05-02-2014, 10:17 PM
In honor of Gary Wolf turning 73 years old, as well as the unexpected passing of Bob Hoskins. Here's some trivia on the movie Who Framed Roger rabbit. as well as the original book that it was based off of(Who Censored Roger Rabbit). If you haven't read the book, be warned that there are spoilers here to the book.
The book that Roger was based off of Who Censored Roger Rabbit is very much different from the film source material(most of it isn't in the movie apart from Baby Herman's line 'I got a 50 year old lust and a 3 year old dinky'). In the book. The characters that were animated weren't cartoon characters, they were comic book characters. Whenever they spoke words they spoke in speech bubbles similarly to how comic strip dialogue is shown on newspaper strips. .
The cover on Who Censored Roger Rabbit has its author Gary Wolf dressed as Eddie Valiant for the cover. According to Gary wolf. when he was trying to publish Who censored Roger Rabbit. Editors were skeptical about publishing the book since they didn't know which audience Gary was aiming for. They were also concerned about marketing the book regarding on what happens in the story. Gary managed to sort things out when he found the right publisher to get the book published.
Disney bought the rights to the book of Who Censored Roger Rabbit back in 1981. It had a bit of an on and off production status since Disney was also juggling with other projects at the time. Production on board got pushed forward in development when Steven Spielberg came on board to help out the film. Spielberg being a fan of the golden age era of animation, he wanted to make sure that this would have been a complete homage to that era. The animation was originally to be handled at Disney in L.A. However. The animation director Richard Williams insisted Disney that the animation for the film should be done at his studio in London. Disney later agreed to Richard's request and the animation was handled in London. How the animation was handled was done how animation was handled back in the 1930s and 40s. Everything was drawn by hand, hand inked, and pressed onto cels to have that 'feel' of a cartoon from the past. The budget of the film cost around 70 million dollars.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit has been widely noted as the last feature length films to use production cels for a feature film. future hand-drawn animated films would later be resorted to digital coloring methods due to how expensive the process actual cel animation can be.
Bob Hoskins wasn't the first choice for playing as the gumshoe detective Eddie Valiant. The other actors that were once considered for the role were Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Christopher Lee, and Harrison Ford. John Cleese offered his acting for the role as Judge Doom. But Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis didn't think movie goers would take a comical actor seriously as a bad guy(John Cleese has been known for his more comical acting for Monty Python). Tim Curry also auditioned for the role of Judge Doom, despite giving a good performance, he wasn't casted as the character for the film. according to some sources, this reason is because Tim Curry made the character too scary. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner thought this wouldn't sit well for moviegoers(a similar thing happened with Curry with the casting for The joker in one of the Batman movies). Roger was originally going to be voiced by Paul Rubens(Pee-Wee Herman), even though Paul didn't get the role. His voice for the character can be seen in various tests for the film while the film was in production.
The film has been noted for its use of having Disney animated characters and Warner bros characters being in the same screen. Disney allowed Spielberg to have the characters appear if they could have Mickey appear for a moment in the movie(a similar thing happened with Warner bros regarding on Bugs Bunny). This is what lead to a few scenes in the movie that were heavily noted. Such as the piano duel with Donald and Daffy Duck, and the parachute falling scene with Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny. Interestingly enough. Animation legend Chuck Jones was a creative consultant for the film, but he later disliked talking about the film. One of the major reasons for this is the infamous piano scene. Jones pitched the scene as Donald winning the piano duel with the audience giving him a hand, while when Daffy pushed Donald aside and took a bow, he would later receive nothing but the sound of a cricket(a method that has been done in some of his cartoons). The scene was later made as the piano duel ended with a draw(pun intended) as both ducks lost the piano duel. Interesting enough. Chuck also animated the piano scenes of Daffy while Richard Williams animated the scenes for Donald. Its also the last time legendary voice actor Mel Blanc voiced some of the Looney Tune characters, as well as Mae Questel to voice Betty Boop for this film.
