Happy 20th Anniversary to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. All images © Touchstone Pictures and Amblin Ent. Inc.

Has it really been 20 years since the release of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Twenty years since the given-up-for-dead feature animation industry stood up and said, "Plplplllease, you gotta give me another chance! Come on, Raoul!"? Twenty years since Andrew Farago made his parents, older brothers and any available adult with a drivers' license chauffeur him to the next town for multiple viewings of his new favorite film. Not to mention 19 years since he rushed out to see Honey, I Shrunk the Kids as soon as it hit the local theater based solely on the inclusion of seven new minutes of Roger Rabbit animation? (OK... and the comic stylings of Rick Moranis.)

So, in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Farago interviews three key members of the animation department: Associate Producer Don Hahn and animators Tom Sito and James Baxter, while AWN Senior Editor Bill Desowitz speaks with Animation Director Richard Williams and Visual Effects Supervisor Ken Ralston.

Don Hahn
Andrew Farago: How did you first become involved with the production of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? What convinced you to take on the project?

Don Hahn: I had just finished work on The Great Mouse Detective as production manager and Peter Schneider was called to take a meeting at Amblin to discuss the animation on Roger Rabbit. Peter was new to the department so he asked that I start going with him to talk to Bob Z [Robert Zemeckis] and the producers about the project. After that I was pulled in slowly to start to manage tests, then to go to London to work with Dick [Richard] Williams and his studio and eventually to live in London for almost two years to oversee the animation as associate producer.

AF: Can you describe your role in the production of the film?

DH: I produced the animation. There were three major elements of the production: the live-action shoot, the animation and the magic that ILM did at the end to combine it all together. The studio in London was a combination of key players from Dick Williams' studio, four key animators from Burbank and a team of gypsy animators that we hired from around the world to come to London to work. I hired Max Howard, who was a brilliant manager, and together we built a studio around Richard and the crew to deliver the film.

This never-before-seen drawing byJoe Ranft is for a poster in R.K. Maroon's office for "Baby Makes Tree" from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

AF: Please talk about your experience in animation prior to Roger, and how that compared to the technical challenges that you faced on that film.

DH: I had worked on Pete's Dragon as an assistant director to Don Bluth, so I knew some of the challenges of the live action/animation combination. What was really hard about Roger is that Bob Zemeckis wanted to break all the rules of animation in live action. He wanted, rightly so, to make a modern movie that happened to have animation in it. He moved the camera, which required all the work to be done on ones. He created difficult lighting situations and dressed characters like Jessica in glittery costumes. The animation studio in London suffered from a slow learning curve, but so many of the artists were used to working on TV commercials for Dick that they were used to being innovative and knew how to problem-solve. By the end of production, we were sailing and the work was flowing out of our Edwardian Factory building in Camden Town.

AF: Disney animation underwent a renaissance with the release of The Little Mermaid, in 1989, but there are many who point to Who Framed Roger Rabbit as the big turning point for Disney's animation department in the late 1980s. Do you agree with that statement? Can you describe the pre-Roger and post-Roger Disney Studios?

DH: Pre-Roger was The Great Mouse Detective, which was a really good harbinger of what was to come. It was one of Ron [Clements] and John [Musker's] first directing efforts, and the success of that film led them to Mermaid and me and others to Roger Rabbit. I think Roger Rabbit was the film that reminded the audience how much they loved good animation, especially the great animation of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. It was the first animated film to really draw in an adult audience, not just kids.

Also, Peter Schneider and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the execs at Disney, did a clever thing. They would fly over to London and tell us how great things were going on Oliver & Company and The Little Mermaid, and that we had to get our act together, then they would fly back to Burbank and tell the animators how amazing the crew was in London and how they had to get their act together in L.A. It worked. Roger upped the stakes, and cemented everything. Animation was no longer at the kids' card table in the kitchen; it was a real art form as it had been in Walt's time. And, of course, that led to a further renaissance of films, including fringe films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Toy Story.