Touchstone Home Entertainment
Region : 1 Vista Series
Format : Disc One 4:3 ; Disc Two 1.85:1 enhanced
Sound : Disc One Dolby 5.1 ; Disc Two DTS and Dolby
Extras : Lots and Lots
There were so many people involved that if you want to have a look try 
Bob Hoskins....Eddie Valiant
Christopher Lloyd....Judge Doom
Joanna Cassidy....Dolores
Charles Fleischer....Roger Rabbit, Benny the Cab, Greasy (weasel), Psycho
(weasel) (voice)
Stubby Kaye....Marvin Acme
Alan Tilvern....R.K. Maroon
Richard LeParmentier....Lt. Santino
Lou Hirsch....Real-life Baby Herman (voice)
Betsy Brantley....Jessica's performance model
Joel Silver....Raoul J. Raoul (the director)
Paul Springer....Augie (mute bar patron)
Richard Ridings....Angelo (impudent bar patron)
Edwin Craig....Arthritic Cowboy/Man in Bar
Lindsay Holiday....Soldier in Bar
Mike Edmonds....Stretch
Morgan Deare....Editor/Bongo the Gorilla (voice)
Danny Capri....Kid #1 (as Danny Kapri)
Directed by…Robert Zemeckis
Writing credits
Gary K. Wolf (novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?)
Jeffrey Price & Peter S. Seaman
Produced by
Don Hahn...associate producer
Kathleen Kennedy....executive producer
Frank Marshall....producer
Steven Spielberg....executive producer
Steve Starkey....associate producer
Robert Watts....producer
Original Music by…Alan Silvestri
Non-Original Music by….Franz Liszt (from "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2")
Cinematography by…Dean Cundey
Film Editing by…Arthur Schmidt
Production Design by…Roger Cain Elliot
Scott
Costume Design by…Joanna Johnston
Steve E. Anderson....makeup artist
Colin Jamison....hair stylist: UK
Peter Robb-King....makeup artist: UK
Patricia Carr....production manager: UK
Jack Frost Sanders....unit production manager: USA
Patsy de Lord....production manager: animation
Chris Brock ....second assistant director: UK
Cara Giallanza....second assistant director: USA
Max Kleven....second unit director: USA
Frank Marshall ....second unit director: UK
David McGiffert....first assistant director: USA
Michael Murray ....first assistant director: UK
Ian Sharp....second unit director: UK
Peter Heslop....third assistant director (uncredited)
As good as the set is, the quantity of extras is not very large.
But more extras means more compression of the film, and less quality.
However, considering that the cost of a physical DVD is a lot less than
the fancy packaging, why not have the film on a disc by itself, and then the
extras can then take up as much space as necessary.
Americans, and to a lesser degree here in the UK, viewers have been brain
washed into thinking that unless the entire picture area of a tv is covered they
are missing something – so the idea of watching a film in ratio; as it was
mean to be watched – has never come to them.
(This is why so many films are released in a widescreen and fullscreen
version in the US – something I hope Never happens over here).
Disney are no exception – so even their top of the range product –
the Visa Series – has a full screen version of ‘Roger Rabbit’ on disc one,
and a 1.85:1 enhanced for 16x9 television version – with a Dolby and a DTS
track – on the other. I have to
say the logic defeats me. What
Disney are saying is that if you want a commentary, Dolby and DTS sound and
‘Toontown Confidential’ a feature length extra, you watch the
‘widescreen’ version of the film – so who do they think will watch the
fullscreen version – the research I’ve read says that people buy DVD’s for
the extras, such as commentary and sound?
Anyway back to the plot
The plot of ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ is loosely based on ‘Chinatown’
– with a private-eye who is down on his luck, out of money and not wanting to
get involved but turning out to be the hero.
Eddie Valliant (Bob Hoskins) is himself a mixture of Sam Spade and Philip
Marlow (as made famous by Humphrey Bogart) – Bob Hoskins had already become
well known in European Cinema in two ‘Gangster Films’ ‘Mona Lisa’ (1986)
and ‘The Long Good Friday’ (1980).
In the Universe just next door – there is a world where cartoon characters are
as real as you and me – a world where Toons make films, albeit with human
directors, and are stars in their own right.
Eddie Valliant is hired by R K Maroon (Alan Tilvern), head of Maroon Studios, to
follow Jessica Rabbit and to get some photos of her and her sugar daddy Marvin
Acme (Stubby Kaye). Roger Rabbit,
star Toon actor, is shown the photos by R K Maroon, they show Jessica and Marvin
Acme playing patty-cake. Roger
refuses to believe that Jessica would do this to him, and vows to do anything to
make her happy (h-a-p-p-i). Marvin
Acme is found killed – a safe was dropped on his head – Roger is the police
suspect. When Roger turns up in
Eddie’s office pleading his innocence and begging Eddie to take the case –
the reluctant Eddie Valiant has to find out ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’.