A couple of animated characters were planned to appear in the film but would later be cut out of the film due to not obtaining the rights to the characters. Originally, there was to be a funeral scene of Marvin Acme. Which had Popeye and Bluto in it(along with Tom and Jerry, Heckle and Jeckle, Mighty Mouse, Casper the friendly ghost, and Felix the Cat) paying their respects to the then gag king. The scene was later cut from the film due to time constraints and the fact Disney couldn't obtain the permission to use the characters for the film. despite this. Felix can be seen in a photograph in the film as well as being on top of the entrance to the opening tunnel in Toon Town. Koko the clown(who appeared in the black and white Betty Boop cartoons) was already animated in the film. But was later given a redesign and color since Disney didn't obtain the rights to the character from Paramount. During Jessica's performance. Eddie valiant would have heard a howl and would later turn to see a man pull off a rubber mask to reveal the unnamed wolf(From Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood) since he couldn't help himself showing his true colors over Jessica's appearance. This has been believed as a tribute to Tex Avery(who was one of the major influences for the film) the scene never made it into the film. The closest thing we have to that is this storyboard of the purposed scene.
![[Image: tumblr_mupopdaGPl1rx9er0o4_500.jpg]](https://24.media.tumblr.com/7e8f5a42250316c0ad570808a3c23561/tumblr_mupopdaGPl1rx9er0o4_500.jpg)
Despite the film being a success. No sequel for the film has been made. There have been attempts for various Roger rabbit related projects but none of which ever made it off of the drawing board. After the completion of the Roger Rabbit short Trail Mix up. There were plans for a fourth short entitled Hare in my soup. Apart from there being some art of the purposed short. It didn't get approved since Steven Spielberg didn't like the idea of the short. The short would have had Roger being a waiter in a restaurant while dealing with the actions of a hot tempered boss who doesn't want Roger 'goofing off with that baby'. According to one of the animators. One of the gags in the short had Roger looking in a soup bowl with a ladle and he would have pulled out a little redhead mermaid(a cameo of Ariel from The Little Mermaid) who would later splash Roger and dive into the kitchen sink. Here's some art of the purposed short
![[Image: tumblr_n13s8rgF4p1rx9er0o4_500.jpg]](https://24.media.tumblr.com/01c13927a55cf4da76b89a8fc828afa2/tumblr_n13s8rgF4p1rx9er0o4_500.jpg)
Other shorts that were planned were later scrapped due to major creative differences between Spielberg and Disney. Disney had drafted a prequel to Roger entitled "Toon Platoon" which showed how Roger got into the cartoon business. as well as being in the war. Steven Spielberg disliked the idea. Despite this, he directed a WWII film(Schindler's list) and is jewish. Another attempt for another Roger film was Who Discovered Roger Rabbit, which would have been a parody of the Hollywood musicals. Alan Menken(composer of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid) was brought in to write a few songs for the project. Nothing came out of it. One of the songs that Alan Menken wrote(which was 'it only happens in movies') was later covered by broadway actress Kerry Butler. Gary Wolf is currently trying to pitch a buddy comedy animated film of Mickey and Roger based off of the Jerry Lewis movie The Stooge to Disney.
The book that Roger was based off of Who Censored Roger Rabbit is very much different from the film source material(most of it isn't in the movie apart from Baby Herman's line 'I got a 50 year old lust and a 3 year old dinky'). In the book. The characters that were animated weren't cartoon characters, they were comic book characters. Whenever they spoke words they spoke in speech bubbles similarly to how comic strip dialogue is shown on newspaper strips. .
![[+]](images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
SpoilerThe cover on Who Censored Roger Rabbit has its author Gary Wolf dressed as Eddie Valiant for the cover. According to Gary wolf. when he was trying to publish Who censored Roger Rabbit. Editors were skeptical about publishing the book since they didn't know which audience Gary was aiming for. They were also concerned about marketing the book regarding on what happens in the story. Gary managed to sort things out when he found the right publisher to get the book published.
Disney bought the rights to the book of Who Censored Roger Rabbit back in 1981. It had a bit of an on and off production status since Disney was also juggling with other projects at the time. Production on board got pushed forward in development when Steven Spielberg came on board to help out the film. Spielberg being a fan of the golden age era of animation, he wanted to make sure that this would have been a complete homage to that era. The animation was originally to be handled at Disney in L.A. However. The animation director Richard Williams insisted Disney that the animation for the film should be done at his studio in London. Disney later agreed to Richard's request and the animation was handled in London. How the animation was handled was done how animation was handled back in the 1930s and 40s. Everything was drawn by hand, hand inked, and pressed onto cels to have that 'feel' of a cartoon from the past. The budget of the film cost around 70 million dollars.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit has been widely noted as the last feature length films to use production cels for a feature film. future hand-drawn animated films would later be resorted to digital coloring methods due to how expensive the process actual cel animation can be.
