Who Made Roger Rabbit? (And How?)


It is 1947 when Hollywood and the Los Angeles suburb Toon Town are rocked by a story of "scandal, greed, sex  and murder."  I would not say Who Framed Roger Rabbit is exactly a children's story, even though half of the main characters are cartoons.  "That's right folks"!  Cartoons, and celebrities cartoons at that, from movie star Roger Rabbit (voice provided by Charles Fleischer) and his wife Jessica (voice provided by Kathleen Turner), to Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, Daffy Duck (no relation) and Bugs Bunny.

The nightmare begins when Roger learns the horrible news of an affair between his vamp, toon wife Jessica and human Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye) the owner of Toon Town and the Acme Gag Factory.  The pattycake pictures taken by private detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) were the proof that Roger's voluptuous wife really did betray him.  Maroon Cartoons President, R.K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern), paid Valiant to take the pictures of Mrs. Rabbit and Acme for blackmail.  Like any other man, make that any other rabbit, Roger is angry, an anger that is magnified, especially after he has a drink.  He leaves his meeting with Valiant and Maroon, where the pictures were presented, enraged, saying that one way or another he and his wife will be happy again.  The next day, Acme is found dead, with a safe was dropped on his head.  A murder worthy of a toon and Roger is the obvious suspect.  This is not the first time a toon has murdered a human either.  Coincidentally, Eddie Valiant's detective brother and the other half of the Valiant and Valiant detective agency, was murdered in the same manner by a bank robbing toon who got away with one million zimolians.

Roger has to escape the lethal punishment for supposedly killing Acme, which is the dipping the Weasels have planned for him.  The dip is a turpentine mixture, created by Judge Doom, which is the only way to kill a toon.  Judge Doom hired the weasels, other wise known as the "Toon Patrol", to find Roger and bring him in.

How will they find the last will and testament that Acme left behind promising possession of Toon Town to the toons, so that it does not fall into the hands of the Clover Leaf Company?  Roger's only hope for escape is with Eddie Valiant, Valiant's girlfriend Dolores (Joanna Cassidy) and Benny the Cartoon Cab.    Who Framed Roger Rabbit is an adventurous film based on the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit by Gary K. Wolf.  The screen play is by Jeffery Price and Peter Seaman.   Close attention was given to the details that make cartoons what they are. The film also incorporates plenty of inside jokes about Saturday morning cartoons.

Executive Producer Steven Spielberg negotiated with a number of other companies, including Warner Brothers, in order to cast some of their cartoon stars as the residents of Toon Town.  Warner Brothers would allow their stars to be cast as long as they received the same screen time as Disney's characters.  Most companies made fairly reasonable demands and as a result the audience is treated to the site of all of the lovable cartoons from their child hoods together on one screen.  A classic example of this occurs at the Ink and Paint Club where two major characters from different companies,  Donald and Daffy Duck, perform a destructive opening number.   Destructive because they both have such stubborn attitudes and they are constantly in competition with each other.  Not every major toon was cast in Who framed Roger Rabbit. Popeye is noticeably absent.  His agents wanted too much money and finally Disney gave up. Of greater significance one of the films major stars is never seen on screen, the late Mel Blanc provided the voices of some of the cartoons that were cast including Daffy Duck, Tweetie Bird, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, and Porky Pig. 

Even the legendary Betty Boop makes an appearance.  When Eddie Valiant asks Miss Boop what she is doing at the Ink and Paint Club (obviously working since toons were not allowed in as customers) she explains that work is slow because cartoons are now colorized.  But she assures him that she has still "got it" in the same high pitched, squeaky voice (still provided by Mae Questel) that she has always had. 

Baby Herman is Roger's co-star in Something's Cookin', a short at the beginning of the film.  His voice is provided by Lou Hirsch who has a surprisingly rough, gravely voice.  "I am doing my imitation of everyone imitating me", explains Hirsch.  The voice of Baby Herman is a shock to the audience because obviously it does not match the character.

Since Roger and Jessica are new characters one of the producers primary challenges was finding voices for the two.  Stand up comedian Charles Fleischer provides the goofy, lovable voice of Roger as well as the rude, crude voice of Benny the Cab.  They needed to find someone with a low, soft, seductive voice for Jessica.  Kathleen Turner gladly contributed all but the singing voice of Jessica which was provided by Amy Irving.  Not surprisingly many of the films best moments center around Jessica, in particular her performance of "Why Don't You do Right?" at the Ink and Paint Club.  It is here that Valiant sees her for the first time and realizes that she is only a rabbit by name and is actually a toon in human form. She not only turns the heads of toons but humans as well.  In one of the films most memorable lines.  Jessica complains to Valiant saying, "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way".