Although a lot of praise goes to Richard Williams and his team of animators –
he designed Roger, Jessica and most of the original toons – everyone admits
that the star of the film, and the person who made it all work was Bob Hoskins.
The acting skill that makes you believe that the toons are real, and that
the absurd things happening on screen are real comes down to Hoskins –
something that is acknowledged in the extras on the discs and in the way the
supporting cast (particularly Joanna Cassidy as Eddie’s girlfriend Dolores)
follow his lead. Christopher
Lloyd (Judge Doom) is so wonderfully over-the-top-evil that you can only wonder
‘how did that gargoyle ever become a judge’.
Another reason that the characters feel real is the voice performance of Charles
Fleischer as Roger, although his lines were eventually re-recorded, he was there
on the set do his lines so that the humans could interact.
(Charles Fleischer also provided the voices for
Benny the Cab and two of the weasels).
In Roger, with his only purpose to make people happy and laugh – and the
sultry Jessica, ‘I’m not bad, I was just drawn that way’, we have
characters, with life, not two dimensional drawings.
Filmed in strong dark colours ‘Roger Rabbit’ has the ‘film-noir’ look
better than most real private-eye films. (The whole point of ‘film-noir’ was
the Black & White contrasts
something that does not suite colour). The
time and effort put into the physical filming also helps explain why the film
turned out so beautiful to look at, and
why it has lasted so well – the interaction of animation
and people is so much better than some modern CGI efforts.
(In order that the process people had as near perfect film elements to
work with the producers had two new VistaVsion cameras made – the use of
VistaVision cameras and lenses explains the clarity and depth of focus of the
finished film).
The picture quality on the DVD is magnificent – even the bits of the
fullscreen version that I sampled. The
rich colours and the black shadows, muted in the bar and Eddie’s office,
bright and garish in Toontown and the opening sequence, set the tone of the film
better than I remember seeing it in the cinema.
With not a blemish on the print – surely this is how all films should
be presented? It will not
surprise people to hear that I preferred the DTS track over the Dolby, but it
you do not have DTS – or for some reason want to watch the fulscreen version
of the film, then the Dolby track is perfectly ok.
Disney make a lot of their ‘Vista’ series so I was surprised to see that in
reality, apart from the most excellent transfers of both versions of the feature
and the 3 Roger Rabbit & Baby Herman shorts, there were not a huge amount of
extras. The menus on both discs are
specially filmed introductions, with Benny the Cab, - in the real world –
conducting the tour. The original
‘Who Made Roger Rabbit’ featurette hosted by
Charles Fleischer (on disc one) is quite funny, the other featurette (one
disc two) ‘Behind The Ears: The True Story of Roger Rabbit’ was a bit of a
disappointment. Billed as an
‘exclusive in-depth behind-the-scenes documentary’ it was hardly in-depth.
As interesting as it was – it was quite clumsily edited, with people
being cut off in mid stream, and more left untold than told about the making of
the film.
There are many stories about the making ‘Roger Rabbit’, quite a few of which
may be libellous, but why, for example – was Kathleen Turner uncredited as
Jessica – why, after the teaser publicity had Walt Disney and Stephen
Spielberg presents, the film was released as Touchstone Pictures and
Stephen Spielberg presents – why not tell people that the contract said
the Mickey & Bugs and Donald & Daffy could only appear on screen
together, and they were to have an equal number of lines.
As for the other extras – The Pigs Head sequence and why it did not work and
was deleted will be of interest to the general viewer because the sequence was
included in the trailer. There were
other bits deleted, which is not unusual with any film, and a couple of these
are mentioned in the ‘Behind the Ears’ documentary. Other short extras on how some of the effect were created are
also interesting.
The Commentary is one of the better feature commentaries, with some interesting
and funny stories from the speakers (who, for a change, identify themselves as
they go along so that you know who is speaking as you listen).
The ‘Toontown Confidential’ is in reality a subtitle pointing out things as
you go along, and actually encouraging frame by frame examination of certain
parts of the film. My only slight
quibble is that the sub-editing is not very good.
At various points they repeat things already said about Stephen
Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis etc.
(If you watch it you can find out where the 3 ‘Hidden Mickeys’ are).
One wonderful piece of trivia is in the end credits, someone has made a
priceless spelling mistake by have the filming at Cannon Elstree, Hertz,
England.
‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ was a very successful film and has been seen by a
lot of people, this set will be a
very welcome addition to most peoples collections.
April 2003