent casting arguably his most iconic as Doc Brown and Robert zamas is Back to the Future thankfully he was willing to take on the role of another eccentric character and was cast as the infamous judge Doom for the film's music zamus once again chose his collaborator on both Romancing the Stone and Back to the Future Alan sylvestri although unlike his past films this time he was to create a score that balanced film Noir with cartoon zaniness which was no easy task but this leads us into the filming of Roger Rabbit in November of 1986 and would prove to be one of the most ambitious films ever attempted to be put on screen things we breaking his door down Dames What dames Jessica the only one for me you'll see we'll Rise Above This ping picadillo we're going to be happy again you got that happy PP now unlike the movies animation troubles we'll get to in a few minutes filming of the liveaction portion of Roger Rabbit was drama-free aside from the drama within the actual movie but just because there wasn't any major onset drama doesn't mean it was any less difficult far from it to break it down is simp simple as possible the scenes were first meticulously rehearsed using full-sized rubber sculptures these quasi stand-ins for the cartoon characters also had precisely the same proportions of their eventually animated counterparts this would give the actors a better idea of sight lines and how to properly mime interactions with realism it was also used to ensure proper framing with the eventual cartoons in camera and gauge how onset lighting would affect characters in the scene when actually filming the sequences they often utilized mechanical effects and puppeteering technique the person in charge of the mechanical aspects was George Gibbs who devised countless Contraptions to simulate cartoons interacting with physical objects these devices were built just big enough to function but small enough to later be drawn over by the animators this gave the illusion of the cartoons interacting with the objects for themselves which on this level of intricacy hadn't really been done before there were also props and parts of the set that had to explode or break at precisely the right second with the cartoons eventually drawn as the source one of the more complex effects was an elaborate mechanical suit which was warn by actor Bob Hoskins to make it appear as if Roger was hiding underneath now that you're in this Bob you know I guess we're committed to shooting this I hope you went to the bathroom it's Bladers and it's like things that stick in you and things that you know pure your skin and oh God it's murder some of the more intricate Illusions were the puppeteering effects which was led by the film's chief puppet Dave barklay all in all there were seven performers on set every single day and upwards of 17 for the movie's more elaborate scenes involving multiple cartoons holding real props however by far the film's most complicated sequence was the Inc and paint club which involved a stage built 6 ft off the ground the idea was for the club to have cartoon penguin waiters going table to table which required elaborate choreography of the puppeteers below and actors above there were also puppeteers controlling the wires of the eventual octopus for a complex bar shot and special mechanical puppetry for Daffy and Donald's wacky musical number even the keys on the piano were mechanically controlled to identically match the eventual music played by the eventual cartoons but now it's time to move on to the movies animation troubles which came dangerously close to making all this hard work and Ingenuity go to waste you see as mentioned earlier Disney established offices for the production of Roger Rabbit in London England these offices were within a building known as The Forum or Walt Disney Studios UK this was also where the film's animation director moved most of his own team as Richard Williams had final say over who was hired onto the project a handful of animators on the movie such as Andrea deia Phil nibbling and Dave spafford were from Disney however the rest were either part of Williams animation team already or hired specifically for Roger Rabbit this was due to Robert zamus and Richard Williams as they were both incredibly reluctant to have Roger Rabbit's animation done by the artists then working for Disney they simply felt the animators weren't up to the task as once again this was before the Disney Renaissance Era the Disney animators who were not asked to join the Roger Rabbit crew were crushed especially since the movie was gaining notoriety as one of the most ambitious animated films ever made however this ultimately proves to be for the best as most of those same Disney artists and animators were instead assigned to a movie called The Little Mermaid but as a lowering as Roger Rabbit was to those on the outside on the inside it was far from smooth sailing the source of Roger Rabbit's production problems was animation director Richard Williams unwavering perfectionism which led to the movie going massively over budget and behind schedule you see there's no denying he was brilliant and immensely talented and was also a mentor to countless artists and a genuinely kind soul but when it came to his craft that's where things could get unpleasant as he insisted on tweaking virtually every frame from every artist and animator himself in fact there's quite a few anecdotes about Richard Williams less than positive interactions