All of the characters were drawn to look exactly the way they did in the forties.  Roger's looks were borrowed from a number of the screens great characters.  On one of the first sketches of Roger there are notes that read, "Neck is Avery", "Body is Disney", and "Lower Face is Warner Brothers".

Director Robert Zemeckis, most noted for the Back to the Future trilogy, had never worked on a film involving animation much less one that featured a complex combination of animation and live action.  He had doubts in the beginning that animation and live action would work. In preparation for the production Zemeckis viewed those films in which the technique had been successful before, among them were Mary Poppins and Song of the South.  "But those were only moments, the question was whether or not you could sustain it for an entire movie." says Zemeckis.

The earliest attempt at blending animation was the Out of the Inkwell series by Max Fleischer in 1923.  It was about a clown named Koko who would always wander off of the sketch pad of his creator into the real world.

In 1944 Jerry the Mouse and dancing legend Gene Kelly did a dance number in Anchors Aweigh.  In 1956 Gene Kelly got the chance to dance with toons again in Invitation to the Dance.  It was Kelly who convinced the studio that the blend of animation and live action would work.  He did so with the help of his friend Walt Disney who was dabbling with the technique himself.  

You Ought to be in Pictures was Warner Brothers' attempt at bringing the two worlds together.  The picture featured Porky Pig and Daffy Duck negotiating with Leon Schlesinger, then the head of Warner Brothers' Animation Department. 

Perhaps the most successful blending of the cartoon and human world occurred in 1964 when Mary Poppins premiered.  Even though the scene was only 10 minutes long it became the studios biggest hit.

Director of Animation Richard Williams had the same worries about the live action-animation mix that Zemeckis did, Williams says, "Cartoons and live action together tend to violate each other.  You see the trick and are not able to suspend your disbelief".

Williams and Zemeckis decided that they would take no short cuts on animation.  All of the animation was to be done by hand unlike larger studios who photo copy tracings onto cells to save time and money. Williams feels the increased expense associated with hand tracing is worth it because it makes the scene look richer and more like a painting.  As a consequence the animators often had to redraw scenes anywhere from two to five times.

The animation crew of 326 was off to a slow start since none of them had ever worked on a project quite like this one before.  Williams assured them that the pace would pick up as soon as they became familiar with the type of work they were doing.  Their speed eventually picked up just as Williams said it would.

Williams was definitely the best choice for Animation Director.  He is the winner of 240 awards for animation features, including an Oscar in 1972 for A Christmas Carol.  He is best known for his animation in Pink Panther features. His impressive resume is partially due to his early start in the animation business.  At the age of 14 he held a job as a commercial artist and at 15 packed up and left for Los Angeles hoping to meet the great animators at Disney that he admired.  When he first arrived in Los Angeles he stayed at the YMCA on South Hope Street.  Some of the films opening scenes  take place there.

Dean Cundy was in charge of cinematography.  Cundy, along with Zemeckis also worked on the Back to the Future films.  Filming obviously wasn't going to be easy when they didn't always know where their main characters were going to be.  A common rule in films that involve animation mixtures is to keep the camera static. This was to avoid shifts in perspective.  Zemeckis and Williams decided not to go by the rules.  In fact they used a hand held camera in some scenes, this made the perspective change slightly from each frame and made it difficult to keep the character anchored down.  Supervising  animator Andreas Deja explains, "When a character walks or runs, his feet only come in contact with the ground for a few frames."  "But when the character is standing there and the hand held camera is moving up and down in little circles, it is just about impossible to lock him onto the ground-his feet seem to slip." Says Deja.

George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic, which has been responsible for 7 of the 10 biggest box office hits of all time, developed the films special effects.  George Lucas, most noted for the "Star Wars" trilogy, is known for movies that require a lot of fascinating, in depth special effects.  Industrial Light and Magic added shadows, hair highlights, and skin tones to the toons, and they even added the sparkles in Jessica's dress.  They gave animation cells more depth for a three dimensional appearance.

In order to make the toons more life-like they had to be able to move props.  They could drive real cars, use real guns and use real serving trays.  The director utilized several different methods to enhance the illusion that the toons were actually doing this themselves.  For example the cigar that Baby Herman holds was done by utilizing the copy cat system.  This system requires a human to wear a mechanical device on their arm, then the mechanical arm that is holding the cigar copies the movements of the human.  Later, the mechanical arm is covered by the animation.  There is another kind of mechanical arm that is used when Roger is taking a drink.  This arm can only move back and forth on its own and is not the same as the copy cat system.  The puppeteer used a spool of thread to move the guns for the weasels but for more precise movements of the gun a mechanical arm was used.  In order for this type of cinematography to be possible the sets had to be constructed 10 feet off of the ground.  By building the sets this way, the puppeteers were able to stand underneath the stage to move the props and work other special effects.  This is how the serving trays were given the appearance of movement.  Television monitors were located underneath some of the sets so that the puppeteers could see the action up above.

