Latest / All The Right Movies / Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) | Ep. 3 - Part 1
Transcript
- 0:04All the right movies. That is so, so much you're
- 0:08making a big mistake. I didn't kill anybody.
- 0:10I swear this whole thing to set up a scam A-frame job out, that
- 0:15is I could never hurt anybody out.
- 0:17My whole purpose in life is to make people.
- 0:28Private Eye Eddie Valiant gets in over his head when he accepts
- 0:32a lousy Snoop job that leads him to the murky shadows of 40s
- 0:35Hollywood in a tale of greed, sex, murder and tunes.
- 0:39The perfect mix of golden age animation and 40s gumshoe noir,
- 0:43Who Framed Roger Rabbit won awards and was a box office
- 0:45blockbuster appealing to adults and kids alike.
- 0:48My name is Luke and with me today are Westie.
- 0:51I'm going to ram him. And John, this is the last time
- 0:55I worked with someone with a beef impediment.
- 1:01All the right movies are here that make people laugh, and we
- 1:03will work for peanuts. Hello and welcome to All the
- 1:25Right Movies, a mustachioed axe wield and bullet of a podcast on
- 1:29classic and hit films. In today's episode, we're in
- 1:31Toontown to discuss the part live action, part animation, all
- 1:35amazing. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
- 1:37Lovely. Before we do, just want to talk
- 1:40about Patreon for a moment. Listeners who sign up to us on
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- 1:46access to all previous episodes as well.
- 1:49We've just done one on Keanu Reeves and John Wick, and coming
- 1:52up next week, it's Tommy Lee Jones and The Fugitive.
- 1:54So what's not to love? Right.
- 1:55Yeah, great. Also, the most recent 20
- 1:58episodes of this podcast are available to listen and download
- 2:00for free like you're doing now, but we archive the older
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- 2:06Patreon as well, so plenty bang for your buck.
- 2:09Load. Go to www.patreon.com/all the
- 2:13Right Movies to find out more. Back to the show though, John.
- 2:16Why do you want to talk about who's from Roger Rabbit?
- 2:19Well, it's the first animation we've covered, isn't it?
- 2:21It is. Yeah, I like animations, and
- 2:23this is up there with the most well known and the most
- 2:26important, I think ground breaking at the time with a film
- 2:29that blended live action animation before probably Mary
- 2:32Poppins, maybe most famously. Yeah, nothing had ever been done
- 2:36to the level of Roger Rabbit. The characters are great and
- 2:39iconic. It's funny.
- 2:41And there's a piano off between Donald and Daffy Duck.
- 2:44I mean, come on. You love that one.
- 2:46You do love that one. It is all about those animations
- 2:50though. My favorite thing about the film
- 2:52is how the passion from the animation team just jumps off
- 2:55the screen. It's a love letter to classic
- 2:58Looney Tunes and Disney cartoons, but also totally works
- 3:01as its own thing as well, so there's loads of good stuff to
- 3:03talk about. What about you, Westie?
- 3:05Yeah, I mean, I'm excited to talk about it for mainly for the
- 3:09craft of it when I was younger. This is one of them films that
- 3:11just left us feeling like weird. It's like it's got a really
- 3:14sleazy vibe to it, but it's almost too much.
- 3:19And I rewatched it again and it was even more.
- 3:21It was heightened over the sense of time and everything that's
- 3:24gone on and like the themes that are in there.
- 3:26It's just it screams Chinatown, which we're going to talk about.
- 3:29Obviously that's just it wears it on its sleeve.
- 3:32It was a lot to its influences and its parodies and I think it
- 3:36does work, but it's not one of the films that I go back to with
- 3:38like a real love of it, if you know what I mean.
- 3:40It's got a real, it's got a bit of a gritty, dark undertone
- 3:44which unsettles me a little bit. Right.
- 3:46But I, I mean for, for the technique, you know, for the
- 3:49craft of it, it's out. It's, it is out of this world
- 3:52really. I mean for the work that's gone
- 3:54into it. And you can see that still and I
- 3:56think there is a lot to talk about, but there is that really
- 3:58CD undertow that I'd like to discuss a little bit more.
- 4:02I'd love to. It's going to it's.
- 4:03Going to be therapy for me. Well, I was pretty much obsessed
- 4:08with this film when I was a kid. It was the first film that I
- 4:11remember seeing at the flicks. I might have seen something else
- 4:13beforehand, but this is the one that I I first remember and it
- 4:16really holds a special place for me.
- 4:19What I love there and I still love now, but I appreciate more
- 4:21the feat of film making, the animation along with that razor
- 4:25sharp script as well. And I think it's a film with
- 4:28more layers than most, with all of them firing on all cylinders
- 4:31like lightning in a bottle. You've got Spielbergs on boards
- 4:34and mechas. Director and ILM Dean Kundi is
- 4:37director of photography and all the classic cartoon characters
- 4:40are in there with Hoskins bringing his A game as well.
- 4:43Yeah Who Friend Roger Rabbit was produced by Frank Marshall and
- 4:46Robert Watts, distributed by Buena Vista Pictures and
- 4:49released on the 22nd of June 1988.
- 4:52Filmed largely at Elstree Studios in England, it was Co
- 4:55written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S Seaman.
- 4:58Directed by Robert Omegas, it stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher
- 5:01Lloyd and Joanna Caste in live action roles and features the
- 5:04voice work of Charles Fleischer and Kathleen Turner.
- 5:10The beginning. We're going in straight to the
- 5:15opening of the film. We're introduced to Roger Rabbit
- 5:17and Baby Herman filming their latest classic Something's
- 5:19Cooking, before Pi Eddie Valiant is on the scene accepting the
- 5:23Snoop job from studio head Arcane Maroon to take a couple
- 5:26of lousy pictures. So, John, what do you think
- 5:28about this opening to the film? Something's cooking.
- 5:31Oh, it's great, isn't it? Oh, amazing.
- 5:34I know some people say that of the hundreds of classic
- 5:37character Kami was in the film, but it's a shame Tom and Jerry
- 5:40don't show up really, because Something's Cooking is basically
- 5:43episode of Tom and Jerry. Yeah.
- 5:49And just as violent. Yeah.
- 5:51I love Tom and Jerry, obviously, And I think Something's Cooking
- 5:54is great as an opener, the brilliant way to tell us how the
- 5:56world works. I think the film starts like a
- 5:59classic cartoon, and then the sudden transition when the
- 6:01director shouts cut and we see the world as it is, is great.
- 6:05They don't explicitly tell us, but it shows us how it all
- 6:08works, where tunes are TV stars and their TV are are cartoons
- 6:12basically. And then the real world where
- 6:14they interact with people and I think it's really funny.
- 6:18Pratfall after pratfall. It's hilarious and almost all of
- 6:21them made me laugh. I like when he first notices
- 6:23that Herman's missing and he's frantically running on the spot
- 6:25tearing up the carpet. That's brilliant.
- 6:28And when he's pants are on fire and he's running around the
- 6:30walls really fast, brilliant as well.
- 6:32I think great opener in terms of entertainment and also setting
- 6:36up the whole world as well. Really good.
- 6:38Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, that cartoon is so
- 6:40immensely entertaining. Laugh out loud, funny straight
- 6:43away, and poor Roger's been beaten to a pulp.
- 6:47Definitely. I really love a baby.
- 6:49Herman is like this cutest little kid in the world.
- 6:52All he wants is a cookie, and that's all he's after.
- 6:55Yeah. And then I adore this huge
- 6:57reveal when they shall cut and he turns out to be this, like,
- 6:59angry, hateful misogynist. It's amazing.
- 7:02It's horrible. Really, really funny.
- 7:05Chauvinistic Pig. Yeah, Yes.
- 7:07This is probably one of the most entertaining cartoons I think
- 7:09I've ever seen. It has to be.
- 7:12It's at the top of the film. It has to introduce the world
- 7:14and you're just, you're immediately in.
- 7:16I mean, some people would sit and quite happily watch that for
- 7:19an hour and a half, two hours just that.
- 7:21But you would have, you know, you've, you probably have a
- 7:23heart attack watching that for like 2 hours.
- 7:25And I don't think they'd keep it up.
- 7:26But they've crammed everything into it.
- 7:28Like my favorite bit is when he comes out from that ironing
- 7:30board and he's like, I'm here for you baby.
- 7:32And a nice couple from just bit under the wall and I, I love
- 7:38the, the scale of this as well. That kitchen's just huge and
- 7:41you're just flying around it and you're just like, because it
- 7:44needs to be big because most cartoons are felt even if you
- 7:46watch Tom and Jerry feel quite contained, feel quite small.
- 7:49So this is like you can tell it's for the big screen.
- 7:52It's, it's shown you the grandeur of it, the size of it.
- 7:54And I do love the way that, you know, fridge opens and then
- 7:57you're into the world. And I'm pretty sure the guy here
- 7:59is, is Joel Silver because he fell out with the head of Disney
- 8:03at the time, which was Michael Eisner.
- 8:05And it was done as like, he, he was unrecognisable, shaved his
- 8:08beard off, didn't know it was going to be him.
- 8:10And then they didn't actually tell Eisner this until he saw
- 8:13the cut of it. And he was like, oh, actually,
- 8:14yeah, he's pretty good. And he's he's like, what's this,
- 8:18a tweeting bird? And he's like, slamming off the
- 8:20ground. It's totally believable because
- 8:22the dialogue is just so. It's so grown up.
- 8:25It's so adult. It's so aggressive.
- 8:26Like you said, baby Urban's transformation.
- 8:28It's like, all of a sudden you're just in this really
- 8:30unrelenting world. Yeah.
- 8:32And then when Roger's running after him and I can give you
- 8:33stars, and then there's that amazing plan where it just goes
- 8:39to Hoskins and he just has that whiskey, puts it in the holster,
- 8:42and you just go, he's got whiskey in his holster.
- 8:45This is just Chinatown. This is amazing.
- 8:48But that character is amazing that, like, there's so many
- 8:51things in this opening sequence that is set up to be paid off
- 8:54later. The stars with Roger, we've got
- 8:57like, the character of Valley into his back story.
- 9:00We know he's a boozer and we know he's a bit down and he's
- 9:02look like immediately. And also, we're set up here as
- 9:06well that tunes can take any beating and it doesn't hurt.
- 9:10And Maroon reinforces this by explaining this in his office.
- 9:13And he says, but break his heart.
- 9:15Yeah. Yeah.
- 9:17The producer you mentioned there played by Joel Silva.
- 9:21Do you know what his character name is?
- 9:23No, go for it. I don't.
- 9:25Raul J Raul OH. Yeah, it says, it says on the
- 9:28credits at the start of something, Yeah.
- 9:32Amazing that. Also right at the start of that,
- 9:35when the credits come up, that loungey sax and double bass that
- 9:38play over the credits, they're just pure class and immediately
- 9:43evoke the period. In fact, the whole Alan
- 9:45Silvestri score is incredible, really evocative of the period.
- 9:50It is. I'm not a huge fan of the score.
- 9:52No. It just reminds me about the
- 9:54future far too much, pulls me out of it all of the time.
- 9:58Really. All of the time.
- 10:00Yeah. I like the sax part where it is
- 10:01very much 40s noir style stuff. Yeah.
- 10:04But the way that it's the musical cues, the musical cues
- 10:07are just so similar, the Back to the Future all of the time.
- 10:10And when you combine that with often the accompanying
- 10:13Christopher Lloyd's voice, it's just pulls me out with the film
- 10:16about six or seven times while I watch it.
- 10:18I suppose when you mentioned it there, I suppose like during the
- 10:21action beats then it is very much to make Benny the Cabs ride
- 10:26and when they're in Toontown as well generally with Benny the
- 10:29cab. The score is one of the weak
- 10:32parts of the film for me to be honest.
- 10:33Wow. I mean, I like that opening few
- 10:37bars, but to me it then it brings me into that kind of
- 10:40seedy world where I've just, I've just watched this really
- 10:43incredibly funny, really entertaining, classically drawn
- 10:46cartoon when I was totally entertained by it.
- 10:48And now this is slow camera moves and dusty desks and a guy
- 10:52drinking booze from the like out of his holster.
- 10:55It's just like, what? What the fuck?
- 10:56And then it's just, I was like, oh, I'm so jawed by it, I dare
- 11:01say it, But is it slightly cliched of the period?
- 11:04Oh, yeah. He's a private detective.
- 11:05Oh, yeah. This is the time that they're
- 11:06in. OK Yeah.
- 11:07It's based on Chinatown. Right.
- 11:09Let's just do this score then, because that's exactly what you
- 11:11would expect. Just seems a little bit on the
- 11:13nose. Yeah, I know what you mean.
- 11:14A little bit cliched. What I do love music wise is
- 11:17that tune band that break out of the back of the truck when
- 11:21Valiance looking out the window. They're amazing.
- 11:23Yeah, they're great. They are.
- 11:24Absolutely pandemonium, isn't it?