with his Roger Rabbit team this includes tearing up work he deemed satisfactory drawing over finished animation and ink which forced an artist to start from scratch and berating artists to the point of Tears a prime example of his perfectionism had to do with his passion project the thief and the cobbler which he was still working on during Roger Rabbit there's a sequence with the villain manipulating a highly detailed playing card deck with 52 or so individual cards for upwards of 300 frames this equates to roughly 5 to 10,000 cards for the entire sequence which took the Inc and painter assigned to the scene a staggering 3 months to complete however once it was finished Richard Williams decided to change the color of the playing cards so he had the painter redo the whole sequence from scratch his perfectionism on Roger Rabbit was no different which put a tremendous amount of stress on all those involved in trying to finish the film on time to make matters worse Richard Williams had underestimated just how difficult and expensive it would be to animate a feature film with a moving camera keep in mind this was all being done without computers so each individual frame of Animation had to be handdrawn to match up precisely with the camera movement on screen another issue animators faced were the eyelines of the actors not matching up with the cartoons for the most part rehearsal did help them establish proper distance and depth but occasionally they would slip Bob Hoskins was by far the most talented in this regard as the actor's ability to focus his eyesight on a non-existent rabbit was incredibly impressive but there were still quite a few instances where he and the other actors messed up and was a major headache in trying to keep up the illusion within the film why this had to be kept up was to avoid the mistake of similar films in the past in which it appears the actors are looking through the animated characters instead of at them so various tricks had to be creatively implemented on the more obvious mistakes such as Roger Rabbit standing on his tiptoes against a wall to give him more height ultimately between Richard Williams perfectionism and these unforeseen production hurdles Roger Rabbit's animation work fell behind schedule and upwards of $20 million over budget on more than one occasion Disney's head of production Jeffrey kenberg flew to London to meet with the animation director he would demand for Richard Williams to speed up work on the film and at one point told him to aim for 60% quality when Williams responded he was already doing 60% kenberg replied okay aim for 20 due to the rising costs at one point Michael Eisner contemplated shutting down production altogether although Jeffrey kenberg convinced him otherwise possibly the most vital person who saved Roger Rabbit from getting shut down was associate producer Don Han you see part of his job unofficially at least least was to supervise Richard Williams and curtail his attempts to try to perfect every frame of Animation within the film Don was often the source of calm during the Roger Rabbit storm and found ways to lighten the load of the overworked animators one example was going behind Richard Williams and telling the artists they could occasionally put the animation on twos instead of ones which basically meant one drawing for every two frames instead of one drawing for every single frame still he was well aware more had to be done to keep the plug from getting pulled on the ambitious film so he quietly began to assemble another animation team in Los Angeles one to pick up the slack and animate a handful of scenes the job wound up going to former Disney artist Dell bear and his wife Jane bear who ran the bear animation company with a team of 70 plus artists animators and additional crew a warehouse in Glendale California became the second animation unit for Who Framed Roger Rabbit this team was responsible for all the Toontown sequences the Benny the cap Chase and miscellaneous shots throughout the entire film unfortunately the few times Richard Williams did make a visit to the Glendale unit he was often belittling at their work he would also make unfavorable comparisons to his animation team back home but this had less to do with the actual work and more of the situation you see Williams felt that the establishment of a second animation unit undermined his role as Roger Rabbit's animation director and led him to occasionally lash out another blow to the Glendale team was learning they'd receive Credit in the film as additional animation as opposed to a standalone animation unit they'd also be left out of virtually all promotion for the film swept under Disney's metaphorical rug in fact their animation director Dale bear alleges Disney promised him co-directing credit alongside Richard Williams only for them to back out due to a loophole in his contract because of this quite a few artists and animators took it upon themselves to insert their names and abbreviations into the movie speaking of which between the two animation units additional elements were snuck into the film as well although some were uh less than innocent for instance the character of baby Herman was drawn giving the middle finger which could be seen for a few frames Jessica rabbit's flush tone underwear was exposed while being ejected from Benny the cap another even more scandalous shot had to do with Betty Boop it was intended to be anage to the original cartoons