Even though there have been many attempts at blending live action with animation, no one as ever done anything quite like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."  The animation is such a departure from past films that it was given a new name, Multi-dimensional interactive character generation.

The best and most frequently used example of the technique is a scene where Roger is pleading to Valiant for help.  Roger handcuffs himself to Valiant but there is no key to free them.  Now the weasels are pounding at the door because they have been tipped off that Roger is there.  By the time they blow the lock off of the door Valiant had stuffed Roger into a sink full of soapy water.  Roger panics, fighting Valiant in order to come up for air.  In order to film this sequence, a series of meticulous storyboards were constructed featuring Valiant at the sink with Roger's head, in various stages, above the water.  After this, cameras filmed Hoskins on a 10-foot high set with a crew standing underneath manipulating the pipe that would eventually spew from Roger's mouth.  Then animators did a rough line drawing of Roger on a photostatic blow up of the live action frame.  The film maker utilized eighty-two thousand and eighty Photostat blow ups in order to complete the film, an average of 24 per second.  Following this, the drawing was painted onto a cel (a transparent, plastic sheet) and then shot on a separate frame of film.  The final step was to send the film to Industrial Light and Magic to add shadowing and other lighting effects in order to give the animation a three dimensional look.

The same technique was used in the scene where Roger and Valiant make their escape from Judge Doom and the weasels in Benny the Cab.  Hoskins was sitting at the wheel but a stunt driver had to do all of the work from the back, he was later covered by the animation.

There is one scene where an uneasy Valiant follows the murderer of R.K. Maroon into Toon Town and the film is turned around. As Valiant makes the transition into Toon Town the road he drives on, the singing trees he drives by and the smiling sun in the sky all become cartoons.  Toon Town is a very dangerous place for humans.  It is no surprise that Eddie is nervous in Toon Town, "It's like sticking your head in a pinball machine." describes Robert Zemeckis.  The fact that his brother was murdered there only made matters worse.

Of course a film like this would not work without top quality actors capable of interacting with non-existent characters.  Of all the actors, Bob Hoskins (Eddie), who shares most of his screen time with Roger had the toughest job.

A number of things make Hoskins perfect for the role of Eddie Valiant.  His five o'clock shadow-slept in looks were an asset and he provided a believable American accent to cover up his own very British accent.  "He made me believe Roger was actually there," says Zemeckis.

Hoskins prepared for the role by watching his daughter play with an invisible friend.  But when he tried to explain to his small children who his co-star was, "they would look at me (Hoskins) as if their old man had gone loopy!" 

"I had to build a relationship with thin air-to actually hallucinate that Roger was there." explains Hoskins.  After working with toons for so long, Hoskins describes the after affects, "I was living with toons day and night, and I actually began to see weasels sitting across from me at restaurants.  The hallucinations began to take over."

To help Hoskins and the other actors while filming, a full size doll of Roger was used in rehearsal.  Sometimes Charles Fleischer would actually speak Roger's lines when they were filming and he would even dress up in a cute outfit to make him appear more like Roger.

Christopher Lloyd, who portrays the nasty Judge Doom, is known for his numerous portrayals of characters.  On the television show Taxi he played the spaced out Reverend Jim and in the Back to the Future films he plays the crazy scientist/inventor Doc Brown.  In this film he has yet another warped personality but this time he is not friendly like the other characters.  However he does an excellent job of playing the part.

Joanna Cassidy plays the part of Valiants devoted girlfriend (Dolores).  She is probably best known for her role in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."  This was not her first role though, her acting career began in 1974 with a small part in "The Laughing Policeman" with Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern.  She even had her own series with Dabney Coleman called Buffalo Bill.

The budget for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was originally set at $27.5 million but Disney certainly did not stop there.  Getting the best director, the best animators, and the best special effects cost Disney almost twice the price that they had originally intended, $45 million.  It was a risk that Disney had to take.  The company needed to make a comeback because they were slowly sinking.  This film definitely helped make the comeback.  They hope to start a sequel, that will actually be a prequel, in 1991 hopefully to be released in 1993.

Earning more than $154 million at home and $174 million overseas, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was the top-grossing film in 1988. The winner of four Academy Awards and a Special Achievement Oscar, the film proved not to be such a risk after all.