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A toon killed The Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day’s brother. Dropped a piano on his head.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s Behind the Scenes Pic!
I love that Robert Zemeckis has found a level of creative freedom with Performance Capture that he’s never been able to achieve before, but there’s some spark that is missing with that perfection, an intangible element that can only be created by conflict and problem-solving, that isn’t captured when you have the ability to spend years putting the camera wherever you want in a virtual world.
Looking behind the scenes of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT really puts this observation into perfect clarity… In everything I’ve seen from the making of this movie, more than almost any other movie off the top of my head, a level of high creativity was required to get this film to work at all. Some of the solutions are high tech, like a puppet flattened Doom character, and some are low-tech like today’s pic.
I see far more innovation and creativity on display in Roger Rabbit, a film that is now 22 years old, than anything Zemeckis has done since. And that kind of makes me a little sad.
Here’s hoping that if Zemeckis gets going on Roger Rabbit 2 after Yellow Submarine that he goes back to some live-action filmmaking. Everything he has said so far leads me to believe that’s the route, with Roger staying a 2-D cartoon and all that. There’s a lot of potential in a sequel, although as much as I’d like to see, like, Pixar characters and the like mixing with vintage toons I’d hate to leave that great noir-y time period set up in the first film.
Anyway, here’s the shot of Bob Hoskins being awesome even with another man’s hands up his shirt! Click for a bigger version! Enjoy!
Tomorrow’s Behind the Scenes Pic is filmin’ midgets!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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Readers Talkback
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Toons, gets em every time.
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Such a creative film. A part of me would love to see a sequel, especially since I'm a big fan of Hoskins, but the other part of me fears that it would be a disaster.
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April 14, 2011, 4:35 p.m. CST
Also, I thought Yellow Sub was killed when Disney closed Zemeckis' studio
by AlienFanatic
No? Lord, I hope so. There's no need for a re-hash of a film in which the stars are absolutely irreplaceable. The Beatles cannot be replaced, period.
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The guy on the floor looks very solemn. I haven’t seen this movie since it was new. I seem to recall that it was really bizarre, and kind of scary in parts.
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...that is all...
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I hate the idea of releasing sequels 20+ years after the fact. It's not the same magic. It seems like these big directors go back and do a sequel to a past successful movie, trying to prove they can still make the studios big money after having a box office bomb. For example: Zemeckis-Mars Needs Moms, now possibly RR 2. Craven-My Soul to Take, now Scream 4. Ridley Scott-Robin Hood, now the Alien prequel (Prometheus). Then there was Indy 4, and the idea of Ghostbusters 3. Which didn't necessarily have crappy movies by the directors before, but they wont turn out well. But I guess, it's better than flat-out remaking them.
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...it seems so obvious now.
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April 14, 2011, 4:53 p.m. CST
The movie was good,but the Roger Rabbit character sucked
by BoRock_A_Boomer
And the guy who did the voice was a Herc league douche bag.
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seriously fuckin creepy
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Apparently, movies with question marks usually fail at the BO. Zemeckis left it off intentionally.
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Was this article originally written in Hungarian and subsequently translated into English by a 13 year old exchange student from Slovenia? BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT IT SEEMS LIKE! Go back to school for Christ's sake. Go learn something.
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It has a really cool vibe and atmosphere about it thats hard to explain ... Fucking loved it on the big screen.
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Seriously, I can't believe they would revisit that. Are they going to remake Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video too? Leave it the hell alone.
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Phew! Suddenly I'm all sleepy. zzzz
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If a sequel still blended practical effects and genuine animation then I would be all for it ... but you just know the whole thing would be fucking CGI. Hoskins would have a CGI coat instead a some dudes arms.
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I heard it got the axe when MARS NEEDS MOMS tanked. And Roger Rabbit's irritating character traits were absolutely intentional, and crucial to the central point of the movie. Mr.Stiggs, there is a question mark at the end of the movie's title, maybe that's throwing you off. Or maybe you're just feeling negative and bored.
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No sequels. No remakes. Ever. Just leave it the fuck alone.
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April 14, 2011, 5:22 p.m. CST
One of the many, many awesome things about this film...
by WriteForTheEdit
...is the opening of the "third act:" Eddie's drive into Toontown. That made gave me goosebumps then and still does today. And yes, the reveal of the Judge's eyes is genuinely scary.
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after this he started to go downhill
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Disney killed it after the horrible flop that was Mars Needs Moms. I really hope that no studio will allow Robert Zemeckis to touch Mocap again. He needs to get back to Roger Rabbit/Back to the Future type (not sequels) movies again. Thats where he's a genius.
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It's highlights are too numerous to mention. So glad the DVD included the RR shorts. CGI likely diminishes it's impact for today's viewers, but the 2D animation is so top-notch, it really becomes something else, doesn't it?
