Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is the wonderfully fantastic 1988 fantasy film directed by Robert Zemeckis. The film mixes live-action and animation together. It may looks "rough around the edges" today, but it is a revolutionary film.

The film was produced and released by Walt Disney Pictures under the Touchstone banner, and includes Disney (Mickey, and the rest you should be aware of), Warner Bros (Bugs Bunny, and the rest you should be aware of), MGM (Droopy, as well as others), Paramount Pictures (Betty Boop), Universal Studios (Woody Woodpecker), as well as others.

The film stars Bob Hoskins as private detective Eddie Valiant, Christopher Lloyd as the notorious Judge Doom, Joanna Cassidy as Eddie's girlfriend Dolores, Charles Fleischer as the voice of our illustrious title character, and Kathleen Turner as the voice of the sultry Kathleen Turner.

The casting was fantastic. Bob Hoskins plays a great detective. For my entire youth I didn't even know he wasn't a warm-blooded American. Of course in retrospect if you listen closely you can hear the typical "I have a cold voice" that many actors put on to mask the Britishness of their voice – but I digress. Christopher Lloyd was a masterful villain – how he doesn't make it somewhere on the AFI's 100 Villains list I don’t know. And jeez... Jessica Rabbit? I mean, I don't want to get inappropriate... She's not bad, she's "just drawn that way." Oh yeah, "Nice booby-trap".

Animation-wise this is a masterpiece. Most films made which combine animated characters were relegated to simple gimmicks and in musical numbers. This could range from either kind of hokey like the dancing penguins with Dick Van Dike or wonderful but pretty much banned like the film Song of the South. And before you say, hey Chris, what about the Blue Man Group people from Avatar? What about Jar-Jar Binks? Well CGI really has gone a far way, but it's just *not* the same. This isn’t even mentioning that this film did most, if not all of the heavy lifting without the extensive help of computers – unlike later films like Space Jam or Looney Tunes: Back in Action. As an aside to the conversation, Looney Tunes: Back In Action is a far superior to the dated, and pretty lame Michael Jordan vehicle that is actually pretty difficult to watch these days.

The film is jam packed with cameos from just about every famous classic cartoon character that was created in the heyday of Hollywood's golden era. The sheer sight of seeing both Bugs and Mickey on the same screen at the same time is amazing. It's also full of references to sight gags, and other classic gems. I never realized that the Toon Town musical entrance was based on a 1931 Foxy cartoon (Smile, Darn Ya Smile!).

Perhaps the best scene in the entire film is when Eddie enters the club and sees Daffy and Donald in a piano battle. A fan of classic cartoons who wasn't sold on this film's brilliance by this point could never be swayed seeing both ducks, from rival studios together in a honest to goodness film fighting each other. The scene is almost as good as the later scene where Eddie meets Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse during an unfortunate time to ask a 'toon for help.

The reason I always come back to it so often is that the film is not designed for only the kids to enjoy. This film is so full of adult themes that I may have a hard time letting my kids watch it until I think they're "ready." It can appear downright crude at times, through the crafty minds behind the film were able to make a lot of the jokes so implied, that without the right context, it'll go right over your head. That's because I did watch this as a kid, and for the life of me most of the mature themes did go straight over my head. It wasn't until I was much older where I really appreciated the subtle nature of the adult humor of the film.

Playing "patty cake" and having Roger get all worked up over a simple game when you watched it as a kid? How about the increasing pitch of her voice during that scene when you watched it when you were older? Woah. That was funny as a kid but taken to a completely different level, perhaps building, as an adult. Oh the joys of my naïve youth. I mean, seriously? Is Jessica Rabbit singing "Why don't you do right?" anything but for the dads who were dragged to see this film?

Honestly the saddest story to come out of this film was that animation director Richard Williams eventually got recognized because of his work on this film, and then subsequently got his life's work, The Princess and the Cobbler, taken away from him. The resulting film is the kind of movie that you see in a Supermarket rack with the rest of the crummy $6.99 DVDs. Occasionally some of the films turn out to be gems, but "Arabian Knight," the bastardized version of William's work is not that film.

The film was a resounding success, the second biggest film of 1988. It spawned 3 short films that appeared before some family and kids movies over the next few years, but no sequel has ever been able to get off the ground. Some rumors have been passing around the last year or so that there may finally be one on the way. I can only hope that it can live up to even half of what the first film was able to. Things have changed and I don't think that a sequel can ever have the same kind of appeal without making it more childish and less adult instead of finding some good balance between the two. But here's hoping.