of the 30s where on occasion risque a frames were slipped in unnoticed for Who Framed Roger Rabbit Betty Boop's dress was a little too loose and exposed her Betty boops for a single frame but this was an official request from robbers z mechas so it wasn't snuck in by the animators alone it's only visible in its initial laser disc and VHS release as it was taken out soon after another shot that almost found its way into the film was a similar slip by just like a rabbit in the booby trap scene however this was caught just prior to the Incan painting process so the answer to the original book's question of who censored Roger Rabbit was in fact Disney we're about to hit 500 finals or completed effect shots for this show that equals the effect shots that I was involved in you could combine cocoon Back to the Future Star Treks one two three and probably Empire Strikes Back Al together that equals about 500 effect shots and that's only halfway to the finish line for us on Roger the final part of the film's journey to the big screen were the visual effects and Optical processing this is what took the film's animation to a whole new level as it gave the cartoons a three-dimensional appearance to blend much more realistically into its liveaction setting but when it comes to precisely how this was achieved and who was responsible there's been a lot of false information over the years so that said let's break down the movies animation post production process step by step we'll use the sequence in which Roger Rabbit pops out of the sink and spits out water as an example which was done by way of a small pipe based off the original frame of film the animators that Richard Williams were given would have referred to his photostat copies of the same frame these allowed animators to carefully match the animation with the liveaction footage as realistic interactions between the humans and tunes was integral to the movie the drawings were then cleaned up traced photocopied on a cells and painted once the initial animation was finished it was sent to effect supervisor and animator Chris not then together with effects artists such as Annie Elvin Chris Jenkins and Kevin John Davies he and his team would prepare the effects this was comprised of Roger Rabbit's ton work or the Shadows on Roger his Shadows on the background and articulates to obscure the animation when interacting with set pieces mechanics or liveaction characters which keep in mind was being done for every single frame of film by hand though not showcased in this sequence they'd also draw rim lights which were the edges of the character facing some sort of light source now the combination of all these elements are what gave Roger Rabbit his sculpted three dimensional appearance but it wasn't as simple as drawing it onto the character you see the effects elements as well as the animation itself were individually shot onto film one frame at a time which was done by camera operator John Lebo this would result in multiple layers of film or mats but required a separate process to be integrated into the actual movie This Is Where industrial Light and Magic came came into the picture whose job was to composite these separate pieces of film by way of an optical printer the process was overseen by visual effect supervisor Ken Ron who had also supervised the live action shoot and made sure every shot was properly framed to include the eventual cartoons using the documentation day and procedures outlined by Chris knot with even more techniques way too complex to get into here ilm had to composite upwards of 7 to 12 layers of animation for every frame of film but they also took this a step further and essentially help to process to paint color tone work and shadows onto animation cells this would result in the cartoons blending even better into the liveaction footage as they now matched all the color Hues of the surrounding environment all told compared to Star Wars Return of the Jedi record-breaking 300 Optical composits Roger Rabbit had three times that amount with a total of 1,31 now despite all the production hurdles mentioned thus far there was one final bump on Roger Rabbit's Journey to the big screen those first sneaks were a disaster that we were at of course it wasn't finished yet and they picked the wrong crowd they picked like this Friday night crowd of 17 18y old guys with their dates they got up and left the audience you know ran out of the theater and I you know I remember um Jeffrey kenberg saying I saw my life flash before my eyes it was like a disaster regardless of these disastrous previews Robert zamus and Steven Spielberg believed in the film and refused to make any changes but the early screenings weren't the only thing making Disney nervous as they also went back and forth on whether to release it under Walt Disney pictures or Touchstone pictures this was due to the film's dark subject matter risque jokes and scenes of sensuality as Disney was concerned it would push the limits of their familyfriendly image ultimately the decision was made to play it safe and Market the film as a touchstone release which was given a marketing budget of $10 million part of this included two commercials with new animation from Richard Williams one of which was for Diet Coke and the other for McDonald's there was also the usual assortment of novelizations graphic novels toys trading cards Etc but just how has Roger Rabbit received upon its initial release well it was nothing