O.T. (repost) It's the 30th Anniversary of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'!
tj_1ca9500b
Posts: 2,057
Yep, 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' was released on June 22nd, 1988!
Note: I posted a thread earlier today, but apparently despite linking to Daz galleries to reference the source images, I ran afoul of the forum rules (my bad), so I'm starting this thread again without the 'offending' images.
For those that like such things, you can view some of the Roger Rabbit gallery images done by various artists here, along with some other unrelated images: Leave likes as you see fit!
https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/images/?q=roger+rabbit&x=0&y=0
While I should be able to quote a forum post that I spotted earlier, just in case I'll just post a link to the post: DustRider also did a nice Jessica Rabbit render.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/293830/#Comment_293830
I threw together my own homage as well, although I included Daffy instead as I don't have a decent cartoon rabbit in my Daz library. Feel free to add your own homages as well if you are so inclined!
I put Jessica together using the Jessica Dress bundle, although I tweaked the Ember character to my taste.
https://www.daz3d.com/jessica-dress-bundle
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I recently watched this movie again on one of the vintage TV channels. Definitely still a fun movie! Man 30 years goes by fast!
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Comments
When one starts routinely remembering things that one did as an adult over 50 years ago, then one can marvel.
But yeah, "Roger Rabbit" 30!
I remember when Disney's MGM Studios opened at Walt Disney World and I first spied R. K. Maroon's office building with the rabbit shaped hole in the window. 
I remember my disbelief back in 1988 at seeing both Disney's and Warner's characters in the same frame at the same time!
Now, of course, I shake my head in disbelief knowing that most of today's kids don't know who Porky, Bugs, and Daffy are anymore. How the times have changed.
Sadly, I mourn for Popeye and Betty Boop left forgotten in the memory dump of history. Some of those old Popeye cartoons were nearly 20 minutes long.
And many of the Betty Boop cartoons featured great jazz musicians of the time; I'm especially fond of The Old Man of the Mountain with Cab Calloway.
Back to the original post - I think the dichotomy between toon-town and the real world was very well done. And then there was Jessica, a flash-back to Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood.
Any of you read the novel that was the inspiration for the movie, "Who Censored Roger Rabbit"? A friend loaned me the book a few years before then movie was made or even announced. When I heard that Disney was going to bring it to the big screen, I thought, "What?! No way they can do that!!!" Not from the technical aspect, that wasn't the issue. If anyone could aptly handle the illusion of integrating Toons with humans, it would be Disney. No, the problem was the story. Ralph Bakshi's "Cool World" has more in common with the book, at least in terms of presenting the slimy underbelly of the entertainment industry. In the novel, Jessica wasn't just "drawn that way", she WAS bad, having multiple affairs! Porky Pig is described as being a coke addict! I felt like I needed to shower after reading that story.
Usually, I disdain movies taking strongly diverging from the source material, but I found no redeeming character in the book, not even Eddie Valiant. This was one instance when a movie took just a few elements and name from the source material, went in a totally different direction and actually improved upon the concept.
Sincerely,
Bill
Sticking to the topic, Popeye and Betty Boop were in Roger Rabbit. Well, Betty was for sure, a couple of times. And I seem to remember Popeye at the end peering through the broken warehouse wall. But I can't find a confirming picture except for the deleted scene that never got past the storyboard stage. Hmmm, well, it seems Popeye had contract problems and was unable to appear, despite being invited.
https://io9.gizmodo.com/see-the-toons-who-would-have-appeared-in-roger-rabbits-1575259454
Oops, found more evidence for Popeye's intended appearance.
I'm a huge fan of almost everything the Fleischer Studio did in the 1930s. Those color long-form Popeye cartoons with real backgrounds were some of the most beautiful non-Disney cartoons of the classic era. Betty Boop is still on a lot of merchandising although I don't think most people wearing those T-shirts ever saw "Bimbo's Initiation." The mood of those cartoons was very different from most of their competitors, and very special too.
To paraphrase Jessica .. I'm not old, it's just the way I feel ...
I find it interesting that the second graphic you posted has no female characters in it, at least not that I can see. Betty and Jessica were left out!
This is not a dig against you (so don't take offense), but whomever put together that graphic, well it does reflect Hollywood's obsession r.e. favoring male oriented characters and storylines, a bias that they still struggle with today.
Hmmm, it's interesting how memory plays tricks with you. Apparently Roger went through the window in Eddie Valiant the detective's office, not R. K. Maroon's. Memories are sometimes like snippets of movie film in a tornado. Snatches are accurate but they're all jumbled together.
My kids loved it, I hated it :P
Laurie
I was very amused to recognize the real locations that turned up in the film. Like the Hyperion bridge.
I never saw the movie but the whole "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" was a big theme at the Universal Theme Park near Disney World in 1989 I remember. The best thing at that theme park though was the driving by Golden Girls set when they real-life simulated special effects as do in movie (i.e explosion of fire and so on... ).
Not all of those old cartoons are good but those that are good are great. And they are great when you want to relax with visually funny scenes with great music. You don't need to view the next one to see what happen but if you want to relax then you get anywhere from 4 to 20 minutes of cartoons. Most of them are now free public domain although I often buy the DVDs in the hopes of getting better quality recording but sometimes that is the case & sometimes not. Most of today's 'entertainment' wants to emotionally upset you so you will feel obligated to subscribe as long as can make money off of you using the same formulaic plot devices so they really aren't as creative as they tell us they are.
One of my favorite movies along with Cool World and Ralph Bakshi flics
I also miss the old cartoons and have managed to archive some in my media library
Old Warner Bros. cartoons are the cream of the crop. Bugs, Daffy, Wile E. Porky and Foghorn Leghorn....and Pepe LePew...who could forget him? LOL I grew up on these. My kids grew up on them. They are still our absolute favorites. Where Bugs was clever and funny, Roger Rabbit was stupid and annoying ;). The one saving grace was Bob Hoskins and even then...probably not his best work.
