Who Screwed Roger Rabbit?
In this era of sequels virtually every film to hit the $100 million mark is lined up for a II, and in some cases a III...but not always. One of the most popular, profitable and revolutionary animated films ever produced sits forlornly on the sidelines awaiting its progeny. In 1988 the Disney and Spielberg empires joined forces to produce a bizarre and wonderful piece of work called Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This well-known film brought its producers four Academy Awards, $154 million and the satisfaction of triggering a nationwide revival of interest in animation. Part animated feature, part live-action film noir, all entertainment, Who Framed Roger Rabbit made animated stars out of a sputtering rabbit named Roger and his mammiferous mate Jessica as they led live-action detective Eddie Valiant through sunny Los Angeles and the insane asylum known as Toontown in a desperate chase. The goal: clearing the rabbit of a spurious murder charge. Critics were wowed, both Disney and Spielberg’s Amblin Productions were enriched, and audiences were left p-p-p-pleading for more. Yet, to this day they continue to plead in vain, innocent victims of corporate politics, personal pettiness and doom-laden decision-making. As far as yours truly has been able to piece the sorry tale together, it goes something like this:
The Birth of a Star
Disney CEO Michael Eisner, you see, had become enamored of an old project once pushed by former exec Ron Miller; the adaptation of Gary Wolf’s novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit. Eisner was looking to put his stamp on a major animation project and believed that the novel would translate into a blockbuster film. Before coming to Disney, Michael Eisner had been head of production at Paramount. While there he had once helped out Steven Spielberg and George Lucas on a little project of theirs back in 1982, a faux 40s swashbuckler called Raiders of the Lost Ark. This film helped cement Spielberg’s position as one of the most popular directors in America. Since Raiders also turned a buck or two, Spielberg was happy to return the favor a few years later after Eisner had gone on to the House of Mouse and realized he needed help to make Roger Rabbit a reality.
Spielberg was by now one of Hollywood’s major players and he contributed more than mere moolah; he was instrumental in having other studios agree to lend their animated characters to the effort. Lucas, for his part, lent Disney the might of his SFX arsenal (Industrial Light & Magic). With the back-scratching now complete, the inevitable army of lawyers convened to work out agreements regarding the profit-sharing. When the last briefcase clicked shut, Disney and Amblin held 50/50 rights to box-office take, licensing, merchandise, theme-park attractions and everything on down to Roger’s fleas. The Big Deal included the making of any sequel, although no one foresaw how contentious this would become.
As production continued on the film now known as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, director Robert Zemeckis and animation supervisor Richard Williams emerged as a secondary tier of stars flourishing within the vision of Eisner and Spielberg. Roger, Jessica, Baby Herman and the venerable denizens of ToonTown were the third wave, the one that engulfed the nation and made toons cool again. People clamored to know how the SFX were achieved, and more importantly, started learning about the classic characters whose cameos made Roger Rabbit such a treat. People who did not know Tex Avery from Tex Ritter began to watch Avery’s films after articles described the late, great director’s influence on the movie’s original characters. It is probably no exaggeration to say that this film was the seminal trigger for the Disney revival and the emergence of entities like the Cartoon Network, to cite two examples. Oh, lest we forget, the movie finished second in box-office take that year only to the Tom Cruise/Dustin Hoffman vehicle Rain Man.
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