Bob Hoskins wasn't the first choice for playing as the gumshoe detective Eddie Valiant. The other actors that were once considered for the role were Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Christopher Lee, and Harrison Ford. John Cleese offered his acting for the role as Judge Doom. But Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis didn't think movie goers would take a comical actor seriously as a bad guy(John Cleese has been known for his more comical acting for Monty Python). Tim Curry also auditioned for the role of Judge Doom, despite giving a good performance, he wasn't casted as the character for the film. according to some sources, this reason is because Tim Curry made the character too scary. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner thought this wouldn't sit well for moviegoers(a similar thing happened with Curry with the casting for The joker in one of the Batman movies). Roger was originally going to be voiced by Paul Rubens(Pee-Wee Herman), even though Paul didn't get the role. His voice for the character can be seen in various tests for the film while the film was in production.
The film has been noted for its use of having Disney animated characters and Warner bros characters being in the same screen. Disney allowed Spielberg to have the characters appear if they could have Mickey appear for a moment in the movie(a similar thing happened with Warner bros regarding on Bugs Bunny). This is what lead to a few scenes in the movie that were heavily noted. Such as the piano duel with Donald and Daffy Duck, and the parachute falling scene with Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny. Interestingly enough. Animation legend Chuck Jones was a creative consultant for the film, but he later disliked talking about the film. One of the major reasons for this is the infamous piano scene. Jones pitched the scene as Donald winning the piano duel with the audience giving him a hand, while when Daffy pushed Donald aside and took a bow, he would later receive nothing but the sound of a cricket(a method that has been done in some of his cartoons). The scene was later made as the piano duel ended with a draw(pun intended) as both ducks lost the piano duel. Interesting enough. Chuck also animated the piano scenes of Daffy while Richard Williams animated the scenes for Donald. Its also the last time legendary voice actor Mel Blanc voiced some of the Looney Tune characters, as well as Mae Questel to voice Betty Boop for this film.
A couple of animated characters were planned to appear in the film but would later be cut out of the film due to not obtaining the rights to the characters. Originally, there was to be a funeral scene of Marvin Acme. Which had Popeye and Bluto in it(along with Tom and Jerry, Heckle and Jeckle, Mighty Mouse, Casper the friendly ghost, and Felix the Cat) paying their respects to the then gag king. The scene was later cut from the film due to time constraints and the fact Disney couldn't obtain the permission to use the characters for the film. despite this. Felix can be seen in a photograph in the film as well as being on top of the entrance to the opening tunnel in Toon Town. Koko the clown(who appeared in the black and white Betty Boop cartoons) was already animated in the film. But was later given a redesign and color since Disney didn't obtain the rights to the character from Paramount. During Jessica's performance. Eddie valiant would have heard a howl and would later turn to see a man pull off a rubber mask to reveal the unnamed wolf(From Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood) since he couldn't help himself showing his true colors over Jessica's appearance. This has been believed as a tribute to Tex Avery(who was one of the major influences for the film) the scene never made it into the film. The closest thing we have to that is this storyboard of the purposed scene.
Despite the film being a success. No sequel for the film has been made. There have been attempts for various Roger rabbit related projects but none of which ever made it off of the drawing board. After the completion of the Roger Rabbit short Trail Mix up. There were plans for a fourth short entitled Hare in my soup. Apart from there being some art of the purposed short. It didn't get approved since Steven Spielberg didn't like the idea of the short. The short would have had Roger being a waiter in a restaurant while dealing with the actions of a hot tempered boss who doesn't want Roger 'goofing off with that baby'. According to one of the animators. One of the gags in the short had Roger looking in a soup bowl with a ladle and he would have pulled out a little redhead mermaid(a cameo of Ariel from The Little Mermaid) who would later splash Roger and dive into the kitchen sink. Here's some art of the purposed short
Other shorts that were planned were later scrapped due to major creative differences between Spielberg and Disney. Disney had drafted a prequel to Roger entitled "Toon Platoon" which showed how Roger got into the cartoon business. as well as being in the war. Steven Spielberg disliked the idea. Despite this, he directed a WWII film(Schindler's list) and is jewish. Another attempt for another Roger film was Who Discovered Roger Rabbit, which would have been a parody of the Hollywood musicals. Alan Menken(composer of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid) was brought in to write a few songs for the project. Nothing came out of it. One of the songs that Alan Menken wrote(which was 'it only happens in movies') was later covered by broadway actress Kerry Butler. Gary Wolf is currently trying to pitch a buddy comedy animated film of Mickey and Roger based off of the Jerry Lewis movie The Stooge to Disney.