- 11:28When Eddie's walking through the the lot of maroon cartoons,
- 11:32there's a Pelican on a bike who falls off in a hilarious
- 11:35fashion, which is great. But they couldn't they couldn't
- 11:38get the bike to steal like the props team.
- 11:40They were just trying to push it.
- 11:41So it was straight past the camera.
- 11:42I kept falling over every single time.
- 11:44So it was like, well, we'll just animate and falling off.
- 11:46So that just came because the props team couldn't keep the
- 11:49bike straight. So as the over, it's probably
- 11:51one of your favorite bits. It's so memorable.
- 11:53He's he's like the worst postman ever.
- 11:59So after this scene, we're introduced to Eddie's on off
- 12:01Squeeze Dolores at the Terminal Station bar.
- 12:04There's the reveal of the darker side of town and the source of
- 12:07Valley in somber demeanour. We're going to pick up with
- 12:09Valley into the Ink and Paint Club, where he catches Jessica
- 12:12Rabbit in all her glory. And there's a few other
- 12:14colourful characters in there as well.
- 12:16So, Wesley, what do you think about this scene at the Ink and
- 12:18Paint Club? I love the ink and paint club.
- 12:21I do. I think this is like one of be
- 12:22favorite scenes because it's got so many bits in it that me dad
- 12:26laughter when we're watching it and I didn't get and it's like,
- 12:29you know, nice monkey suit and he's a big he's a big guy.
- 12:33He's a big guy. He's a big fella.
- 12:34You want him on the door? Wait, if you own that place, you
- 12:37want that guy on the door. And he notices everything.
- 12:39And he's a, he's a, he's a scary motherfucker.
- 12:42And you wouldn't have them. He's huge.
- 12:44I've got issues with it, which I'll get into it, but me
- 12:46Favorite bits of Scotch on the rocks and I didn't I didn't get
- 12:49that for years and years and years and it just picks it up
- 12:52and it's like tunes. You know, it's and it's it's not
- 12:54right in your face. And I didn't notice that for
- 12:56years. But I always had me dad deck and
- 12:58I never knew why. And he'd say, well, it's it's
- 13:00rocks, it's on the rocks. I was like, what does that even
- 13:02mean? He said, it doesn't matter.
- 13:04It doesn't matter, don't worry. But it's great.
- 13:07It's it's it beautifully shot, this sequence.
- 13:09It's very got a very classic vibe to it.
- 13:11It's in no way as a parody of itself.
- 13:14It reminds me of the star of the temple of Doom.
- 13:16You know the anything goes sequence.
- 13:18I just find Marvin Acme is the strangest fucking character I've
- 13:22ever ever experienced. Absolutely love him.
- 13:24He's. Really.
- 13:25White, he's just fucking weird. Do you not think you've seen his
- 13:31outfit? Like, oh, and he's, that's
- 13:32ridiculous. Spraying himself with like
- 13:34fucking aftershave and he's just like and then he just squirting
- 13:38straight on volley and thinks he's hilarious.
- 13:40He's horrible. He is hilarious.
- 13:43Not bad. He's a he's a fucking maniac and
- 13:45I'm scared. He starts pissing himself
- 13:48laughing when he squirts that ink, and then he's got that
- 13:50classic hand buzzer. Yeah, he put it there, pal.
- 13:53That's fantastic. But that's all the way through
- 13:54the film. That hand buzzer, like it's,
- 13:56it's the ultimate plot twist every single time.
- 13:58It's a hand buzzer, but it's where Jesse is about to come out
- 14:02and he just points. Yeah, yeah, He points and
- 14:04gestures to us. He is a bit of a prick.
- 14:10Roger talks about him like he's his dad, but he's been playing
- 14:13Patty cake with his girl. He's told.
- 14:17I don't. Like it?
- 14:18I don't like it. Patty cake?
- 14:20I don't like it at all, but I love the touches in there.
- 14:24I love the fact that Mary Poppins Penguins are in there as
- 14:27like the way it is, which works really well.
- 14:29The thing I love most about this is now that I've watched it
- 14:32again and the thing that I really appreciate is Betty
- 14:34Boop's black and White. Yeah, and everyone else.
- 14:36It's just such a wonderful touch.
- 14:38It was still voiced by Mae Questel, who was the original
- 14:41voice of Betty Boop as well. Yeah, Mae Questel was 80 years
- 14:44old at the time of release. And actually, fans of National
- 14:48Lampoon series Nora's and Bethany in the Christmas
- 14:50Vacation. All right.
- 14:51Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What about you, John?
- 14:53What do you think about this thing?
- 14:55I love the look of it is a 40 style club has a real
- 14:58authenticity to it. Also how it reflects the real
- 15:01life and awful segregation of the time where tunes are only
- 15:05allowed in the club as either performers or a staff but normal
- 15:07customers. Absolutely.
- 15:09The Betty Boop cameo is great, and obviously it operates mostly
- 15:13as the introduction to Jessica Rabbit and one of the main
- 15:15characters. I think it's fantastic.
- 15:17Isn't Intro to her probably one of the most iconic animated
- 15:21scenes Hollywood's ever? Don't I think maybe the most one
- 15:23of the most famous scenes in the film.
- 15:25I think it's fantastic. There's loads a little nice
- 15:26touches in there. Westie mentioned the Mary
- 15:28Poppins, Penguins and the boss stuff are all grey and the huge
- 15:33chimp guy on the door all fantastic.
- 15:37I'm talking about the the Paddy cake there when Acme is trying
- 15:40to cook Jessica into that and we're outside and Valian's
- 15:45trying to take the pictures. There's a really funny line that
- 15:47gets a little bit lost in the mix.
- 15:50She's saying that she has a headache and he's saying, come
- 15:52on, come on. And then she relents and she
- 15:54says, all right, but this time, take off the hand buzzer.
- 16:00Brilliant. So while we're on the subject
- 16:06with Jessica, lead animator Richard Williams and Bob
- 16:08Zemeckis called her the ultimate male fantasy.
- 16:11Apparently, she's poisoned, but Roger thinks she's Betty
- 16:13Crocker. What are your thoughts on
- 16:15Jessica John? Well, sexy, isn't she?
- 16:20That's not being around the Bush.
- 16:21I love it. Yeah, I mean, she's no Daphne
- 16:24off Scooby-doo, obviously. Of.
- 16:26Course, all the caramel Bunny. Caramel Bunny, definitely.
- 16:29But after them, she's great. I think she's a fantastic idea,
- 16:32strong character with her own agenda and that moment where she
- 16:35appeared from the behind the curtain is now iconic.
- 16:38Oh yeah. Is Roger punching above his
- 16:39weight with Jessica Ceiling? Massively obvious, but Benny Boo
- 16:44doesn't think so. See.
- 16:46What a lucky guy. Yeah, I love.
- 16:48I love that. And all the tune girls fancy
- 16:50Roger that's. Great.
- 16:51Yeah, it's great. He's, he's fucking hilarious.
- 16:54What's not like about that? What about you, Westie?
- 16:59Jessica Rabbit. Yeah.
- 17:00I mean, I think she's caused some irreversible issues with
- 17:04very many people who've seen this at an age where they're
- 17:07just like, what on earth is going on here?
- 17:10I don't know if it's a little bit too much now that I've
- 17:13watched it again. It's all very like hyper
- 17:16sexualized and amazingly delivered.
- 17:19And like, I know you're the one that just said she was sexy and
- 17:25you guys went a riff about a caramel, will you?
- 17:28Open the door for you. You know, from a certain point
- 17:31of view, from a tongue in cheek point of view, yeah, absolutely
- 17:33fine, absolutely hilarious. But again, for me, this is a
- 17:36little bit more of a product of the time.
- 17:38I don't think you could do this now.
- 17:40Absolutely not. Such a blatant brush stroke of
- 17:44like this, is it? Every bloke's going to love this
- 17:46woman. Anxious.
- 17:48All right. I prefer a band.
- 17:50The Black Crows from Dumbo. Is that who it is?
- 17:54Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love them guys.
- 17:59Yeah, I love the whole setting. I love the way it's played out.
- 18:01I love how it is the personification of the nail
- 18:05fantasy, but I don't necessarily agree with everyone going well,
- 18:08yeah, that's it, they've nailed it.
- 18:09Because I think it's different for everybody.
- 18:11I hope I haven't made that confusing.
- 18:13Not at all. Not at all.
- 18:14Distance yourself very well there.
- 18:19I think what does work great with Jessica is how they took
- 18:21inspiration from classic female icon from the era.
- 18:24Yeah, I know the first inspiration was from another
- 18:26Warner Brothers cartoon legend called Tex Avery.
- 18:29Yes, he made a cartoon 1943 based on Red Riding Hood with a
- 18:33character called Red. And she was the initial
- 18:35inspiration for Jessica. And that cartoon was called Red
- 18:38Hot Riding Hood. Which is brilliant.
- 18:42Brilliant. Genius just gets worse.
- 18:45And they also took inspiration from classic Hollywood stars at
- 18:48the time as well, like Veronica Lake, Lauren Bacall and Rita
- 18:51Hayworth. I think the Rita Hayworth
- 18:53influence is especially obvious. Yeah, definitely red hair.
- 18:57And this seems very much like the one from Gilda, which sent
- 19:00everybody wild where we'd have things in the 40s.
- 19:03But Jessica Damacy doesn't feel like a rip off for a pastiche or
- 19:05a pale imitation. She feels like her own thing.
- 19:07She's Jessica Roberts. I think she's great.
- 19:10Oh, she's outstanding. I absolutely love that she's
- 19:12made out to be this classic, like, femme fatale with all the
- 19:15attributes. But the big reveal that our
- 19:17actions are entirely motivated by a love of Roger is fantastic.
- 19:21Yeah. Yeah.
- 19:22However, she, I mean, she does hit him over the head with a
- 19:24frying pan. So she's not the most sensitive
- 19:25of lovers, is she? That's fine in the cartoon
- 19:27world, though. Yeah.
- 19:30To make Jessica more unique as well, the animation team
- 19:32animated her boobs so that when she walks the bumps in the
- 19:35opposite direction to what would do in real life.
- 19:38Yeah, yeah. I mean, apparently I've not just
- 19:40noticed that. Yeah, right.
- 19:45Bouncy. She is voiced with sultry allure
- 19:47by Kathleen Turner. What are you laughing at?
- 19:50Bouncy. Oh Jesus Christ.
- 19:56Kathleen Turner, who voiced Jessica.
- 19:59She's uncredited for this, this really super iconic role.
- 20:03Yeah, I think it's credited to Amy Irving, isn't it?
- 20:05Because she's the singer. Well, yeah, she's the singer of
- 20:08that torch song. Why don't you do ride the steamy
- 20:11number in the England Pain Club? But that's all Amy Irving does.
- 20:15Kathleen Turner does the voice apart from that.
- 20:18Yeah, I know as well. When they were shooting the
- 20:19film, Hoskins said that Jessica obviously hadn't been sketched
- 20:22yet by the animators, so he had no idea what she even looked
- 20:25like. All right?
- 20:26And Zemecker said just imagine your ideal sexual fantasy.
- 20:30And Hoskins said what I imagined was far less risque than what
- 20:33Jessica ended up in life. Bit of a prude Hoskins isn't.
- 20:41He I love that last note when she sings Do and there's that
- 20:43little pause. Oh yeah, and then.
- 20:45She's like, when don't just laugh at everything I'm saying.
- 20:50I'm laughing at Luke, don't you? But it's when she's like moves
- 20:54away from it and and the tie slides out of her hand that that
- 20:57just looks amazing. It's like it's seamless.
- 21:00Yeah, it's great. Yeah.
- 21:02Also in this scene, Daffy and Donald Duck share the screen.
- 21:05Absolutely amazing. Steven Spielberg was on his exec
- 21:08producer and the film was part produced by his company Amblin
- 21:11Entertainment. It was he who struck deals with
- 21:13the major animation studios for their stars.
- 21:16But the worst stipulations that they had to share equal screen
- 21:18time, which is why you've got Daffy and Donald here.
- 21:21And again later on in Toon time, when Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse
- 21:24share the screen. Yeah, Disney allowed 81 of their
- 21:26characters to make an appearance, and Warners give up
- 21:29nineteen of their characters to the film as well, all for a flat
- 21:31rate fee of $5000 per character. And the word is that because
- 21:36Spielberg had so much pull in the industry, Disney and Warners
- 21:38were happy to do business so as not to sour a potential future
- 21:41relationship with the director. Oh, really?
- 21:44Disney gave up the majority of their stars, major stars for 400
- 21:49grand. Wow, that's incredible.
- 21:51Well, the power of Spielberg isn't it does what he wants.
- 21:54Does what he wants. There are other characters in
- 21:56there too from Fleischer Studios, 20th Century Fox, and
- 21:59Universal to name a few. Overall there are over 150
- 22:02pre-existing animated characters in the film.
- 22:04But they did want more. They got rejected by characters
- 22:07like Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Pepe Le Pew, Casper the Friendly
- 22:11Ghost because their respective studios thought that 5 grand was
- 22:13a bit light. Right.
- 22:14OK. Yeah.