Laurie
I thought I was the only one who hadn't seen the movie. I'm a huge fan of that stuff, I just never got around to seeing the movie, plus I don't see many movies in general. Cartoons ruined my attention span.
I wish I could have seen the Golden Girls set, I heard it's been torn down.
As for the public domain stuff, I've been trying to find a decent Beverly Hillibillies set for years, but I don't think it will happen unless the original copyright holder releases it. The stuff I find in stores are low grade DVD transfers (I think some of it may have been taped from TV) and no theme song, because music falls under a different copyright law. I love that Sony released the original 3 Stooges shorts on DVD. Most people won't buy it because its already public domain, but Sony released it just to make the fans happy. Corporations aren't always evil, but they do make bad moves nowadays.
The film was ok, but my all time favourite cartoon character is Bugs; never really liked any of the Disney characters except for a couple of their more recent films. I mean I was never a fan as a kid, and it continued through adulthood... and continues mostly.
Yes, Beverly Hillbillies DVD set would be great! I've only seen a smattering of episodes for sales also. Same as it was with Andy Griffith Show but one can buy now that entire series so maybe someday.
Maybe they are still making too much money with Beverly Hillbillies in syndication.
Maybe. I don't even know what company holds the copyrights. Nevermind, I found it. The Wikipedia page show it and it's complicated. I love the Andy Griffith Show, but TV Land only seems to show the same 40 or so episodes over and over. There's a ton of old TV shows I need to catch up on. And movies too, obviously.
Well their property and their no to earnings with that property while they can, I and others will just move on and they can argue til the cows come home.
I just loved those old cartoons - the quality and storyline was so much better than the weird, abstract stuff out today. To this day, no toon can bust my gut like Goofy.
Popeye was great, though they really weren't running Betty Boop reruns when I was a kid. I rather liked Robin Williams' portrayal of Popeye in the live action version.
Anybody remember Johnny Quest? That was one of my favorites! Scooby-Do was high on my watch list as well. So was the animae stuff like Speed Racer and Kimba the White Lion.
I posted this to the Superhero thread a little while ago because, I contend, Popeye was the first superhero. Ahead of Superman. It's not a proper likeness because I lack the skill of someone like JoeQuick.
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Those are good likenesses!
The entire '67 season of Speed Racer is on YouTube but I'm not sure if it's allowed to actually be there. It's always difficult to sort out that on those YouTube type channels if the posters or the hosts or the copyright holders don't bother to.
All the seasons can be got on Amazon.
Back when Cartoon Network was a bit more experimental with its programming, what seemed to be an episode started with the opening credits asw one would expect. Not particularly interested, I was about to change the channel when I realized it did not start with the expected words, "Here he comes; here comes Speed Racer..." Instead, it was Japanese! CN was playing the original credits as seen and heard in Japan! Turned the melody was exactly the same along with the visuals, just the lyrics were different. Needless to say, I stayed tuned for the rest of the segment. Alas, it was just the credit sequence not an entire episode, placed there as a "bumper" to pad the half hour mark. It was fun while it lasted.
I'm just old enough, 55, to have been around (and partially remember) that "first wave" of anime that reached US broadcast. A local UHF channel in Atlanta aired "Astro Boy", "Speed Racer", and "Kimba" as well as less remembered titles like "Prince Planet" and "Marine Boy". Because I could find no information about those last two during the 80s, I began to wonder if they were just severely distorted memories of other shows, never actually existing as I recalled them. Then, during the 90s while exploring the dealers' room of Dragon*Con, I passed a booth selling "off air" recordings of various shows. I saw the usual title, but my eyes bulged like a Warner Bros. character when I saw tapes labeled "Prince Planet" and "Marine Boy"! I had NOT imagined them! They really DID exist! Yeah, I bought those two cassettes. "Prince Planet" contained the last 4 concluding episodes. Even as a wee tyke around 4 or 5 years old, I found it amazing a cartoon series could actually having a conclusion to its story. The tape confirmed another memory I had begun to doubt.
Sorry, that went on a tangent.
Sincerely,
Bill
I remember Marine Boy, who chewed aqua-gum to be able to breathe underwater. I even remember what his suit was like, or at least I think i do.
I think it was "oxy-gum" (as in oxygen), but it's obvious you DO recall the series. He wore a reather sedate red wetsuit with a pair of water jet propelled boots to aid his swimming. He also had a mermaid for a girlfriend, one who didn't do the Disney schtick of wearing scallop shells as a bra. Technically, she was topless, but her massive hair coveniently hid "questionable anatomy".
Sincerely,
Bill
I just looked it up, Marine Boy was made in '66 but they showed it during weekday afternoons on a local UHF channel when I was a kid in the early-mid 70s. Marine Boy, Ultraman, Speed Racer, Johnny Socko and his Flying Robot, some other stuff. It was like all Japan on that channel.
And none of them made it into Roger Rabbit (bringing it back to the topic!)
That local UHF channel probably was channel 17; what would become TBS, TCM, CNN, and all those other media properties Ted Turner owns or did own. In 1974 we moved to LaGrange, Georgia and that's where I picked up that station. I don't even remember if there was another station that could be picked up but there proably was being so close to Atlanta & Fort Benning. They had also live action Japanse shows like Ultraman. And the Tom & Jerry, Looney Toons, and really an entire line of really great reruns cartoons. LOL, I remember the bigger variety of great candy you could buy then too as we'd stop at the store being driven to the elementary school in the morning. Much more than what you could get today.