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That is so awesome, I can't stand it!
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I only own WKRR on VHS tape, and you just convinced me I have to get it on DVD.
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One of my favorite movies of the last 10 years.
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April 14, 2011, 5:59 p.m. CST
"I would have been here right after you called, but I had to shake the weasels."
by WriteForTheEdit
Joanna Cassidy was never better.
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"I already have." Line chokes me up every time.
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Holy shit, I had never even heard of that! Sweet.
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"There's no need for a re-hash of a film in which the stars are absolutely irreplaceable. The Beatles cannot be replaced, period." You do realize that none of The Beatles did any of the speaking parts in Yellow Submarine, right? Yes, they sang the songs, obviously... and they made that quick little cameo at the end... but the speaking voices throughout... not them.
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April 14, 2011, 6:39 p.m. CST
The tunnel leading to Toon Town is also the same one from the end of Back to the Future 2
by KEVIN_COSTNERS_RECYCLED_PISS
I'm pretty sure the guy who voiced Roger Rabbit had a cameo in that movie too.
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April 14, 2011, 6:50 p.m. CST
Re: The tunnel leading to Toon Town is also the same one from the
by LordMaker
Yeah, he played the guy who gave Marty the idea for the Almanac.
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So much of the magic in film come from the spur of the moment actions you get on a physical set. Bob Hoskins' look in that photo is an excellent example.
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April 14, 2011, 6:56 p.m. CST
Reminds me of the low-tech way they 'firmed up' Steeep's breasts in Death Becomes Her
by Kamaji
In that film, they had a guy under/off-camera with his hands under Streep's outfit, just 'manually' pushing her breasts back up to simulate them returning to their firmer, younger selves. Roger Rabbit made me a huge fan of Zemeckis' work. That film was as much a grab-bag of awesome as Back to the Future. I saw that with my Dad, and it's one of those films like 1989's 'Batman' that stick in my head as prime Father/Son movie experience time. Even when we've gone to Disneyland, We alway go to the Rger Rabbit ride and spin the hell out of our cab as we careen through Toonown.
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April 14, 2011, 6:59 p.m. CST
lordmaker- Charles Fleischer did play his role two ways in BTTF2
by Kamaji
-in 2015, he's the guy who tells Marty that he wishes he could have bet on the Chicago Cubs at the beginning of the 2015 season, since they finally won a World Series. - in 1955, he's the Western Auto mechanic who Biff talks to about the repair and cleaning of his Ford after the (1st) manure incident.
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April 14, 2011, 7:28 p.m. CST
Heh i had a hunch that today's pic would be RR.my 6th sense hits again.
by KilliK
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April 14, 2011, 7:28 p.m. CST
Btw i always wondered who drew the Judge and why.Maybe it will be revealed in the sequel?
by KilliK
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In 1997 I worked as a temp answering phones at the Veteran's Administration hospital. Working in the office was a 40 year old man who loved and collected all the Disney animated movies and their merchandise. Yet he despised WFRR with a passion all because of the scene where the villain dropped the cartoon shoe into the acid. He would tell me Disney should be ashamed of itself to make a movie where that poor little shoe was begging for his life and was slowly lowered into the acid and tortured to death. He was telling me the story and crying. He said when he saw that in the theater he was so traumatized he walked out and started a letter writing campaign to Disney demanding an apology. He had since refused to see any more Disney movies. I had never thought of that scene that way, but the way he described it, it is pretty gruesome. Poor shoe.
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April 14, 2011, 7:41 p.m. CST
jgull i have to agree with the guy.i shared the same emotions when
by KilliK
i watched for the first time.very gruesome and sad,maybe even traumatizing for a little kid watching that horrible scene in a cartoon movie. ofc now that i got older i just laugh with that scene but still i can understand where the guy's reaction.
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April 14, 2011, 7:49 p.m. CST
Robert Zemeckis have been planning a sequel for a long time now...
by brocknroll
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The film wasn't meant to be a straight-on 'Disney' film. In one interview, Bob Z mentioned that the animation was an amalgamation of Disney's great animation style, mixed with the kind of characters you'd find in the Looney Tunes, and finished off with the slapstick and gags to be found in the Tex Avery shorts. The closest to any kind of 'cutesy' character would most likely be the poor shoe that many remember. In the commentary on the DVD, Zemeckis mentions that it would have been too horrible if Doom dipped something like a cartoon chipmunk, so they assumption was the dipping of the shoe would be less traumatic. Though me, I never had any issues with that scene. It was at the end when Doom walks towards the camera with those burning red eyes and that high-squeaky voice that got me. Christopher Lloyd is coming to Chicago this August, and I want to ask him a few questions about those scenes. It's also notable in the commentary that Zemeckis and several of his associates mention that if you made this film today, it'd be so 'easy.' And if you saw Looney Tunes: Back in Action, there's a prime example. You don't need to have puppeteers on overhead wires moving guns around a set...you'd just add them in digitally to the 2D-characters. Of course, I'm also skeptical about an RR sequel, because it's like with the Indiana Jones movies: you captured lightning in a bottle that first time...can you do it again? I'm pretty sure the story they develop is going to be a whole new adventure for Roger, so Eddie, Dolores, and some of the other human characters are probably not coming back. The more I think of this, I get a strange sinking feeling that reminds me of when 'Big Top Pee-Wee' was made.