short of astounding who frame Roger Rabbit is one of those home runs that Hollywood Hits every once in a while it's a movie like 2001 or close encounters or especially like ET that's a technical breakthrough and a lot of fun both at the same time this movie is great entertainment from one end to the other but it's also one of those films where you're always asking yourself how did they do that Who Framed Roger Rabbit hit theaters on June 22nd 1988 and was an immediate box office hit and critical success though technically released under Touchstone it was Disney's biggest opening weekend ever and stayed within the top three at the box office for 7 weeks straight it was ultimately nominated for six Academy Awards and tiome 3 for best film editing sound effects and visual effects the film was also given a special Achievement Award for its groundbreaking animation work specifically Richard Williams as the movie's animation director sadly for some reason the brilliant work of Chris KN and his effects team was not given so much as a passing mention or proper credit their exclusion was a sore spot for many within the London crew as it's because of them that the animation within the film received so much praise and led to much of the movie success in fact ilm was and is often given sole credit for the film's groundbreaking achievement in animation without so much as a mention to those that lent a huge hand in how it came to be that's not to say industrial Light and Magic doesn't deserve tremendous praise as their ingenious Optical printing process rotoscoping and color tone work elevated the visuals even further it's an important aspect of Roger Rabbit's history to point out as both Richard Williams UK team and ilm deserve proper respective credit that said with Who Framed Roger Rabbit's enormous success all of the sudden animation was cool again and re-energized the field of Animation as a whole in fact just a year later Disney released The Little Mermaid which became the highest grossing animated feature film in history and officially began the so-called Disney Renaissance Era so in the end those at Disney who were passed over to work on Roger Rabbit inadvertently wound up playing a huge part in animations return to Glory going further some of the UK artists and animators on Roger Rabbit such as Tom cedo Nick Rari Amanda talbo and Eric Goldberg went on to work for Disney soon after but the impact of who frames Roger Rabbit didn't stop them there as live action animation hybrid commercials began to implement a more sculpted three-dimensional look to their cartoon characters as well and has continued ever since scoot back baby Herman you don't want to burn your weenie need any help little camper the movie success also led to Three Roger Rabbit shorts attached to Disney feature films and theaters tummy trouble roller coaster rabbit and Trail mixup the plan was to release additional Roger Rabbit cartoons with Disney and amlin films over the next several years with as many as 12 and in various stages of production the reason was obviously to profit off of Roger Rabbit's popularity but it was also to keep him relevant for an in development Sequel and expansions to the Disney theme parks long story very short Disney MGM Studios theme park opened in May of 1989 and contained quite a few references to Who Framed Roger Rabbit from set decorations near the park entrance a billboard for Maroon cartoon Studios the dip machine on the studio tour and a recreation of the Acme Factory but this was only supposed to be the beginning as an entire land called Roger Rabbit's Hollywood was planned with several major attractions and rides this was to open alongside a recreation of 1940s Hollywood as seen in the film complete with trolley cars in the streets however the relationship between Disney and amlin began to sour a few years after the film's release specifically between CEO Michael Eisner and Steven Spielberg you see the two Studios maintained a sort of co-ownership of Roger Rabbit and there was a lot of bickering over the direction of his use not only that but there were disagreements over who actually actually owned Roger Rabbit at least as far as his use in the theme parks without additional licensing unfortunately this souring of the relationship between amlin and Disney led to the cancellation of further Roger Rabbit shorts although pieces of the fourth Roger Rabbit shorts hair in my soup have surfaced over the years Roger Rabbit's Hollywood in Orlando was outright cancelled but this also had to do with the financial disaster of Euro Disney which I covered in a previous episode but due to how far long it already was Disney's Anaheim Park received a smaller scale and revised version known as Mickey Town though most of the land was focused on Disney cartoons one of the Roger Rabbit attractions did materialize as Roger Rabbit's cartoon spin but what about the movie sequel well the first version that was in the works was known as Roger Rabbit 2 ton platoon the sequel was actually a prequel set in 1941 where on his birthday Roger Rabbit learns from his human parents that he was abandoned by his mother on their doorstep and is not a human but a cartoon long story very short the rest of the movie had Roger Rabbit searching for his bi ological Mother where he winds up in Hollywood and meets Jessica Rabbit eventually he's drafted into the military and discovers Jessica Rabbit has been kidnapped by the Nazis and goes on a rescue