- 22:15It wasn't supposed to be like a final scene at Acme's funeral
- 22:18where everybody gathered and then at the final shot of the
- 22:20film was cast by scared everybody away.
- 22:22And that was like in the original, really.
- 22:24Yeah. Yeah.
- 22:25So with the Snoop job done and Roger crying into the night, the
- 22:29story's just getting started. The director.
- 22:37The man behind the camera is our friend Robert Zemeckis.
- 22:40Our friend like. Wesley, what do you think of
- 22:44some X's work on Hoofing and Roger Rabbit?
- 22:46On Hoofing and Roger Rabbit, I think it's, it's fantastic.
- 22:48I think for for someone to take control of a project like this
- 22:52and to finish it, it's fucking outrageous.
- 22:55Yeah. It's amazing.
- 22:56It's a huge vision, it's a huge task.
- 22:59And for the things that I, you know, don't necessarily like
- 23:01about it, but I love that it has the balls to do that to, to turn
- 23:04it into more of an adult vibe. It's not necessarily a kids
- 23:08film. Like you can't enjoy it now and
- 23:10you put it on now and watch it, you know, and, and not
- 23:13necessarily be driven into like, well, well, this is a kids film.
- 23:15I'm not watching it. You know, it has got a mix of
- 23:17tone very well executed. Even now it still stands up.
- 23:20So I think he's done a fantastic job on it.
- 23:23What about you, John? Slightly different take for me
- 23:26to be honest. Wow, now I like Roberts Omegas.
- 23:29Back to the Future is one of my favorite films.
- 23:32I really like Forrest Gump, I really like Contacts, obviously,
- 23:35and I do really like Hoofy and Roger Rabbit as well.
- 23:38I think The Mecca does do a good job, but I do sort of feel like
- 23:41this film is a little bit of a missed opportunity as well, to
- 23:45be honest. I mean, it is iconic.
- 23:46The characters are all there. But where I do feel a little bit
- 23:49disappointed in the film when I watch it is in the storytelling.
- 23:53When you look at it Back to the Future, the storytelling is
- 23:55sensational. It's like, it's like Spielberg.
- 23:58But yeah, I don't think Zemeckis totally nails it, to be honest.
- 24:01And the problem I don't think is the plot, because the plot
- 24:03there, it's written as this noir style murder mystery that
- 24:06unravels as we go. It's a brilliant idea, but I
- 24:09think you only realize how well plotted it is after you've seen
- 24:12it a few times, because I don't think Zemeckis makes it crystal
- 24:15clear what's going on all of the time.
- 24:17I don't think. I mean, nowadays Zemeckis is
- 24:19known as this big animation guy. He's done The Polar Express and
- 24:22The Christmas Carol, both big hits, but I know Roger Rabbit
- 24:25was the first time he worked on an animated movie before, and I
- 24:28do think it sort of feels like that a little bit.
- 24:30I do wonder if so much of his time was spent focusing on that
- 24:33blend of live action and animation, which was such a new
- 24:36thing that the storytelling did become a little bit secondary.
- 24:39And Wesley, I think you might disagree with me here, but I
- 24:42don't think it looks fantastic aside from the animations
- 24:44either. I mean, it's Dean Cundy, so it's
- 24:46ALSDP, but I think it looks fantastic because mostly of the
- 24:50animation and the production design rather than the
- 24:53cinematography outside of the In Pain Club, which does look
- 24:55great. So I do think the Vegas did a
- 24:57great job in terms of it was new, it was groundbreaking and
- 25:00he pulled it all together. But I think if he did it now,
- 25:02he'd probably not get out of the park because of his extra
- 25:04experience. But I do find the direction a
- 25:07little bit frustrating at times, to be honest.
- 25:10Am I being really harsh? I agree with you in certain
- 25:13aspects. I don't think that's the story.
- 25:16Is that obvious? I don't.
- 25:17It takes a few watches to really understand what's exactly going
- 25:21on. And I always put that down to
- 25:23watching it from being a kid. And I didn't really care about
- 25:25this Cloverleaf and the red car thing.
- 25:27I just, I just wanted to see more Roger.
- 25:30So I just put it down to that. But now that you've mentioned
- 25:32it, maybe it isn't as abundantly clear as it could be, but it's a
- 25:38huge undertaking. And I know he's got like this
- 25:40super talented crew behind him as well to carry the Lord.
- 25:42But it's really daunting project, like you were saying,
- 25:44Westie, and I think he executed expertly.
- 25:48I think it's done absolutely fantastic.
- 25:50I think it's the lightness of the film and how it just whizzes
- 25:53by that really appeals to me. It's in and done before you get
- 25:56a chance to catch your breath and every scene is a marvel.
- 26:00He's spinning so many players here and the action has got to
- 26:02hit the right beats and the gags have got the land and I think
- 26:05they do It's fantastic. From the D PS point of view,
- 26:08from Dean Cundy's point of view, I do believe that they want to
- 26:11introduce a lot of contrast, a lot of shadow.
- 26:13But he's shooting all the live action first.
- 26:15That's going to be animated over the top of.
- 26:17So I think he has to play it a little bit safer.
- 26:22I mean, Cundy has one on type on his back, doesn't he?
- 26:24Because he's shooting things that don't exist.
- 26:26And he can't do anything outrageous because the animation
- 26:28team need to be able to animate everything into the scene, into
- 26:31the frame. So he's working with a massive
- 26:34limitation. So that's fair enough.
- 26:36Yeah, Zemeckis wasn't top of the pile on the list of directors.
- 26:40Disney acquired the rights to Gary Kay Wolf's 1981 novel Who
- 26:44Censored Roger Rabbit? Pretty much immediately when it
- 26:46was published. They began development for a
- 26:48film for a couple of years, and Zemeckis offered to direct
- 26:52himself. He really loved the project in
- 26:541982, but with two relative flops under his belt.
- 26:57I want to hold your hand and use cars.
- 26:59Disney said no thank you. Right.
- 27:01I don't know if they were that polite, but based.
- 27:05On them two films, I would have said no, thank you.
- 27:07Yeah. Definitely they had Terry
- 27:12Gilliam in the frame to direct. That would have been fucking
- 27:15bonkers, wouldn't it? Let's.
- 27:16That would have been that would have been even more terrifying
- 27:19Western we we would not be talking about it now it.
- 27:21Was a Gilliam film. I don't think I would have
- 27:23finished it. I think he turned it down.
- 27:26He said it is conceptually inauthentic to use the Looney
- 27:29Tunes genre character stable as a springboard for variation on
- 27:32Howard the Duck. Roger Rabbit is miles better
- 27:36than Howard the Duck. Sure.
- 27:38Everything else. I know that now, Gilliam says.
- 27:43I completely regret that decision.
- 27:45Yeah, he said that he thought that it was going to be too much
- 27:48work, which was pure laziness on his part it.
- 27:51Was it's a huge amount of work. It was a massive The film went
- 27:56into turn around for a couple of years until Michael Eisner
- 27:59became Disney CEO and put it back into pre production.
- 28:02Zemeckis had since had two mega hits in Romance and the Storm
- 28:06and Back to the Future and he was stabbed up pretty much
- 28:08immediately. Especially Spielberg was on
- 28:11board his old pal. There you go.
- 28:13What I do love and what gives the film so much weight is the
- 28:17inclusion of Lords of Cameos from classic Disney, Warner
- 28:20Brothers, Paramount, MGM characters.
- 28:22And there's about 140 in total. So absolutely loads.
- 28:27And they get cameo was in there as well from some of the most
- 28:29famous voice oils. Who did them as well?
- 28:31Like we know Wine who did Mickey Mouse, Tony Anselmo who did
- 28:35Donald Duck, Mia Questel, Westley mentioned Betty Boop and
- 28:38olive oil and Mel Blanc who was a bit of a voice over legend,
- 28:42Daffy Dog, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweety Pie, I know as well the
- 28:46June production. There was a disagreement between
- 28:49the Mechas and Warner Brothers over the way the Looney Tunes
- 28:51characters should look in the film.
- 28:53So Warner Brothers wanted them to use the characters as they
- 28:55appeared at the time in the 80s, whereas the Mechas wanted to use
- 28:59the classic versions of the characters from the 40s.
- 29:02So was the Mecca sent dummy footage of Roger Rabbit using
- 29:04the modern designs to Warner Brothers?
- 29:06Warner Brothers approved the footage and then they just use
- 29:09the 1940 versions anyway. Brian De Palma.
- 29:18So which classic cartoon character cameo is your favorite
- 29:21in the film? Mine is Dumbo, not because he's
- 29:26my favorite character or because he particularly does anything,
- 29:30but I love the reveal of it. And he's just, you see his eyes
- 29:32behind the blinds, the blinds are pulled up and you get a jump
- 29:35scare. And it's like, there's a jump
- 29:37scare in this film and you're being jump scared by Dumbo and
- 29:40you're just like, oh, that's just fucking amazing.
- 29:43Just probably one of the nicest characters from Disney ever.
- 29:46And it's just made you shit yourself.
- 29:48And then there's that really great line.
- 29:49It's like he just works for peanuts again, throws him out
- 29:53the window. It works parody of itself.
- 29:55Really, really good. I love that bit.
- 29:57I'm going to go with Yosemite Sam of.
- 29:59Course you are. He's amazing.
- 30:03If Pepe Le Pew or Marvin the Martian were in this, they would
- 30:06be mine. But it's your somebody, Sam.
- 30:09When he puts out the fire on his ass, his mustache lifts his hat
- 30:12off his head. Yeah, it's.
- 30:14Really funny, my favorite. Definitely the ink and paint
- 30:18club piano jugo between the two ducks.
- 30:20Oh amazing. Warner Brothers, Daffy and
- 30:22Disney's Donald. Probably the best scene ever
- 30:24maybe. Daffy maybe?
- 30:28Daffy is easily my favorite classical cartoon character.
- 30:30Watching Daffy frantically # away at the piano always makes
- 30:34me laugh. He's wearing boxing gloves at
- 30:35one point and still is not. Perfectly, yeah.
- 30:39Is he playing with these elbows at one point?
- 30:40Everything. The great thing about this scene
- 30:43is like the fucking They hate each other as well, don't they?
- 30:46Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
- 30:50While like about it as well is that I know for this sequence,
- 30:53Zemeckis didn't storyboard it. You had a guy called Chuck Jones
- 30:56do it. So Chuck Jones wrote and
- 30:58directed Lords of the Looney Tunes cartoons in the 30s and
- 31:0040s. I think what the film does
- 31:02great, and this scene might be the best example, is that when
- 31:05we see these classic characters, it does feel authentic.
- 31:08It doesn't feel like we're watching modern interpretations
- 31:10of them. It feels like the classic
- 31:11versions of them. And having Chuck Jones
- 31:13storyboard this particular scene is obviously the reason why,
- 31:15because it feels like Daffy and Donald Duck.
- 31:18Yeah. It's absolutely brilliant.
- 31:20I love the way they're taking off the stage as well with them
- 31:22hooks and you just say, yeah, hold off, that's OK.
- 31:25Yeah. Still laughing.
- 31:27And he's killing himself. They never get to finish the
- 31:30ACT. What are you surprised for then?
- 31:36Why is why he's still laughing. So that so they must go to go
- 31:40now. Scraps on the piano every single
- 31:42night. Yeah, every single night.
- 31:46Absolute pandemonium. We mentioned about the noir
- 31:50elements in the film and they make us loved that part of it.
- 31:54There are a number of shots in there that peel Marge to the
- 31:56great Hollywood tradition Valley and hangs his hat on a Maltese
- 31:59Falcon. The writing on the glass door of
- 32:01Eddie's office is shot from the inside, which is a classic noir
- 32:04trope. And Roger chewing on the blinds
- 32:08in RK Maroon's office is a direct nod to Bert Young doing a
- 32:12similar thing in Chinatown. Nice.
- 32:14I know from the very first screening they showed this to 18
- 32:17and 19 year olds and almost all of them left the theatre and it
- 32:22was just about two of them left and the producer turned to Megas
- 32:25and said what do you think about this?
- 32:26He said no, I'm not going to change a thing.
- 32:29It's absolutely perfect. It's not 4 then.
- 32:34Yeah, 1819 year old, that's probably the worst age you want
- 32:37to see. Yeah.
- 32:38That's not the demographic. Yeah, it's for kids and it's for
- 32:41adults. Yeah, 19.
- 32:43You're too cruel for this sort of thing, aren't you?
- 32:45Exactly. Exactly the reason why I
- 32:47probably didn't watch it for a good chunk of time from my teen
- 32:50years up to I was about late late 20s.
- 32:53It's not a great chat up line is it?
- 32:55Come back and watch Roger Rabbit.
- 32:57Definitely not, and I've tried to be honest.
- 33:02Didn't work. No Patty cake Game of Patty.
- 33:07Cake. Fancy game of Patty cake.
- 33:17So somatic is hitting one out of the park with whom frame Roger
- 33:19Rabbit. Unless you speak to John, of
- 33:21course. No, he's great.