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April 14, 2011, 9:31 p.m. CST
braindrain, it's kind of like the 'bottle scene' in 'Pan's Labyrinth'
by Kamaji
The basic premise of, 'noone could be that cruel,' and then it turns out they truly are F'ed up!
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Among the many lost roles not given to Mr. Murray. http://splitsider.com/2011/02/the-lost-roles-of-bill-murray
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April 14, 2011, 10:29 p.m. CST
Was it just me or did WFRR leave absolutely no lasting impression?
by MooseMalloy
Other than Jessica Rabbit of course.
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April 14, 2011, 11:03 p.m. CST
REMEMBER ME, EDDIE? WHEN I KILLED YOUR BROTHER?!
by Nasty In The Pasty
I TALKED...JUST...LIKE...THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [eyes turn into daggers] That STILL freaks me out to this day (although the scene where Doom gets flattened by the steamroller freaked me out even more...fuck, I *was* only fourteen at the time, and a gigantic pussy). And yeah, the "shoe lowered into the Dip" scene is pretty ruthless considering the kiddie audience. Just goes to show how RIDICULOUSLY santized and toohless the PG rating has become over the past 20 years...nowadays, there's virtually no distinction between a G-rated movie and PG-rated one, except you can say "damn" once or twice in a PG-rated film, whereas in the 80's you could get away with literal murder on a PG and even have moderate swearing (I watched Big again the other day, and there's actually a "fuck" slipped in). The only recent film released on a PG rating that really recalled "80's PG" was Coraline, which was scary as FUCK.
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Actually, the Beatles only appeared at the end of 'Yellow Submarine' for the song 'All Together Now'. The voices in the rest of the film where done by other actors. I was actually kind of curious as to where Zemeckis would go with the 'Yellow Submarine'-remake...
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I know, it sounds crazy, but it's true. The book is "Who Censored Roger Rabbit" written by Gary K. Wolf
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and his 2 year old brother caught a glimpse of the Judge at the end with his toon eyes bugging out, and he started crying. Forgot how creepy looking that fucker was.
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I want to have his babies!
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Don't know if you'd consider it "canon," but here is Doom's back story: In the graphic novel Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom, it is explained that Doom was originally a formless Toon named Baron von Rotten, who took up the role of playing the antagonist in movies, until a filming accident in which Von Rotten suffers a concussion, and awakens believing he is a real villain. Von Rotten thus begins his crime career, robbing the First National Bank of Toontown, then killing Teddy Valiant by dropping a piano on his head from 15 stories, and spreading the stolen money all over the town in order to buy the election for Judge of Toontown, assuming the new name of Judge Doom.
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April 15, 2011, 1:19 a.m. CST
Disn't Superman's bastard kid dropped the piano on the head of... never mind.
by Se7en
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Great film and if bob would get off this horrible mo-cap kick and make a sequel that would be peachy keen jelly bean.
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he is one of the very few intentionally irritating characters, who are just on the right level. A little more and he would be as annoying as Jar Jar. A little less, he wouldn't be funny.
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April 15, 2011, 8:29 a.m. CST
"Step out Valiant and we'll hang you and laundry out to dry"
by Bartleby T. Scrivener
Classic dialogue.
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It's all in the moleeds.
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April 15, 2011, 8:32 a.m. CST
This movie would have been so much better with Eddie Murphy (as planned) or with Bill Murray (as planned)
by Professor_Monster
Bob Hoskins is about as much fun to watch as someone's dad on a putt putt course.
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April 15, 2011, 8:32 a.m. CST
"Step out of line Valiant and we'll hang you and your laundry out to dry"
by Bartleby T. Scrivener
Sorry.
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You have your head planted firmly in your rectum. Give it a lick. See what you taste? It's your anus. Neither Eddie Murphy or Bill Murray would have been able to pull off a noir detective. On top of that, the roll of Eddie Valliant is the straight man to Roger...both Eddie and Bill are COMEDIANS...Hoskins gave a BRILLIANT performance. --G
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It fascinated me to see classic Disney characters palling around with Looney Tunes characters. Especially Mickey's "oh gosh" personality with Bugs' "Ain't I a stinker?" line. Or Donald and Daffy in a piano duet gone horribly wrong. Of course, both characters had to have equal screen time, right down to the last frame of film. Fat chance that'll happen in these times, seeing Pixar characters and Dreamworks characters together in one movie. Shrek and Donkey walking around with Buzz and Woody? Can't see it.