mission to Germany the story ends with Roger Rabbit back in Hollywood to begin his career as a movie star he finally unites with his biological mother and learns his father is none other than bugs Bunny however Steven Spielberg took a strong issue against the cartoonish depiction of Nazis and used his position as co-owner of Roger Rabbit to stop development of the film a few years later another stab was taken out a Roger Rabbit sequel with different writers and this version was actually given approval by Steven Spielberg although it should be noted that he was to have little if any involvement due to his already strange relationship with Disney much like the original a number of tests were commissioned to see if Roger Rabbit was once again feasible only this time it was to be a mixture of handdrawn Animation which was then to be rotoscoped with CGI and although lacking the wow factor of the movie's first test footage it was successful enough to prove a CGI sequel was possible however the film's proposed budget of at least $100 million combined with the recent flops of other CGI liveaction hybrids led to the film to be cancelled but Roger Rabbit wasn't the only one having troubles after its release as animation director Richard Williams saw his fair share as well the thing about the rabbit for me is that because it's making so much money investors are now interested in in backing animation and I think God willing that I've got the money to finish my movie which we've been making here for really 23 years because I didn't have the money to finish it and it's a giant epic it's called the thief and the cobbler or it's called The Cobbler and the thief this year we change the title every year and I need three years to finish it again I highly recommend the documentary Persistence of vision for the full story of the thief and the cobbler but long story again short after Who Framed Roger Rabbit the movie success convinced another Studio to finance and distribute Richard Williams passion project Warner Brothers unfortunately his perfectionist Tendencies once again got in the way but this time there wasn't anyone to keep the animation director in check he was constantly adding scenes redoing scenes extending scenes changing the story Etc in fact he didn't even storyboard the ending of the film until they'd pretty much run out of time and money so ultimately Warner Brothers took advantage of their contractual right to withdraw from the film this was even after promoting the film to the public in the form of trailer and creating an elaborate video sales marketing campaign after Warner Brothers wound up pulling the plug a completion bond company finished the film without Williams involvement it then went through drastic changes to the story with the addition of new sequences and musical numbers trying to disneyfy it even though it was never even remotely that kind of movie the film was released as Arabian Night in the US and was ultimately a critical and box office flop the movie was such a financial disappointment that its home video release in the US was by way of a free giveaway and Froot Loop cereal also elephant in the room there's no denying Disney's Monumental hit Aladdin a few years prior possibly affected its development and release the two movies share strikingly similar art Direction character designs and elements of the story over the years Williams would focus on lectures master classes and his highly acclaimed animator Survivor Kit he also received an Academy Award nomination for his animated short film prologue which was the first 6 minutes of another ambitious feature film Liss EST Strada sadly Richard Williams passed away before he was able to complete the film though it's unknown just how much was actually finished are you surprised with what you what you eventually see on screen I'm I'm numb from the rabbit you know Zas kept saying towards the end he said you know we're not going to believe we did this I don't know I don't know I just I just huh you know I was just L happy I got to the end of it and we finished on time and I could pack up my gear and return to some sort of normality you know so whether or not he believed it to be his best work Roger Rabbit continues to this day to be a reminder of what true Innovation looks like in a day and age where Blockbusters are filmed almost entirely on green screen and the use of CGI outweighs practical effects Roger Rabbit is a true filmmaking Marvel the Ingenuity and craftsmanship to create such believable effects without computers is just as stunning today as it was 25 years ago it's also a fantastic reminder that if at first you don't succeed try try and sometimes try again and if everything falls into place you might create something truly [Music] [Music] [Music] special [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Yesterworld Entertainment

Views: 863,669

Keywords: Yesterworld The Complicated History of Roger Rabbit, The History of Roger Rabbit, Darrell Van Citters Roger Rabbit, Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future, Steven Spielberg, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Roger Rabbit, Robert Zemeckis Roger Rabbit, The History of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Roger Rabbit history video, Who Framed Roger Rabbit history, the making of who framed Roger rabbit, yesterworld Roger rabbit

Id: sJ1cf00rq1w

Length: 78min 32sec (4712 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 12 2023