- 33:23I just think it could be better. Don't back pedal.
- 33:25Now the cast. Looking at the main cast of
- 33:36Hoofer and Roger Rabbit, first place that we're going to look
- 33:38is Bob Hoskins, who plays Private Snoop, Eddie Valiant,
- 33:42Westie. What do you think of Hoskins as
- 33:44Valiant? I've not seen him better than
- 33:45anything. I think he's fucking brilliant
- 33:48in this. He just carries the whole film.
- 33:51Boom. He has in a brilliant arc.
- 33:53He's completely he's sword beaten up and down and done with
- 33:59everything. It's it's a real tortured soul
- 34:01and a real tortured performance. And then to go all the way to a
- 34:04song and dance number at the end and make you.
- 34:05Believe it like. Bob Hoskins doing that, It's
- 34:08just like you're pissed uncle at a wedding or something and it's.
- 34:11Fantastic. There's not a bad line spoken by
- 34:15him. He's got, he's given some hard
- 34:16dialogue as well to really nail home and make seem plausible and
- 34:21and believable. And I think he does really,
- 34:23really well with it. And it's the scenes where it's
- 34:24just him with Roger and they're just going at it.
- 34:28It's, it's 100% like he's just pissed off.
- 34:31Like it's just when one of your kids is just going mental around
- 34:34the house and he's trying to calm them down.
- 34:36And he's just, he captures it perfectly and he's acting to
- 34:38nothing. I first saw him in ZZ Dawn,
- 34:41obviously, which I loved him in. I thought he was Castle on Good
- 34:45Fridays, brilliant, Cotton Crumb, obviously Mona Lisa and
- 34:48they're all fantastic. But I think if you look at this
- 34:50stuff he did after this, this is almost like his zenith.
- 34:53This is like his peak. John yeah, I think when he had
- 34:57just watched the film and Hoskins performance, he's he is
- 34:59very good. He hits the right moments,
- 35:01whether it's comedy or drama. The character does have an arc
- 35:04and he portrays that well. But I think it's when you see
- 35:07behind the scenes footage that you realizes how good a job
- 35:09Hoskins did. Absolutely.
- 35:11When he's acting Officer Roger, which is most of the film, he's
- 35:14acting. It's nothing obviously and you
- 35:16can't tell from his performance at all.
- 35:18And the scene set in tune, tone, especially, where everything
- 35:20except Hoskins is animated and the backgrounds, you're acting
- 35:23with nothing at all except the blue screen.
- 35:25That footage that you can see you've been doing that is really
- 35:28impressive. And when you do see that, you
- 35:29realize he didn't just do a good job.
- 35:31He was absolutely incredible. Brilliant.
- 35:33Yeah. Amazing.
- 35:35It's a bit when you see Benny the cab for me, like you see
- 35:38them behind the scenes, he can't be comfortable.
- 35:40He's ties blowing over his shoulder.
- 35:41He's just kind of his belly's hanging over the top of this,
- 35:44but he's he's just still absolutely nailing it.
- 35:46It's fucking brilliant. Yeah, I think he's perfectly
- 35:49placed to portray this character.
- 35:51He's got a classic deadpan style, but he I think he's got
- 35:53some really good comic time. And like you mentioned the song
- 35:55and dance number at the end. Yeah.
- 35:57Fantastic. I love that he's shown as this
- 35:59tough guy pretty much immediately in the bar when the
- 36:03guy Angelo is having a Gordon for working with tunes and he
- 36:07kicks the chair from under underneath him and shoves a hard
- 36:10boiled egg in his mouth. Horrible.
- 36:11And calls him Meatball. He's horrible, that guy that
- 36:17actually redeems himself, but he's fucking disgusting.
- 36:19Yeah, probably one of my favorite scenes is when we first
- 36:23see Valiant in his office. We've got loads and loads of
- 36:26character development. He's looking at the pictures of
- 36:28the holiday, having Catalina. So we've got like Eddie's
- 36:31relationship with Dolores and with Teddy's brother.
- 36:34Oh yeah, you got. That's like classic swoop around
- 36:36the office. It's like newspaper cuttings and
- 36:38photographs. Absolutely amazing.
- 36:39So he's portrayed as this kind of like fun love and party kind
- 36:43of guy who's been completely changed into this massive cell
- 36:46pus because of this really emotional moment in his life.
- 36:50That's reminds me of the opening about the future when it scans
- 36:52over all the clocks and you see basically the whole story.
- 36:55And Zemeckis loves that kind of exposition where it's just
- 36:58delivered visually and one kind of swoop, like, pay attention or
- 37:02this isn't going to work for you.
- 37:04Everything you were seeing there from the news clippings we found
- 37:06out that he loved nothing more than working in Toontown and
- 37:09we're scanning over these photos has revealed that Eddie and his
- 37:11brother were part of this world famous Barnum and Bailey
- 37:15travelling circus, most recently depicted in The Great Showman a
- 37:18few years back. BT Barnum.
- 37:20Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so this gives an added
- 37:22lead. Eddie's characters further
- 37:23cement the fact that he's all about the laughs and
- 37:25entertaining people. Or he certainly was until this
- 37:27traumatic event has happened. And it's expertly done.
- 37:30Like you've said, Westie in 1-2 minute scene with 0 dialogue,
- 37:33we've got a completely fleshed out character.
- 37:36It's fantastic and it's very sad to see that he's turned into
- 37:38this drunk, miserable bastard. Yeah.
- 37:41And I look like all the dust on Teddy's desk as well.
- 37:44Nothing's been moved. Yeah.
- 37:46And then when Roger touches it, he's like, don't sit there.
- 37:49It's like, there's that real moment where you just think,
- 37:51Jesus Christ. Yeah.
- 37:52Fantastic. It's brilliant.
- 37:53Love it. I do have a little bit of a
- 37:55problem with his American accent.
- 37:57Oh, really? It waves off in certain areas.
- 38:00I think it's generally in his office when Roger's there, when
- 38:03the weasels leave and he says, for starters, don't ever kiss me
- 38:07again. It's terrible.
- 38:10It doesn't bother me because this was the first film I ever
- 38:12saw him in and I probably saw this 10 times before I ever saw
- 38:15Bob Hoskins and anything else. So that was how he spoke for
- 38:18probably the 1st 20 years of my life.
- 38:20So the accent doesn't really bother us that much.
- 38:22Right. OK, in the early days, 188182
- 38:26voice actor Peter Renadier screen tested for the part of
- 38:29Valiant. But when it hit full throttle in
- 38:31the mid 80s, there was a a list and a half of potentials.
- 38:34Harrison Ford was top, but because the budget was tightly
- 38:37proved too expensive, Chevy Chase turned it down and Bill
- 38:41Murray was next on the list. And he was uncontactable.
- 38:43When he later found out that he was in the frame, he said he
- 38:45would have done it in a heartbeat.
- 38:47He was in public when he found out.
- 38:49He screamed out loud, apparently.
- 38:52Classic Murray. Joe Pantoliano actually screen
- 38:57tested for the Royal Joey Pants. Yeah, when Richard Williams was
- 39:01first drafted in to to show what his animation could do, it was
- 39:05Joe Pantoliano who was playing Valiant.
- 39:07And he's a little clip of him as Valiant, if you haven't heard
- 39:10it. What the hell are you doing
- 39:11here? I mean, a place to hide.
- 39:13I'm in trouble. Lied.
- 39:15You're right. Haven't noticed I'm a rabbit.
- 39:17Right. And you're not going to get away
- 39:20from me again. Slightly better American accent
- 39:23there. Slightly.
- 39:28Then there were the usual names bandied about in any 80s film.
- 39:31Jack Nicholson sliced alone, Robert Redford, Ed Harris was
- 39:34mentioned, and also Charles Gordon.
- 39:36Yeah, and considering Hoskins was way down on this list of
- 39:39candidates for the role, would you have liked to see in any of
- 39:41those as Valiant? Yeah, well, I've got a couple
- 39:43more names as well. I mean, I think Mirandas was in
- 39:45there. Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, Eddie
- 39:48Murphy turned the role down. So anybody big in the 80s?
- 39:51Yeah. Everybody.
- 39:52The whole hit. Yeah, and again, Eddie Murphy
- 39:54said that he later regretted this.
- 39:55I mean, of course, I do know that.
- 39:56The one that Bill Murray, and I would love to have seen him in
- 39:59there. The scenes between Murray and
- 40:01Roger would have been absolutely fantastic.
- 40:03I think it would probably be one of Murray's best and most famous
- 40:05roles if he had ended up taking it.
- 40:07Definitely of those other names, other names they were mentioned.
- 40:10I think Hanks would have been pretty great.
- 40:12I would have loved that as well. Yeah.
- 40:14I mean, Hoskins did a brilliant job, like I say, so I definitely
- 40:17wouldn't change it necessarily, but I would love to have seen
- 40:19what Murray or Hanks could come up with in that lead role.
- 40:22Fantastic. What about you Westie?
- 40:23Any of those names that you would like to see in as Valiant?
- 40:26Well, I've got a mirror box and I kind of just ignore the fact
- 40:28that Murray was going to be in there, which would have been
- 40:30sensational. That comedy timer would have
- 40:32probably been even sharper and a little bit more tongue in cheek
- 40:35and I think you would have him acting against the tunes would
- 40:38have just been a perfect match between the two things.
- 40:41I think he would have been fantastic in it.
- 40:43I like to have seen Gruden actually, because at this point
- 40:45there wasn't any like massive names and I love him in It's
- 40:49Hilarious in Midnight Run, obviously one of your
- 40:51favourites, but I think he would have, he would have been like
- 40:53really good as that kind of like disheveled down and out.
- 40:56PII think he would have been really good.
- 40:58I can see him in the hat. I can see him talking to
- 40:59Dolores. I can see him like being pissed
- 41:01off with Roger. Like I think he would have been
- 41:03really good as well. So out of them, yeah, I would
- 41:04have said like Murray and maybe Gordon and Hanks obviously would
- 41:07have been fantastic. Been like Rotten Edition, but
- 41:09just without the violence. And cartoons.
- 41:14Well, yeah, that that's small point as well.
- 41:19Much like you, Westie would have loved to have seen Charles
- 41:22Gordon in there. I do love him in Midnight Run,
- 41:24which came out I believe this year as well, 1988.
- 41:28And he's got really fantastic comic timing and he's deadpan
- 41:32style in Midnight Run. I think it's perfect for this.
- 41:35But I think I'm just looking at that from Bob Hoskins point of
- 41:38view. It's a similar kind of style
- 41:39that I see. So I would like to have seen his
- 41:41take, but I wouldn't change. Bob Hoskins.
- 41:43I think he's fantastic. The others Murray would have
- 41:47been good Obviously. Chase definitely would have had
- 41:50sex with Jessica 100%. Is that even possible though?
- 41:57That's the animators I don't know.
- 42:00Well, with Hoskins on board, the shoot lasted 8 months.
- 42:03So that's Hoskins for eight months.
- 42:05Imagining the majority of his Co stars, that's pretty tough
- 42:08going. Yeah, I've got a quote from
- 42:10Hoskins about working on the film and all the blue screen
- 42:12that was involved, where he said I had to learn to hallucinate to
- 42:15do it. After doing it for six months
- 42:18for 16 hours a day, I lost control of it and had wheels and
- 42:21rabbits popping out the wall at me.
- 42:25Terrifying sounds. Like a really bad trip, doesn't
- 42:28it? Horrible that another great
- 42:30quote as well for me son. He like didn't speak to him for
- 42:33two weeks and he said well, why? And then finally found out that
- 42:36were you acting with Bugs Bunny and you haven't introduced this
- 42:39to him Like I didn't get to meet him.
- 42:40That's great. Is that just what A.
- 42:42Story. That's so sweet, isn't it?
- 42:47That level of guilt though, knowing that you could never
- 42:49fulfill that wish. Sorry mate, how?
- 42:52How do you explain to him I can't introduce you to him?
- 42:55I'm just, I'm going to have to ruin the whole film, just see a
- 42:58glimpse of reality. To help aid his method, Charles
- 43:01Fleischer, who plays Roger, he would dress in a full rabbit
- 43:04costume, floppies and old, and stand off camera and act the
- 43:08scene out with Bob Hoskins. I think Hoskins said that
- 43:11Fleischer was completely nuts. Yeah.
- 43:14Which is what you've got to be to play Roger Robert.
- 43:16Yeah, the cast were unanimous in the praise for Hoskins.
- 43:18Joanna Cassidy, who plays Loris, she said.
- 43:21He was masterful. He had a photographic memory.
- 43:24He was a genius. Genius.
- 43:25Hoskins good at science or something.
- 43:33Bob Hoskins have been performing since the early 70s, but it was
- 43:36his turn as Mafia kingpin Harold Shandin the Long Good Friday
- 43:39that catapulted his career. He went a BAFTA for Mona Lisa in
- 43:421986. A couple of years before this
- 43:44and after, Roger Rabbit did become quite a Hollywood star
- 43:48For a little while. He starred in things like
- 43:50Mermaids and Hook, but also he starred in Super Mario.
