Who Framed Roger Rabbit


Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. Combining live-action and animation, it is based on the 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf. The film stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Stubby Kaye, and Joanna Cassidy, with Charles Fleischer providing the voice of Roger Rabbit. Set in an alternative history Hollywood in 1947, where humans and cartoon characters co-exist, Who Framed Roger Rabbit follows Eddie Valiant, a private investigator with a grudge against toons, who must help exonerate Roger, who has been framed for murder.
Walt Disney Studios purchased the film rights for the story in 1981. Price and Seaman wrote two drafts of the script before Disney brought in executive producer Steven Spielberg and his production company, Amblin Entertainment. Zemeckis was brought on to direct, and Canadian-British animator Richard Williams was hired to supervise the animation sequences. Production was moved from Los Angeles to Elstree Studios in England to accommodate Williams and his group of animators. While filming, the production budget rapidly expanded, and the shooting schedule ran longer than expected.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released through Disney's Touchstone Pictures banner in the United States on June 22, 1988. The film received critical acclaim for its visuals, humor, writing, performances, and groundbreaking combination of live-action and animation. It grossed over $351 million worldwide, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 1988, behind Rain Man. It brought a renewed interest in the golden age of American animation, spearheading modern American animation and the Disney Renaissance. It won three Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects and received a Special Achievement Academy Award for Williams' animation direction.
In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

In 1947 Los Angeles, animated cartoon characters, or "toons", co-exist with humans, often working as film stars. Private detective Eddie Valiant, once a staunch ally of the toons, has become a depressed alcoholic following his brother Teddy's murder by an unknown toon five years prior. Maroon Cartoon Studios owner R.K. Maroon, upset about the recent poor performance of his toon star Roger Rabbit, hires Eddie to investigate rumors that Roger's glamorous toon wife, Jessica, is having an affair with Marvin Acme, owner of both the Acme Corporation and Toontown, the animated metropolis in which toons reside.
After watching Jessica perform at The Ink and Paint Club, Eddie secretly photographs her and Acme playing patty-cake. He shows the pictures to Roger, who becomes distraught and flees, refusing to believe Jessica was unfaithful. The next morning, Acme is found murdered and evidence at the scene implicates Roger. Eddie meets Judge Doom, the sinister human judge of Toontown—having bribed the electorate for their votes—and his five weasel minions, the Toon Patrol. Doom reveals that he will execute Roger using the "Dip", a chemical concoction of acetone, benzene, and turpentine, which can destroy the otherwise invulnerable toons.
Roger's toon co-star, Baby Herman, suggests to Eddie that Acme's missing will, which supposedly bequeaths Toontown to the toons, may have been the killer's true motive. Eddie returns to his office and finds Roger waiting. Roger insists he has been framed and Eddie reluctantly agrees to help after finding evidence of Acme's will; he hides Roger in a bar tended by his girlfriend, Dolores. Later, Jessica tells Eddie that Maroon threatened Roger's career unless she posed for the compromising photos. Meanwhile, Dolores uncovers that Cloverleaf Industries recently bought the city's Pacific Electric railway system and will purchase Toontown at midnight unless Acme's will is found. Doom and the Toon Patrol find Roger, but he and Eddie escape with help from Benny, a toon taxi cab. Sheltering in a local movie theater, Eddie sees a newsreel of Maroon selling his studio to Cloverleaf.
While Eddie goes to the studio to interrogate Maroon, Jessica abducts Roger. Maroon denies involvement in Acme's murder, admitting he intended to blackmail Acme into selling his company as otherwise Cloverleaf would not buy the studio. In the middle of his confession, Maroon is assassinated and Eddie spots Jessica fleeing the scene. Assuming she is the assailant, he reluctantly follows her into Toontown, choosing to discard the last of his alcohol. After saving Eddie from being shot by Doom, Jessica reveals her actions were to ensure Roger's safety and it was Doom who killed Acme and Maroon. Acme gave his will to Jessica for safety but, when she examined it, the paper was blank.
Doom and the Toon Patrol capture Jessica and Eddie, bringing them to Acme's factory. Doom reveals he is the sole shareholder of Cloverleaf. He plans to erase Toontown with a Dip-spraying machine so he can build a freeway in its place, and decommission the railway system to force people to use it. When Roger fails to save Jessica, the couple is tied onto a hook in front of the machine's sprayer. Eddie performs a series of pratfalls that cause the weasels to laugh themselves to death, kicks their leader into the dip, and then fights Doom. After being flattened by a steamroller, Doom reveals himself as a disguised toon and Teddy's murderer. Struggling against Doom's toon abilities, Eddie empties the machine's Dip supply, spraying and dissolving Doom. The machine crashes through the wall into Toontown, where it is destroyed by a passenger train.
As police and toons gather at the scene, Eddie realizes that Acme's will was written on the blank paper in temporarily invisible ink, confirming the toons inherit Toontown. Having regained his sense of humor, Eddie happily enters Toontown alongside Dolores, Roger, Jessica, and the toons.