***** out of *****

The Simpsons Movie

Staring the voices of: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria

Surprisingly, the Simpsons film was surprisingly good, and for the most part, a coherent film! The biggest problem going for it is that the writers treated it almost no differently than a regular length episode, causing much strain to the main plotline towards the middle of the film, plotlines that ended up nowhere, and a “quick fix” resolution. Perhaps I should not berate the film for it’s faults, as these are generally keynote aspects of the series itself now that I think more about it.

It could very well be that I went into this film with such low expectations that I was pleasantly surprised with the end result. For quite some time I was excited with the prospect that this film was going to be released, but as the film’s opening date approached I became less and less convinced with it. The constant “Spider-Pig” cues in the commercials, the same jokes used time and time again for weeks on end in the commercials, and so on and so forth made me question this even further.

The film starts with probably the most brilliant scene of the film – albeit somewhat lifted directly from the South Park film. It starts with Itchy and Scratchy’s “big screen” debut and ends with Homer calling out the audience for going to pay for a film we could watch on TV. The best bit is that I watched two episodes on TV at dinnertime before heading off to see this.

I’d have to say the biggest problem with the film is the lack of characters. Sure most of them show up, but they’re there for one or two lines. I understand that they only have so much time to fill 85 minutes, but that’s almost 4 entire episodes (at 22 or so minutes each without commercials). Alternatively if you select 4 episodes of the series it is enough time to spend on just about all the secondary characters (with even enough time for ancillary characters which show up once in a while – Cletus and Dr. Nick for example). Oh well. Perhaps with the success of this film they can do more.

With the obvious heavy use of computers to aid the animation, it’s pretty sickening that the film could have honestly cost around $75 million to make and months and months to “animate.” I guess it’s just too much to ask for, especially considering that an entire season of South Park can be animated in about the same time it takes for one regular episode of The Simpsons to be animated from scratch.

Heck, it could have been worse; it could have been the terrible Family Guy “movie.”

***/*****

Gate into the Mind’s Eye

1994
Director: Too many to mention
Music By: Thomas Dolby, Dr. Fiorella Terenzi
Edited by: Michael Boydstun

Summary:

Like the original, the plot is divided into music videos, each displaying different animation and music to fit the mood of the piece. This is a fully computer animated film from 1994, which showcased dozens of animator’s talents.

The world is in chaos. The battle to save Earth wages on, and it looks like all is lost. The only way to end it all is to start completely over. Will the new world suffer the same fate as the last?

Review:

While I said nostalgia was the reasons I enjoyed the first movie in the series more than its “technically” superior sequel, it is not true for “The Gate.”

Visually stunning, some elements almost hold up even today (if not at least 5 years ago). The music is hypnotizing, and fit better in this film than even the previous to films did. Of course there are some pretentious critics, claiming that this film is “behind the times”, even for 1994, the freaking dawn of commonplace computer animation.

This entry into the seriously has an mildly loose theme running through most of the film.

In addition to the “apocalyptic Earth”/”Rebirth” theme, there are a few music video style stand alone shorts towards the end. “Armageddon” and “Nuvogue” are the highlights of the video.

Verdict: ****/*****

Beyond the Mind's Eye

1992
Directed By: Too many to name
Music By: Jan Hammer

Summary:

Like the original, the plot is divided into music videos, each displaying different animation and music to fit the mood of the piece. This is a fully computer animated film from 1992, which showcased dozens of animator’s talents.

Review:

This film, while for nostalgia reasons, is not as good as the original, is a solid continuation of the work done in the original Mind’s Eye film. Again, someone watching this today, without the proper context would probably think that it’s garbage. People who do realize the value of the work that was done 15 years ago, and I suppose someone on many illicit drugs, would probably agree that the entire thing is suburb.

Unfortunately it looks like this film has dropped off the DVD production line, so it’s nearly impossible to find.

Verdict: ***/*****

The Mind’s Eye

Released: 1990
Director: Too many to mention
Staring: Strictly animation

Summary:

The plot is divided into music videos, each displaying different animation and music to fit the mood of the piece. This is a fully computer animated film from 1990, which showcased dozens of animator’s talents.

Review:

Now some of you readers may not feel that this is worthy of mention, as it was a direct to video production, but since I get the final say on what goes here, here it is. Looking at this today, some people might find the animation to be anything but good. If you didn’t get the chance to see this gem in the early nineties, then you may be lost forever. The shear quality of some of the animation, especially for much of it being done in the late 80s, is astounding. I get mesmerized by the entire thing each time I watch it. Since it is not available on DVD anymore, it may be nearly impossible to find this one anywhere.

Verdict ****/*****