- 43:54Brothers. Don't mention that.
- 43:59Moving on to the main man, the star of the show, whose purpose
- 44:02in life is to make people laugh, that's Charles Fleischer, who
- 44:05plays Roger Rabbit. Firstly, what do you think of
- 44:07the character of Roger Rabbit John?
- 44:09Well, he's fantastic, isn't he? He's a, he's a complete lunatic
- 44:13and I love him as a character. He doesn't feel out of his
- 44:16depth, sharing the screen with all these huge icons.
- 44:19And I think that's an achievement in itself, to be
- 44:21honest. Absolutely.
- 44:21Roger could have easily been swallowed whole as soon as Bugs
- 44:24Bunny, Mickey Mouse and Duffy don't come on the screen, but
- 44:27he's not, which I actually find quite incredible.
- 44:30And looks wise, he seems to be a bit of a mix of everything.
- 44:32He looks a bit Looney Tunes, a bit Disney, a bit tech savory,
- 44:35but doesn't feel like a pastiche.
- 44:38He feels like Roger Rabbit. Yeah, but he's got his own style
- 44:41and identity, hasn't he? Absolutely, yeah.
- 44:43And mostly I just find him absolutely hilarious.
- 44:46Loads of laugh out loud moments. And honestly, I think he's one
- 44:48of the funniest characters I've seen in a film.
- 44:50And with all those huge characters he's following that
- 44:52we've mentioned, which I think we should really be sitting here
- 44:54saying, yeah, Roger's all right, but he's no Looney Tunes, is he?
- 44:58But we're not. He holds his own.
- 45:00I think he's an absolutely fantastic creation.
- 45:02Totally agree. I think that's the same with all
- 45:05of the characters. All of the new cartoon
- 45:06characters completely hold their own when they're up against
- 45:09these absolute icons of the screen.
- 45:11Yeah, what about USD? Yeah, exactly the same.
- 45:14I love how they've made him, you know, very accessible and he's
- 45:17he's colour palettes, red, white and blue.
- 45:19So he's almost like he's got this patriotic vibe
- 45:21automatically. He's an entertainer.
- 45:23He's a classic entertainer. You don't know what period he's
- 45:26from particularly. He could fit any single
- 45:29generation would find him funny. So I think he spans that whole
- 45:33time, the whole Looney Tunes, Warner Bros and the whole Disney
- 45:36kind of time frame. They were still trying to find
- 45:40something. I think what they've done is
- 45:41they've found the absolute best elements of all these different
- 45:44characters and created this character that, I mean, at times
- 45:48is very, very close to just being annoying.
- 45:50And then he's so endearing. Do you know what I mean?
- 45:53He's. Just so close.
- 45:54Pissing you off, but then he's lovely.
- 45:57I always feel a massive amount of sympathy for Roger straight
- 46:00from the get go. He breaks my heart.
- 46:03He gets a fridge slammed on his head and valiant and utter
- 46:06shithead to him, barking orders and yanking his ears all the
- 46:10time. Terrible.
- 46:11And I always feel that huge pang of emotion when he's crying when
- 46:14he finds out about Jessica and the panic cake thing.
- 46:16Oh God. Yeah.
- 46:20There are certain parts, like U Westy, where Roger skirts the
- 46:23line and waivers ever so slightly into being annoying or
- 46:26possibly annoying, but then he does bring it back because he's
- 46:29just a lovely, lovely guy. He.
- 46:31Really is. I really love him.
- 46:32In the scene in the back of the bar where he's handcuffed to
- 46:35Eddie, he's dashing around all over the place, looking through
- 46:38the spy hole, and he takes the his hand out of the cuffs and he
- 46:41says that he couldn't take it out anytime, only when it was
- 46:44funny. Great line, Great line.
- 46:47Great delivery in that as well. Yeah, the delivery is always
- 46:49great. I love the bit way he's
- 46:50handcuffed to Eddie and Eddie's office and these the weasels
- 46:53turn up and Roger dives into the bottom drawing at his desk and
- 46:56then appears out the top drawer. He says, remember, you never saw
- 46:59me. Fantastic.
- 47:04I like that he's constantly fooling around.
- 47:06The camera's off him for a second, then goes back to him
- 47:08and he's hanging off like a ceiling fan from his ears, and
- 47:11then it goes back and it comes back again and he's saw in his
- 47:14head and laughing about it. It's like a like a file.
- 47:21Yeah, yeah, yeah. Brilliant.
- 47:24Roger was this huge melting pot of different cartoon characters.
- 47:27The design is supposed to convey the production calibre of
- 47:30Disney, the character design of Warner's Looney Tunes and the
- 47:33sense of humour of Tex Avery. His face is meant to resemble
- 47:37the Looney Tunes characters. His torso, a Disney hero with
- 47:40his overalls or a nod to Goofy and his gloves.
- 47:43Mickey Mouse, his ball type. Porky Pixel.
- 47:45Like you said, John, he's this big mishmash of different
- 47:48characters. Didn't actually know that, I
- 47:50just took that from his look. So I never read spotted that
- 47:53they were the specific things that took.
- 47:54So they did not read well because I just think of Roger
- 47:56Robert when I see him. Yeah, it's not obvious, is it?
- 47:59No, no, not at all. In the early stages of
- 48:02development, early 80s pre fame, Paul Rubens, if he ever had that
- 48:07much fame, was the voice of Roger.
- 48:09He would lead to get a little bit of fame playing Pee Wee
- 48:12Herman and Pee Wee Herman's Big adventure Tim Burton film.
- 48:15Yeah. Would you like to hear a snippet
- 48:17of that dialogue? I'd love to.
- 48:19Here it is. Oh.
- 48:21Yes, Sir, but wouldn't it be more helpful if I started to get
- 48:25to came along with you baby? Because what, what maybe you got
- 48:27you got to get into some more locks or something.
- 48:31OK. You definitely would have
- 48:33skirted over the annoying line with that.
- 48:35Like, yeah. Yeah.
- 48:38Fly sure was perfect. Yeah.
- 48:40But when Hoofer and Roger Abbott was abandoned in the mid 80s, so
- 48:44was Reubens, and when it was picked back up, Fleischer was
- 48:46first choice. He said unquestionably I'm a
- 48:49stand up comedian, so my purpose in life is to make people laugh.
- 48:52I related to Rog more than any human character I've ever
- 48:54played. Wow.
- 48:56Rog Oh, I love that. So what do you think of
- 49:02Fleischer's voice work? He also voiced Benny the Cab and
- 49:05a couple of the Weasels as well. Yeah, he's greasy and psycho,
- 49:08isn't he? That's right.
- 49:09Yeah, greasy like the he was like in the in the purple zoot
- 49:12suit. No, no, Greasy's the one in the
- 49:14green suit. The Mexican so.
- 49:16They call the Mexican greasy. Yeah, I know.
- 49:19It's outrageous, isn't it? He's fantastic and I didn't know
- 49:24it was this guy until you totally ruined Zodiac for us on
- 49:27the podcast. That massive reveal on the
- 49:29Zodiac episode do you like? Really my only recollection of
- 49:34Fleischer is in Nightmare on Street in Zodiac, so I can't, I
- 49:40can't really picture this guy in a big rabbit suit being like
- 49:43Eddie. His voice work is fantastic.
- 49:47Like we said, every line is perfectly delivered.
- 49:50When it's supposed to be funny, it's really funny.
- 49:52And then when he needs to be emotional, it's really
- 49:55emotional. Oh yeah, it is.
- 49:57He hits every single beat to the 100%.
- 50:00What about you, John? I think he's incredible.
- 50:04Roger's voice is instantly recognizable but doesn't sound
- 50:06like any classic Disney or Looney Tunes characters.
- 50:08It sounds totally unique. His delivery of the lines is
- 50:11always perfectly clear, and obviously there are a lot of
- 50:13comedy lines in there and he nails every single one of them.
- 50:17I think he clearly 100% understands the genre of these
- 50:20classic cartoons. The newly created animated
- 50:23characters all stand up alongside the character, the
- 50:26classic ones. And I think Lord of that,
- 50:28especially with Roger, is down to Charles Fleischer.
- 50:30He did a fantastic job. Fantastic.
- 50:33Yeah, I think what's really impressive is not just Roger,
- 50:35but the other characters voices that he does.
- 50:37They're pulls apart. Benny, the cab sounds completely
- 50:40different to Roger. You would not bet in a million
- 50:43years that I was the same person, No.
- 50:45Even when they're sharing scenes, you can't even tell.
- 50:48Like it's the same guy. Yeah, that's right.
- 50:49To himself. It's it's brilliant.
- 50:52I love Benny the Cab's voice as well.
- 50:53Like it's. Just, oh, he's amazing.
- 50:55It's so brilliant. It's.
- 50:56Exactly what you want that cab to sound like.
- 50:58It's just. Exactly right.
- 50:59It's. What, Like it's what De Niro's
- 51:01cab would sound like in Taxi Driver.
- 51:06Flash is a standard comic by trade.
- 51:09He's had loads of live action roles, but as Wesley mentioned,
- 51:12his stand outs are his one scene performances in On Elm Street
- 51:15and as we've talked about a few episodes, his chill and roll
- 51:17insurance or the Yak. Amazing that.
- 51:20Finally, on our cast list, Christopher Lloyd is the feesome
- 51:23Judge Doom. So, Westie, what do you think
- 51:26about Christopher Lloyd as Judge Doom?
- 51:28Too far. Too far.
- 51:29Too far too too. Scary.
- 51:31Too much? Traumatized.
- 51:36I need, I need, I'm going to flick on the me notes here,
- 51:38which is literally half a page, and then I'm going to tear it
- 51:40out and burn them. It's always, always freaked me
- 51:46out, no matter what role it is, whether he's the guy in the hat
- 51:49where he's coming in and he just, you know, looks like the
- 51:52body at Raiders or when he turns into the tune at the end.
- 51:56No, still now. Terrified, horrible.
- 51:59Hate it. Great performance, wonderful,
- 52:01lovely, but too scary. Too far for me as a kid, too far
- 52:04for me now. It just hits every single note
- 52:06that scares me. Big hats, long coats, canes
- 52:09horrible there. And I was scared of Doc when I
- 52:12first saw about the future when I was younger and I just he just
- 52:16had that wide eyed like craziness.
- 52:18But he was really endearing in this.
- 52:20He's got that wide eyed, horrible craziness, never blinks
- 52:23throughout the whole film, which is terrifying in itself.
- 52:26So he's almost like Hannibal Lecter of Toontown.
- 52:29He's just this this horrible specter.
- 52:34And then when he runs and he's laughing now.
- 52:38Just know. It's too much.
- 52:40John, is he too much for you? He.
- 52:43Has some really good moments like in Dolores's bar, and
- 52:46actually I remember I was absolutely petrified from as a
- 52:49kid as well. So there's lots of good things
- 52:51there for sure. I think the main issue I have is
- 52:53that he's just not funny, at least not to me, and I think he
- 52:57should be. I mean, Roger's funny, the
- 52:58wheels are funny, the cameos are funny, but Doom isn't funny like
- 53:01at all. And I do think he's written to
- 53:03be funny at times. So Christopher Logan Doom, I do
- 53:06think he's good. He feels like a bad guy.
- 53:08He has a presence. He is terrifying, but I wouldn't
- 53:11say he's fantastic. And of all the main cast, he's
- 53:16the one who would be least sorry to see get replaced if we could
- 53:19do that, which we can't. Unfortunately.
- 53:23Wow, I'm surprised at that, really.
- 53:26I really like him. I love this like huge dark cloud
- 53:29that he casts over the whole of Hollywood.
- 53:31He's utterly terrifying. I'm not crying out for him to be
- 53:33funny. I think that it needs a bit of a
- 53:36balance and he offers that. I like that he keeps a rubber
- 53:39glove on his person at all times, just in case he needs to
- 53:42dish out some tune justice. It's genuinely affecting when he
- 53:45puts that weep and shoo in the dip.
- 53:47But that's despicable. It's horrible.
- 53:51I still cannot watch it now. I used to have to watch the one
- 53:54that was edited for television where it just cuts to him with
- 53:57the steam all over his face. How bad do you want us to feel?
- 54:00So I guess like how I get it, I totally get it, but how bad do
- 54:04you want us to feel about this situation?
- 54:05It's like watching the knife scene at the end of Saving
- 54:08Private Ryan. It's like it's just, it's that
- 54:10painful. But every he does everything I
- 54:12hate, he puts that little shoe in the dip.
- 54:14Asshole he scratches on a on the blackboard.
- 54:17Despicable asshole. He's horrible anywhere near him.
- 54:22I really don't like him. Those cries and whimpers of the
- 54:27shoe were voiced by Nancy Cartwright, who one year later
- 54:32would become the voice of Bart Simpson.
- 54:34Oh wow, Simpson. Yeah.
- 54:35Which is? Do you think you can tell?
- 54:37I'll play it for you. No.
- 54:39So yeah, if you can handle it, the hero comes.