Cast

Live-action cast

Uncredited cast members include Kathleen Turner as Jessica Rabbit, Roger Rabbit's wife; Frank Welker as Dumbo, Winchell as a cow practising lines, Nancy Cartwright as Yoyo Dodo and a toon shoe who gets dissolved in Dip, Bill Farmer as Koko the Clown and Goofy's singing voice, and Dave Spafford as Daffy Duck's "woo-hoos".

Production

Development

purchased the film rights to Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? shortly after its publication in 1981. Ron W. Miller, then president of Disney, saw it as a perfect opportunity to produce a blockbuster. Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman were hired to write the script, penning two drafts. In 1982, Robert Zemeckis offered his services as director, but Disney declined as his two previous films had been box-office bombs. Between 1981 and 1983 Disney developed test footage with Darrell Van Citters as animation director, Paul Reubens voicing Roger Rabbit, Peter Renaday as Eddie Valiant, Russi Taylor as Jessica Rabbit, and Jack Angel as Captain Cleaver. The project was revamped in 1985 by Michael Eisner, the then-new CEO of Disney. Amblin Entertainment, which consisted of Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, were approached to produce Who Framed Roger Rabbit alongside Disney. The original budget was projected at $50 million, which Disney felt was too expensive.
The film was finally green-lit when the budget decreased to $30 million, which at the time would have still made it the most expensive animated film ever produced. Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg argued that the hybrid of live-action and animation would "save" Walt Disney Feature Animation. Spielberg's contract included an extensive amount of creative control and a large percentage of the box-office profits. Disney kept all merchandising rights. Spielberg convinced Warner Bros., Fleischer Studios, Harvey Comics, King Features Syndicate, Felix the Cat Productions, Turner Entertainment, and Universal Pictures/Walter Lantz Productions to "lend" their characters to appear in the film with stipulations on how those characters were portrayed; for example, Disney's Donald Duck and Warner Bros.' Daffy Duck appear as equally talented dueling pianists, Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny also share a scene as skydivers, and Tinker Bell and Porky Pig close the film. Apart from the agreement, and some of the original voice artists reprising their roles, Warner Bros. and the various other companies were not involved in the production of Roger Rabbit. Executives at Warner Bros. were displeased by animators using the Daffy design by Bob Clampett and demanded they use the design by Chuck Jones; in response Zemeckis had separate artists animate Daffy using Jones' design to satisfy Warner Bros., in order to have Clampett's design in the final film. The producers were unable to acquire the rights to use Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Little Lulu, Casper the Friendly Ghost, or the Terrytoons characters for appearances from their respective owners. Other characters like Warner Bros.' Bosko, Fleischer Studios' Fitz the Dog and Bimbo; Ub Iwerks' Flip the Frog, and Hanna-Barbera's Yakky Doodle were also planned to appear in the film. Despite acquiring the rights to use Betty Boop and Koko the Clown, King Features valued Koko highly, asking for $50,000 for a simple cameo appearance. To get around the high price and legal issues, the animators redesigned Koko to have hair resembling that of Bozo the Clown instead of a hat, and changed his colors at the end of the film.
Terry Gilliam was offered the chance to direct, but he found the project too technically challenging. Robert Zemeckis was hired to direct in 1985, based on the success of Romancing the Stone and Back to the Future. Disney executives were continuing to suggest Darrell Van Citters direct the animation, but Spielberg and Zemeckis decided against it. Richard Williams was eventually hired to direct the animation. Zemeckis wanted the film to exhibit "Disney's high quality of animation, Warner Bros.' characterization, and Tex Avery humor."