Wonkette Movie Night: Who Framed Roger Rabbit
'I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way.'
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a classic film noir with the exception that it’s filled with color as it has been mixed with cartoons! It has most of the archetypes found in film noir including the hard-boiled detective, the femme fatale, the corrupt official, and gangsters. It also has just about every old timey cartoon character you can think of.
The toons are looked down upon and treated as disposable in the 1947 Hollywood that exists in this film. Based on the 1981 novel “Who Censored Roger Rabbit” by Gary K. Wolf, which is a much darker story of murder, Who Framed Roger Rabbit has the appearance of a kid’s flick but it also has quite a dark story like the novel and a truly terrifying villain.
Details make the combination of animation and real actors work in this film where it has failed many other times, as in 1992’s Cool World with Brad Pitt. The artists on this film put in the detailed work to make Roger Rabbit a believable mix, as explained in Who Framed Roger Rabbit - The 3 rules Of Living Animation; the extra effort was dubbed “bumping the lamp” by Disney animators. Referencing a scene of a swinging lamp and the shadows on Roger Rabbit that moved with it, they did what other filmmakers couldn’t and seamlessly put him in Bob Hoskins’ hands.
The movie won three Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing. I watched this movie on Friday after a long time since my last viewing, and I was reminded of how frightening Christopher Lloyd’s Judge Doom was and how amazing the animation was. You could say I was drawn in.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit stars Bob Hoskins, Charles Fleischer, Kathleen Turner, Christopher Lloyd, Mel Blanc, Joanna Cassidy, Stubby Kaye, and Amy Irving. Directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is available with subscription on Disney+. $3.99 on Prime, YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play, and Fandango At Home.
To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules go to WonkMovie.
Our cartoon today is the classic Bugs Bunny in Haredevil Hare from 1948. It was the first appearance of Marvin the Martian. I had a devil of a time finding it, here’s an Internet Archive link: Haredevil Hare and on TikTok:
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
We start a new month of movies next Saturday, April. Celebrating three years of Movie Nights!
𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐔𝐒 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐀:
Bob Hoskins said that, for two weeks after seeing the movie, his young son would avoid talking to him. When asked why, his son said he couldn't believe his father would work with Bugs Bunny and not let him meet him.
𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐔𝐒 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐀:
Casting decisions: Robert Zemeckis recounts that he had stated in a newspaper interview that Bill Murray was his and executive producer Steven Spielberg's original choice for the role of Eddie Valiant, but neither could get in contact with him in time. Murray, in turn, has stated that when he read the interview, he was in a public place, but he still screamed his lungs out, because he would have definitely accepted the role. Tim Curry auditioned for the role of Judge Doom. Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Michael Eisner found his performance quite terrifying.(doesn't say why he wasn't chosen)