- 54:51Thanks for that. Put us through it again when I
- 54:56thought I'd seen it for the last time.
- 54:59I mean, it's pretty unrecognizable that that is Bart
- 55:01Simpson really, isn't it? Well, it is, yeah.
- 55:03Well, yeah, it is. Dooms ragtag entourage or the
- 55:07bunch of degenerates known as the Weasels.
- 55:09But originally Doom had a much bigger entourage.
- 55:11The Weasels crew was bigger in numbers, two more to mimic the
- 55:15seven dwarfs. Right, lovely.
- 55:17He also had a pet vulture that sat on his shoulder.
- 55:20And he also had a jury of Kangaroos that would pull out
- 55:22individual letters from their pouches that would spell out
- 55:25you're guilty. That's terrifying.
- 55:31I'm so pleased none of that happened.
- 55:34So I'd say kangaroo court then, I suppose.
- 55:36That's right. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- 55:38Yeah. Lovely, Lloyd said.
- 55:40A lot of people have come to me since Roger Rabbit Open to say
- 55:42that when they saw the movie when they were kids, they had
- 55:45nightmares afterwards, which like Western.
- 55:47Still that. He said.
- 55:48The first few Disney films like Bambi, Snow White and the Seven
- 55:51Dwarfs gave me nightmares too, so I thought it was a bit of a
- 55:53reasonable payback. Yeah, it's not really the same
- 55:56though. Those films like Bambi, they
- 55:57feel they're like teaching kids about loss and grief.
- 56:00This is just terrifying for no reason.
- 56:04This is a guy squealing as he gets run over by a steamroller.
- 56:08Yeah, oh God, those noises are awful.
- 56:14Again. As we love to talk about,
- 56:16Christopher Lloyd wasn't first on the list.
- 56:18Uber bad guy Tim Curry was considered at first, but he was
- 56:21deemed too scary for doom, of course.
- 56:24Of course. He was too scary and Lloyd
- 56:26wasn't doing what he did. What was Tim Gordy?
- 56:33Going in the other direction, their thoughts went to John
- 56:35Cleese, which basilful he surely didn't choose, poking them in
- 56:41the. Eye.
- 56:44Just hit them with a massive brunch.
- 56:50So then they went to Christopher Lee.
- 56:51He turned it down. He would have been great.
- 56:53He would have been great. Yeah, fantastic.
- 56:56And then also in the frame sting.
- 56:59Insane. Terrible.
- 57:04He's wearing that pants that he had on in June.
- 57:08That would have been terrifying for a whole different reason.
- 57:12Yeah, I've got a few more names. The one you mentioned there,
- 57:15Robin Williams, Vincent Price, John Lithgow, William Dufour,
- 57:18John Malkovich, Gene Hackman, Richard Gere.
- 57:21The one I like the most, who I think would have been absolutely
- 57:25fantastic, is Michael Keaton. Of course, Keaton.
- 57:29Brilliant. I mean, imagine Keaton, Hanks
- 57:31and Roger together at last in this.
- 57:33That would have been incredible. It's a different.
- 57:36Film. It would have been great.
- 57:38He would have been perfect for this sort of film.
- 57:40He would have been terrifying the kids and hilarious to
- 57:42adults. He would have been superb.
- 57:45Yeah, in my opinion, any bad guy should be John Lithgow in any
- 57:50film. We've talked about Christopher
- 57:54Lloyd and our Back to the Future podcast.
- 57:56That episode is available in our podcast archive, exclusive for
- 58:00our patrons. So if you want to dive into the
- 58:02archive, check out the ADRM Pedreon.
- 58:05Lloyd made his debut in Cuckoo's Nest, appeared in the slasher
- 58:08film Schizoid opposite Klaus Kinski in 1980.
- 58:12He appeared in other films after this, The Addams Family and
- 58:15Suburban Commando Absolute. Class fantastic.
- 58:18He's great in the dream team though.
- 58:19Yeah, yeah, with Keaton. With Keaton, yeah.
- 58:21There's no doubting that his most famous rules, though, are
- 58:24Doc Brown in Back to the Future and Judge Doom and Roger Rabbit.
- 58:27Definitely. Addams Family.
- 58:29So there is some down then just to be difficult.
- 58:35So a mixture of live action and animated characters combined and
- 58:38seamlessly to help bring Who friend Roger Rabbit to life
- 58:41amazingly well. Yeah.
- 58:50Back to the action, Marvin Acme has been murdered and Roger is
- 58:53in the frame who were picking it up his valley and goes back to
- 58:56his office. He has an encounter with baby
- 58:58Herman outside and finds Roger hiding in his bed.
- 59:01Before he has a chance to think the weasels are on the scene.
- 59:05So, John, what do you think about this scene?
- 59:08Oh it's great. I mean First off Valiant is
- 59:10interacting with Roger and then the weasels non-stop and Hoskins
- 59:14portrays it brilliantly. But the animation work is
- 59:16phenomenal. Unbelievable.
- 59:19I totally buy the Roger and Valiant are in the same room
- 59:22together. Absolutely brilliant completely
- 59:24and as a scene it's one of the best in there I think.
- 59:28Love it when Valiant pulls his bed down and you can see Roger's
- 59:31big feet under the covers. Absolutely fantastic.
- 59:35And obviously in terms of the plot it's one of the most
- 59:36important in the film. It's the point of Valiant and
- 59:38Roger start working together. Brilliant scene and Roger is
- 59:42hilarious. Non stopping it.
- 59:44Yeah, he's great. I like when he's saying that
- 59:46he's he's asked the fireman, the butcher, the Baker that didn't
- 59:49know where Valiant's office was, but the liquor store guy, he
- 59:51knew great. What about you, Westie?
- 59:58Yeah, there's so many things to like in this scene as now.
- 1:00:00I mean, it's one of them like stand out scenes from the film.
- 1:00:03It's the first time you get the interaction between, well, the
- 1:00:06real interaction, the physical interaction between them.
- 1:00:09And I love the bit when he's just gets really.
- 1:00:11Over the top emotional and he's like, I'm out of here.
- 1:00:14And then he's straight in the closet.
- 1:00:19Yeah, you kind of you kick yourself and not expect it and
- 1:00:23like still didn't expect it now. And you're like, that's the
- 1:00:25closet. And then when he's he's inside
- 1:00:27the detective suit and he's like got a square face and he's.
- 1:00:30Like, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Tony takes the piss out of
- 1:00:32him. There's so many things to like.
- 1:00:33Love it when the weasels turn up and I still think to myself now
- 1:00:36I forgot how because he hasn't got a king for the cuffs.
- 1:00:39It's like how how would you? How's he going to do this?
- 1:00:42I totally forgot that he puts them in that dish of water.
- 1:00:45The dishes at the series. It's not the dishes he's got.
- 1:00:47He's like he's it's the whites. My lingerie.
- 1:00:52My lingerie, Yeah, Brilliant. I think it's Grace, firstly,
- 1:00:56that Hoskins is in this scene with six of the characters who
- 1:01:00just weren't there during film, so he's got to act all of this
- 1:01:02out by himself. But like you said, John, the
- 1:01:04animation's amazing. The real stand out for me is
- 1:01:07when Rogers in the sink, yeah, he's coming up and he's spurting
- 1:01:11the water out and then back and valley and slapping them on the
- 1:01:14back. That just works.
- 1:01:16Perfectly it does. It's absolutely seamless and I
- 1:01:19have a huge soft spot for the weasels.
- 1:01:22They are great. One of the greatest cinematic
- 1:01:24criminal crews ever. One of the greatest collection
- 1:01:29of stereotypes as well though. Let's be.
- 1:01:34I like that about it though. I like that they've got the
- 1:01:36wrong individual identities. The leaders this like Hip Talk
- 1:01:39and Tough Guy and the rest of all got those identities.
- 1:01:42They're great. Their names aren't mentioned in
- 1:01:44the film, but they do have names.
- 1:01:46Do you know what they are? Go on then.
- 1:01:49I don't know all of them. I know some of them.
- 1:01:51So the dude in the green suit is called greasy, right?
- 1:01:55Or Greasy Weezy? Is the chainsmoker psycho?
- 1:01:59The guy in the straitjacket stupid?
- 1:02:02The one in the beanie hat? Didn't take long to think of
- 1:02:05that name, did it? And finally, smart ass, he's the
- 1:02:11the leader of the back. 7 dwarfs.
- 1:02:13That's names as well. They aren't.
- 1:02:14Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
- 1:02:16I love the opening of this scene as well.
- 1:02:18When you've got Herman there, it's like with genuine concern,
- 1:02:22like, you know, he didn't do this.
- 1:02:23And then the the woman that he's with, he's just a chauvinistic
- 1:02:26pig, isn't he? He's like, yeah, tuts.
- 1:02:29And he's just like, oh, he's horrible.
- 1:02:30But then when he drops a cigar and he's God's crying, it's
- 1:02:33fantastic. Wheeling.
- 1:02:35Wheeling, But it's that line I think was lifted straight out of
- 1:02:39the novel when he's I've got a 40 year old Lust and a
- 1:02:41three-year old Dinky. Outrageous.
- 1:02:46I'm not a. Big fan of that line to be
- 1:02:47honest. I don't know what to, I don't
- 1:02:49know how to make what to make of that.
- 1:02:50I really love baby Herman. He's hilarious, but when he says
- 1:02:54things like that, it's just weird.
- 1:02:57I think Baby Herman is a good character but I'm not sure how
- 1:03:00much I like him. I do like that he goes to Valley
- 1:03:02and to defend Roger. I like him when he calls him his
- 1:03:04friend as well, but he treats that poor girl who's pushing him
- 1:03:07around like absolute shit. Yeah.
- 1:03:10Calls him a dumb broad. And goes tells her to go and get
- 1:03:13a racing form. What I do like is I know that
- 1:03:16Richard Williams, who was the animation director, loved Baby
- 1:03:19Herman and he insists on personally animating every frame
- 1:03:22of the character. So it's all drawn and drawn by
- 1:03:24Richard Williams. Yeah, nice.
- 1:03:27But he is, I mean, super weird character, yeah.
- 1:03:30And the another thing I love about this scene as well, like
- 1:03:32with the combination of the live action and smart ass, is talking
- 1:03:35a Valiant just before he leaves and is that we're hanging out to
- 1:03:38dry and then he flicks the water.
- 1:03:40Yeah. Oh, yeah.
- 1:03:42It's just how on earth did they do that and get that timing
- 1:03:45right? It's yeah, superb.
- 1:03:47I love the moment where the 1st come into the room when the sort
- 1:03:50of machine gun the lock and then the door swings open.
- 1:03:52We haven't seen them yet and then they also just snake in the
- 1:03:55room at the same time. It's a fantastic shot.
- 1:03:58The guy in the green suit, Greasy says.
- 1:04:00Looks like he gave us the slip. Our boss.
- 1:04:03Fantastic. After this, Roger hides out at
- 1:04:10Dolores Bar and Valian finds out that unless Acme's Will shows up
- 1:04:13by midnight, Cloverleaf will own Toontown.
- 1:04:16We're back at Dolores Bars. Roger can't resist the urge to
- 1:04:19entertain, which leads Doom and the Weasels straight to him.
- 1:04:22Westie this scene at the bar. It's really like a classic
- 1:04:27saloon type of situation, isn't it?
- 1:04:29We're just kind of walking in and you've got Angelo that
- 1:04:32you're that you that you were introduced to and you've got all
- 1:04:35these are they're kind of like real down and outs and you just
- 1:04:37think that, you know, but they all totally redeem themselves
- 1:04:40within the scene. I think this scene's really,
- 1:04:41really good. I love the way Roger's
- 1:04:43entertaining everybody, you know, and that just throughout
- 1:04:46that record and then the record sticks.
- 1:04:48So he's smashing the plate as it sticks.
- 1:04:50I think it's so many really good bits in this and I love that the
- 1:04:54fact that they're at that spy hole and Valine's like looking
- 1:04:57through and he's like, we've got away with this Roger.
- 1:04:59And he turns out he's just like he's going to blow any minute,
- 1:05:03any minute. Foreshadows back Maroon's office
- 1:05:05with the drink. And he's like, I think you're
- 1:05:07gonna want a drink. I don't.
- 1:05:08That's genius. I do.
- 1:05:09I don't, you know, this kind of like the old Switcher root, the
- 1:05:13old Switcher roots. Fantastic.
- 1:05:14So I think there's a lot of things you get rewarded from
- 1:05:16this scene for a lot of things. John.
- 1:05:19This is my favorite scene in the film.
- 1:05:21Wow. Wow, there it is.
- 1:05:22Great in terms of being a key moment in the plot and there is
- 1:05:25a bit of tension in there, but it's the Roger show for me.
- 1:05:28He's brilliant and for about 10 minutes nonstop, it's great when
- 1:05:32he's on the ball singing the Looney Tune song and smashing
- 1:05:34the plates over his head. Then they're shaving the haircut
- 1:05:37bit I love and what Valiant says.
- 1:05:39I don't know who's tunia you are Doom.