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April 15, 2011, 10:26 a.m. CST
I seem to recall when it was still called by the book's title " Who Censored Roger Rabbit?",
by openthepodbaydoorshal
that Harrison Ford was rumored to play Eddie Valiant. This was the early to mid '80s, after all..
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April 15, 2011, 10:27 a.m. CST
And yes...the Platinum Series DVD is worth it,
by openthepodbaydoorshal
while we wait for the BluRay to come from Disney's ever stingy vault.
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..is the villain. Maybe I was suffering from Cristopher Lloyd Overkill Syndrome, but the dude was in EVERYTHING. Just got sick of seeing him in every dang thing. However, that's not my real complaint. In WFRR, almost every 'toon' character in some way - by that I mean, every major toon character was either a main character that we already had some familiarity with, or or else they were just sort of background anciliary toon characters from the same cartoons we had all seen for years. Dumbo, Bugs, Mickey, Porky, Yosemite, etc etc etc all the way back to the 'golden oldies' era. It was all there, and it all felt so good because it touched that nerve in us that had such a familiar yet nostalgic feel to them. It felt like the filmmakers understood the audience and knew exactly how we would feel when presented with such images and characters from such a disparate-yet-similar realm. And yes, the characters of Roger and Jessica and some of the others were 'made-up', I know, but the movie gave us the chance to get to know them, as a good movie is intended to do. But the whole lynch-pin upon which the movie hinges is the Judge character. And not only is there zero motivation for that character, there is no 'reveal at the end either. There was no familiarity, no moment of 'Ohhhhh... so THAT is who that was! I get it now!' ...because that character was also made up out of whole cloth and was therefore just an utter let-down at the point in the movie when we should have felt the most impact. That, plus, in a movie which had had a pretty clever use of practical effects mixed with the 'toons', the effects used at the end with the Judge were absolutely atrociously awful. The whole steamroller bit, and then that totally awful 're-inflating himself' sequence.. just terrible. Now all in all, I am a big fan of WFRR, but I really really wish they had dome something else with the villain, explained it better (or at all), and let us truly savor the whole movie experience, instead of only about 80% of it.
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I hope they do a sequel. I'm excited about that.
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April 15, 2011, 10:54 a.m. CST
conan_the_librarian: great link; thanks! But I completely disagree with the author's comments on Murray in WKRR:
by WriteForTheEdit
Regarding Murray's non-involvement, he/she write: "Was this good for the movie? "No. Although Bob Hoskins handles the role ably, Murray would have been much funnier and a marked improvement." I think Hoskins' performance is PITCH-PERFECT. He's the straight man to Roger's outrageous comic character. If Hoskins had played it for more laughs, it would have been too much.
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It is the greatest screen monster rampage. Name another movie that shows the monster ripping people's legs and heads off and then drinking their blood all in one shot.
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Marvin Acme. The rabbit cacked him last night.
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As much as I would love to see a new Roger Rabbit, it would be horrendous without Mel Blanc. His voice was such an important part of the Looney Tunes cartoons. He was the heart & soul of those characters & was the reason Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Tweety & the rest went from being mere drawings to living characters. I'm not discrediting the animators, but Blanc was why I loved those cartoons. It's kind of like the Muppets without Jim Henson.
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April 16, 2011, 8:14 p.m. CST
braindrain- Speaking of Motti, the actor who played him told me a cool story one time
by Kamaji
I was at the Wizard World Chicago-Con 6-8 years ago, and we started discussing his role in Roger Rabbit, and he told me something I hadn't heard before (and nearby, Jeremy Bulloch even turned to listen). Apparently, when his character in Roger Rabbit comes into Eddie's apartment and has heard about what he did, he is supposed to say, "Jesus, Eddie, if you needed money so bad, why didn't ya come to me?" Word was, the Disney execs were scared of using 'Jesus' in the film, and they re-dubbed the line to have him say 'Gee-whiz.'
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Maybe I'm in the minority, but Roger Rabbit left me totally fucking unmoved. I love love love the old Warner Bros, cartoons, but this was like watching pale, soul-less imitations of all those characters. Pretty, yes. Technically impressive, of course, but the wit and soul seemed missing from the thing. Plus, I freaking hated the spluttering hyperactive stupidity of Roger Rabbit. Grating.
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I would seriously kill to have this treasure!
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April 17, 2011, 11:13 a.m. CST
Man, Reni Santoni's hard up for work ever since he co-starred in "Dirty Harry" and "Cobra"!
by MrMysteryGuest
Obscure reference #1
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