- 1:05:41And he turns around and Roger's having a complete meltdown.
- 1:05:45He has a. Twisting round.
- 1:05:47Himself. My favorite bit, though, maybe
- 1:05:50in the entire film, is that old Switcher the West he talked
- 1:05:53about, where Doom's holding Roger over the deep and valley
- 1:05:56and fools Roger and they're taking the drink.
- 1:05:58And Roger, like he doesn't want the drink.
- 1:06:00And Roger, like when I say I do, that means I do absolutely
- 1:06:05amazing. It's my favorite line in the
- 1:06:07film. I absolutely love it.
- 1:06:09He chucks it back as well, doesn't he?
- 1:06:10Yeah, oh, straight. Down.
- 1:06:12I think Doom's intro into this is awesome.
- 1:06:15He comes in and he says I'm looking for a murderer and holy
- 1:06:20shit. Full of fear, and his face is
- 1:06:23ashen, white, fantastic. And then Angelo fins that he
- 1:06:27knows where the rabbit is and he says, say hello, Harvey.
- 1:06:31Yeah, I love that call about the Harvey as well.
- 1:06:32Like, yeah. Yeah, it's great.
- 1:06:34And Doom looks at him like Stony faced, and then he shoots him
- 1:06:37this like, ridiculous maniacal smile and everybody stops
- 1:06:41laughing. Yeah, yeah, it's great.
- 1:06:44Oh, it's awful. I do love that it's inbuilt in
- 1:06:49Roger to entertain and Doom knows this, which is why he
- 1:06:53gives it the old shave and a haircut routine.
- 1:06:56Rogers freaking out in the back like you said and he can't take
- 1:06:59it anymore because he's got to complete the gag.
- 1:07:01He's a performer. He comes bursting out two bits
- 1:07:03that colder. Response.
- 1:07:05He's loving it as well. Despite the circumstances, he's
- 1:07:12fully performing and. He doesn't.
- 1:07:14He doesn't just come in. He like smashes through a wall.
- 1:07:22And then they get in the cab. Benny is just absolutely amazing
- 1:07:25Jive talking like a taxi driver does.
- 1:07:27How about this weather? And what about those Brooklyn
- 1:07:30Dodgers? Are they bombs?
- 1:07:32Of what? For me, Valiant's fully immersed
- 1:07:38in a cartoon world here in this car chase.
- 1:07:41It's so much fun. Yeah, there's some great
- 1:07:43dialogue in this when Benny turns around to Roger and he's
- 1:07:45like, hey, Roger, what do you call in the middle of a song
- 1:07:48just because the bridge is coming up?
- 1:07:49Yeah, yeah. That's so good.
- 1:07:50That's so. Good.
- 1:07:52Yeah, really, really good. And that your quote at the
- 1:07:55start, I'm going to ram him. Those are exactly the same words
- 1:07:58that Biff uses just before he slams into the manure truck in
- 1:08:00Back to the Future. Oh, lovely.
- 1:08:03So the mystery is beginning to reveal itself, but there are
- 1:08:05still a few missing pieces yet to find the.
- 1:08:13Crew. We want to take some time to
- 1:08:16look at the crew work on Hoof and Roger Rabbit as we normally
- 1:08:20do. We're going to look at the right
- 1:08:21and 1st Jeffrey Price and Pete S Seaman wrote Hoof and Roger
- 1:08:25Rabbit. Wesley, what do you think of the
- 1:08:28writing on the film? I think both kind of touched on
- 1:08:31it earlier on when we're talking about the plot and whether
- 1:08:33that's too confusing, but I think there's some really,
- 1:08:35really clever writing here. I think it's a really
- 1:08:38complicated plot, and on top of that, the winter weaved some
- 1:08:42incredible dialogue, some incredible comedy moments.
- 1:08:45Oh yeah. I think it's a really strong
- 1:08:46screenplay that I think from the undertaking of this project, I
- 1:08:50think you have to have something that you're reading and go,
- 1:08:53yeah, this is going to work. And I think just on the page
- 1:08:55this would sound like it would work.
- 1:08:57I think you would be laugh out loud funny some of the the
- 1:08:59dialogue and some of the lines and again the plot is fairly
- 1:09:04complicated but I think they do a good job of layering it up so
- 1:09:07you it does need multiple viewings.
- 1:09:10It does. Yeah, it.
- 1:09:10Needs that level of attention and I think they weren't scared
- 1:09:13to shy away from that and make it overly simplistic.
- 1:09:15There's a million ways this could go.
- 1:09:17When you've got all of the cartoon characters ever made in
- 1:09:21tune, you know, you could take this anywhere.
- 1:09:24But where they did take it I think is really, really good.
- 1:09:26And where they based it is really, really good and very,
- 1:09:29very original. I think it's one of the most
- 1:09:30original pieces of writing in in Hollywood, really.
- 1:09:35Wow. Hi, Perez, John.
- 1:09:37Yeah, I think the writing is really, really good, has a plot
- 1:09:40which makes sense, the unravelling murder mystery.
- 1:09:42The main characters, as we've mentioned, are all excellent,
- 1:09:45all of distinct personalities and the motivations are always
- 1:09:48really clear. Even the secondary characters
- 1:09:50are great, like the weasels we've talked about.
- 1:09:52There's Lords, Zingers, one liners and visual comedy in
- 1:09:56there. I think the concept as a whole
- 1:09:57is absolutely brilliant. This idea of a 1940s style noir
- 1:10:01mystery as the main plot to reflect the time period.
- 1:10:04I absolutely love it. So I think on a whole, yeah, it
- 1:10:06is a unique piece from the writing point of view I think.
- 1:10:09Fantastic job. It's flawless for me.
- 1:10:11It's got to juggle quite a few genres and I think it does that
- 1:10:13really, really well. The gags are thick and fast, but
- 1:10:16it allows for this fantastic arc of Valiant and give so much meat
- 1:10:20on the bones to that character. And it's got some really deeply
- 1:10:23affecting emotional beats as well.
- 1:10:25It's super smart, like whip smart dialogue, and that's one
- 1:10:29of the main reasons that it's endured.
- 1:10:31It's multi layered to Kate roll ages.
- 1:10:34Kids come for the animation and the funny action and all that
- 1:10:37kind of stuff. But then adults, that noir.
- 1:10:40Plus I'm a fan of noir anyway and that that's just perfect.
- 1:10:44I love that, absolutely love that.
- 1:10:45Loads of layers. And everything feels of the time
- 1:10:48as well. Like none of them gags feel like
- 1:10:50an 89 gag. Like OK that makes sense with
- 1:10:52that would sound an old school or cliched.
- 1:10:55Yeah, I think so much of it's just like timeless guys.
- 1:10:58You can watch it in 50 years time and it'll still be funny.
- 1:11:00Yeah, yeah, definitely. There were quite a few changes
- 1:11:04to the screenplay from the first draft to the final draft.
- 1:11:06During the writing process. Things change around characters
- 1:11:09came in characters. Motivations changed as well.
- 1:11:12At certain points in the various drafts.
- 1:11:14Jessica was pinned as the villa, right?
- 1:11:17And then baby Herman was pinned as the villa.
- 1:11:21Then Doom had this big reveal that he was the hunter who
- 1:11:23killed Bambi's mother, which would have made him even more
- 1:11:27terrifying. That is too far.
- 1:11:30Couldn't handle that. I couldn't handle that.
- 1:11:32Bringing the rifle out at the end.
- 1:11:34Yeah, horrible. Oh, don't.
- 1:11:36My Maple. Yeah, and even Roger died in one
- 1:11:41of the screenplay drafts. You can't kill off Roger.
- 1:11:44Didn't he died the book? Yeah, I think some of them
- 1:11:47changes, they are coming from the actual book.
- 1:11:49It was based on who censored Roger Rabbit.
- 1:11:52The filmmaker has moved away from it a lot.
- 1:11:54I mean, sometimes when we talk about changes movies have made
- 1:11:56from books, they often made them worse.
- 1:11:58But I don't think that's the case yet.
- 1:12:00Do you want to hear some of the differences between the movie
- 1:12:02and the book? Go for it.
- 1:12:05So in the book, the tunes aren't cartoon characters, but comic
- 1:12:08strip characters. So from newspapers and things
- 1:12:11like that, rather than being TV and movie stars.
- 1:12:13I mean, that's not as good. No, no, there's a one point.
- 1:12:18If you got the antique app. In the film, Roger's about 3
- 1:12:27feet tall. Maybe in the book he's 6 feet
- 1:12:30tall. Terrifying, say.
- 1:12:33Harvey in it, but in real. Yeah.
- 1:12:36Also in the book, Roger enjoys a Sup now and again, so he's a
- 1:12:40drinker. OK.
- 1:12:41You know what the booze is called that he drinks.
- 1:12:44No. Tune Shine.
- 1:12:47Brilliant. They should have kept that, that
- 1:12:48is. Brilliant.
- 1:12:49To be fair, yeah. Genius.
- 1:12:50In the book, Jessica hates Roger and leaves him for his boss.
- 1:12:53I don't like that. I love Jessica's, totally in
- 1:12:56love with Roger. Yeah, I do, yeah.
- 1:12:58And also like you mentioned there, Luke Roger dies halfway
- 1:13:00through the book. He gets shot to death.
- 1:13:02Nobody wants to say that. No, that's outrageous.
- 1:13:06Isn't it ridiculous? Gary Wolfie wrote the books, has
- 1:13:09written sequels in novel form to Who Framed Roger Roberts, and he
- 1:13:12preferred the movie version so much that he completely
- 1:13:15disregarded his original novel. So his second book starts with
- 1:13:18Jessica Robert waking up from a bad dream that was the first
- 1:13:21book and then he writes it as a sequel to the film.
- 1:13:24Cop out. Yeah, massive cop out if
- 1:13:27somebody's totally bored in and that book and loves it.
- 1:13:29What the fuck? Also, I think in the book
- 1:13:34Jessica was a former porn star. Too much.
- 1:13:38Yeah. I mean, obviously that's not
- 1:13:40going to make it. Definitely.
- 1:13:42That sounds great. I think I'm going to check this.
- 1:13:45The title of the film is a question Who Framed Roger
- 1:13:48Rabbit? But there isn't a question mark
- 1:13:49in the title of the film. Do you know why?
- 1:13:51I do. What's to do with the studio,
- 1:13:52isn't it? Yeah, it's apparently like a
- 1:13:55kiss of death in Hollywood to put a question mark in a film
- 1:13:58title. If you do that, then the film
- 1:14:00going to bomb, right? This film was never going to
- 1:14:02bomb. Not your eyes.
- 1:14:06The writers, Price and Seaman were huge fans of Roman
- 1:14:09Polanski's Chinatown. I mean, it's not surprising, is
- 1:14:12it? Like you said West of you, it
- 1:14:13wears Chinatown on its sleeve. Considering the underhand shady
- 1:14:17dealings of the cloverleaf subpot.
- 1:14:20They got the idea of Doom's big freeway dreams from one of the
- 1:14:23unused drafts to the sequel of Chinatown.
- 1:14:26Right, OK. Yeah, amazing.
- 1:14:28I know as well that that whole subplot is actually based in
- 1:14:31real life facts as well. So Doom has this grand plan to
- 1:14:34get rid of the red car trolleys. And in the US in the 1940s,
- 1:14:38corporations got together to buy our public transport companies
- 1:14:41to increase demand for cars, right.
- 1:14:44So that's based on that to give it a bit of, I suppose in terms
- 1:14:48of the film, I do like it is a plot thread, adds a nice twist
- 1:14:50and it is very much Chinatown as well, I think and how it feels
- 1:14:53very much. Yeah, very much.
- 1:14:54Also, that version of the Chinatown sequel was going to be
- 1:14:59called Cloverleaf. Oh, really?
- 1:15:01Yeah. Yeah.
- 1:15:02Lovely. So was that a sequel to the Two
- 1:15:04GX or was that a draft for that film?
- 1:15:06It was a draft for the two GX. Right.
- 1:15:08OK, nice. I think, and I looked at the
- 1:15:10writers. I was thinking, well, obviously
- 1:15:12these guys have got something as a partnership.
- 1:15:15They must have done something else.
- 1:15:16And I don't think anything else they've done really stands up to
- 1:15:19this film at all. I mean they did Doc Hollywood
- 1:15:22with J Fox. J Fox.
- 1:15:24Which is good, but I mean it's just because J Fox is in it,
- 1:15:26let's be honest. And then they did one of the the
- 1:15:29most famous cinematic bombs of all time in Wild Wild West as a
- 1:15:34script. Like oh Jesus that was so
- 1:15:36confused. Embarrassing.
- 1:15:38They kind of come round and, well, yeah, really embarrassing.
- 1:15:41And then they came round, redeemed themselves with the
- 1:15:43Grinch. You stole Christmas.
- 1:15:44All right. Right, OK.
- 1:15:46I don't know if they wrote most of that because Jim Carrey rift,
- 1:15:48I would say 90%, of course they did.
- 1:15:50So based on a Doctor Seuss novel, they can't really go
- 1:15:53wrong. So there's nothing holds up to
- 1:15:55the level of writing here. I think this was them find it
- 1:15:59something that we're incredibly comfortable with adapting and a
- 1:16:02really original idea, and I don't think anyone else could
- 1:16:04have done it apart from these guys.
- 1:16:05Not because they're just an unprecedented talent, but I
- 1:16:08think that they were just the right people to nail this at the
- 1:16:10right time. They should have just done this
- 1:16:13and quit. One and done.
- 1:16:17Got Wilder head. They should do a sequel of Wild
- 1:16:20Wild West Wild West Two but the wake up from a Nightmare which
- 1:16:23is the first one. I'll be up on that, yeah.
- 1:16:29Finally, on our crew list is Richard Williams, head animator
- 1:16:32on the project and the one who gets the most praise from fans.
- 1:16:36John, the floor is yours. What do you think of Williams's
- 1:16:39work? For all the great work done by a
- 1:16:41lot of people in Roger Robert, Richard Williams and his team is
- 1:16:45the star of the show by a mile. For me, the whole film lives or
- 1:16:49dies by how well the live action animation blend works and they
- 1:16:52get it working absolutely brilliantly and order from the
- 1:16:55start before they shot anything. Officially, Williams set out
- 1:16:58three rules that had to be followed in order for the film
- 1:17:00to work at the level he wanted the two.
- 1:17:03So first, he said when shooting a scene, the camera had to move
- 1:17:06as much as possible. So the tunes don't like, they
- 1:17:08just paste it onto a background. Yeah.
- 1:17:11Secondly, he said he wanted shadows and lighting to be
- 1:17:13incorporated into the illustrations to a level that
- 1:17:15had never been done before. And third, he wanted the tunes
- 1:17:18to interact with real world objects as much as possible.
- 1:17:21So like the scene in Valiant where he picks up Roger by the
- 1:17:23ears, or when smart ass like Wesley mentioned splashes the
- 1:17:26water, or when the Penguin whales are carrying real life
- 1:17:29trays. There's hundreds of details in
- 1:17:31there like that. And those were history rules.
- 1:17:33Amazing. When you said smart ass like
- 1:17:35Wesley, there I was like, what? Oh yeah, that's smart.
- 1:17:41Ass. So what do you think, Westie?
- 1:17:44Oh, smart ass. Well.
- 1:17:45What can you say about it? It is John's absolutely right.
- 1:17:47It's hinged on this. You know, if this guy folks up,
- 1:17:50there's not a film, you know, if he doesn't concentrate on it to
- 1:17:53the level that he needs to concentrate on it, then it's
- 1:17:56just not going to perform at all.
- 1:17:58And if you see through any of this, any scene, any shot, if
- 1:18:01any shot becomes obvious, it's ruined the whole thing.
- 1:18:04And I think the level of pressure and the level of
- 1:18:09determination is probably four or five times that of Zemeckis.
- 1:18:13It has to be to direct and deliver this level of animation.
- 1:18:17Just what he delivered in sense of scale is unparalleled really.
- 1:18:21And The thing is, is that he is up there on IMDb as Co director
- 1:18:26with Zemeckis. But if you said anyone who's
- 1:18:27Richard Williams, they'll just be like, I don't know.
- 1:18:30And that's a real fucking tragedy.
- 1:18:31Especially what he's done here. It's a real achievement.
- 1:18:34It is a huge achievement, this work on this film.
- 1:18:36It's absolutely mesmerizing and I think it's only something that
- 1:18:40you're really able to appreciate as an adult.
- 1:18:42I think as a kid and didn't really think twice about it.
- 1:18:45Of course, one of the key things that I think makes the animation
- 1:18:48as effective as it is, is that there's a lot made about it, but
- 1:18:52the eye lines match between the real characters and the tunes.
- 1:18:55You can notice it in all scenes if you're looking for it, and
- 1:18:58the reason that you're not looking for it is because you
- 1:19:00don't notice it. You're totally immersed in the
- 1:19:02film. You totally buy it.
- 1:19:03Exactly. Yeah, that the real people and
- 1:19:05the tunes coexist talking about. You mentioned earlier on, John,
- 1:19:09the animation in Mary Poppins. I know it was 24 years
- 1:19:12beforehand, but the principles kind of similar.
- 1:19:15Those Penguins look great, but they're separated from the live
- 1:19:18action. And you can tell with this, I'm
- 1:19:21not even questioning that for a second.
- 1:19:23It's incredibly immersive. We mentioned the different
- 1:19:26characters, the different new cartoon characters that are
- 1:19:28introduced into the film. Do you have a favorite Westie?
- 1:19:32I love the bullets, the bullets that go in the gun, the valley
- 1:19:35and opens up. I love them.
- 1:19:37Love them. Got that gun from Yosemite Sam.
- 1:19:39Hasn't he had said like engraved in there for getting him out of
- 1:19:41a particularly sticky incident? Nice.
- 1:19:45But I love that that reference of Cowboys and Indians, and I
- 1:19:49think my favorite of all of them is the one that obviously
- 1:19:51doesn't fuck up because you're the ones that like, where did he
- 1:19:54go? Yeah.
- 1:19:55He went that way. It's like Dum Dum, but when he
- 1:19:59fires that Indian bullet, he pulls out that massive tomahawk
- 1:20:02and he just smashes the bottle. It's just, it's such a wonderful
- 1:20:06moment. I piss myself every single time
- 1:20:08I say it like it's fantastic. So over the top.
- 1:20:11It's just really funny. I love all the new tunes that
- 1:20:14the brought in. Like John said before, they all
- 1:20:16stand up. Even bullets fired out of the
- 1:20:18gun and they're still funny. John.
- 1:20:22You only seem for a few seconds, but I'm going for in the in
- 1:20:25campaign club where we see the Octopus bartender.
- 1:20:28All right, He's carrying eight drinks at once.
- 1:20:31Obviously that always makes me smile, but I like how they did
- 1:20:34that as well. So the Octopus is obviously a
- 1:20:36tune and the apron, she's carrying all real life glasses.
- 1:20:39So when the film that there was no octopus obviously, and they
- 1:20:42had eight puppeteers on the set who were all operating and
- 1:20:44moving the glasses in the way they needed to.
- 1:20:46And then the octopus was destroying afterwards.
- 1:20:48He's on the screen for about 5 seconds.
- 1:20:50But that just shows the lengths that they went to to make it all
- 1:20:52as real feeling as possible. Just incredible lengths.
- 1:20:56It is. I'm a fan of the Mexican weasel
- 1:21:00with the green suit. Name is Greasy.
- 1:21:02Fantastic. He's my favorite.
- 1:21:04One of the best cartoon characters ever for me.
- 1:21:05This guy, I love him. Absolutely.
- 1:21:10Seconds of screens. He's.
- 1:21:14So good when Doom murders the Toon shoe that we've talked
- 1:21:18about, you can hear him off camera.
- 1:21:20Just seeing that's one dead shoe.
- 1:21:22Our boss loving it near the end where Jessica says that she's
- 1:21:33got the will and he says I'll handle this one and he gets his
- 1:21:37hand caught in this massive bear trap and booby trap.
- 1:21:41Brilliant. So 326 anime has worked on the
- 1:21:45film, and I know that absolutely painstaking work when they do it
- 1:21:49from them. The voice is pretty fascinating
- 1:21:51I think, if you've not heard it. Yeah, go for it.
- 1:21:54So the shot the film in it's entirety, with the actors acting
- 1:21:57against blue screen and props. As we mentioned then, every
- 1:22:00single frame of footage that included the tune or animation
- 1:22:03was printed as a still photograph.
- 1:22:06An animator then put tracing paper over the top of the
- 1:22:08photograph and drew the illustration for that frame onto
- 1:22:10the tracing paper as an outline in the right place.
- 1:22:13The outline was then colored to make the final illustration, and
- 1:22:16that final illustration was then composited back onto the
- 1:22:19original frame with an optical printer.
- 1:22:21I mean by today standard with CGI and digital effect.
- 1:22:23It's all pretty rudimentary stuff, but it just looks so
- 1:22:27great. So every single frame has an
- 1:22:29animation drawn on it. It's just mind blowing.
- 1:22:32The amount of work that must have taken is astonishing.
- 1:22:35It's unbelievable, isn't it? Richard Williams said that
- 1:22:38easily over 1,000,000 illustrations were done for the
- 1:22:41film. Jesus Christ.
- 1:22:43Because when you say A-frame, it's literally A-frame.
- 1:22:46If there's any movement on that frame at all, then it's a new
- 1:22:50draw. A brand new drawn.
- 1:22:52Every time, and this is assuming as well that they get it right
- 1:22:54first time. There'll definitely be moments
- 1:22:56where they do the animation and think that's not right, I'll
- 1:22:58have to do it again and stuff like that.
- 1:22:59It's just ridiculous amounts of work, painstaking.
- 1:23:03I think the actual animation schedule was twice as long as
- 1:23:06the shooting schedule. In the last 14 months, something
- 1:23:09like that. Blame me. 14 months drawn
- 1:23:11cartoons. Good nightmare.
- 1:23:15Yeah, you're talking like 24 frames a second, which is what
- 1:23:18this would have been shot at. So there's 24 drones every
- 1:23:20second. Yeah.
- 1:23:22So that's. Which is insane.
- 1:23:26So based on that, Westie Richard Williams explains the level of
- 1:23:30work required perfectly. In this quote.
- 1:23:32He said if there were five weasels in a shot, each weasel
- 1:23:35had to have a rim light and three sets of black mats given
- 1:23:38tones. This was so that when ILM threw
- 1:23:41the cells out of focus, it would curve.
- 1:23:42Given a three-dimensional look, each of the five extra bits for
- 1:23:46each weasel would have to be separately painted.
- 1:23:49So that's 25 pieces of artwork per frame, 24 frames per second,
- 1:23:52600 drones per second. Unbelievable stuff.
- 1:23:55Jesus. Christ, it's not just about the
- 1:23:57animation. So see if Rogers in a scene and
- 1:23:59he's arms moving, you've got obviously anime is all moving,
- 1:24:01both the cameras moving at the same time.
- 1:24:03You've got to reflect the camera movement as well.
- 1:24:05The camera gets closer, the camera getting further away.
- 1:24:07It's just incredible. It's the perspective of the
- 1:24:09whole thing. It's all going to change every
- 1:24:11single time. So this is 320 odds animators
- 1:24:16working for 14 months and it was a case of all work and no play
- 1:24:19for some of the animators. As in the scene where Eddie and
- 1:24:23Jessica are thrown from Benny the cab near the end, there were
- 1:24:27a few frames where it's obvious that Jessica isn't wearing any
- 1:24:31underwear. The animator has got a little
- 1:24:32bit creative. What a bunch of pervores.
- 1:24:36So what can you see? It was just flesh colored,
- 1:24:37wasn't it? I'm not going to spell it out
- 1:24:39for you, John. But it's in the beige lecture.
- 1:24:46They replace the frames with white just white pants so it
- 1:24:49looks like she was wearing something underneath.
- 1:24:51The rule among animators generally was that when blended
- 1:24:54live action with animation was to keep the camera still.
- 1:24:58Any movement generally makes it look obvious that there are two
- 1:25:00worlds. Here, the animation looks as if
- 1:25:02it's on a different plane, almost in the forefront of the
- 1:25:05field of view. Williams said animators did this
- 1:25:08because they were lazy. It's twice as much work to keep
- 1:25:11the camera moving and fitting in the animation seamlessly into
- 1:25:14the frame. But the results, I mean in this
- 1:25:16film alone, speak for themselves how effective that process is.
- 1:25:18Yeah, well that's the first of those 3 rules I was talking
- 1:25:20about those 3 rules I mentioned earlier.
- 1:25:22The opposite was actually the rules that the animators used to
- 1:25:25follow and he basically just flipped them all around.
- 1:25:27So incredible. It would be the camera can't
- 1:25:29move. He said the camera has to move.
- 1:25:31The can't interact with real world objects.
- 1:25:33He said the have to interact with real world objects just
- 1:25:36completely turns the interference head essentially by
- 1:25:37doing. That completely and makes the
- 1:25:39film what it is and why we're talking about it.
- 1:25:42The amount of detail was and is called, as you mentioned, John
- 1:25:45bumping the lamp and it's exemplified by the scene at
- 1:25:48Dolores's bar when Valiant and Roger are in handcuffs.
- 1:25:52Eddie hits his head off the hanging lamp a couple of times,
- 1:25:55which creates this light and shade as the light swings back
- 1:25:58and forth. Now in live action, that's fine,
- 1:26:00obviously that gets picked up by the camera, but the issue with
- 1:26:03animation, the lightness and the shade needs to be captured and
- 1:26:05blended perfectly with the live action.
- 1:26:07So every single frame has to be drawn a different way to
- 1:26:10accommodate that swing and light.
- 1:26:12When you consider that that lamps constantly swinging loads
- 1:26:16of frames like we've talked about, it doesn't need to be in
- 1:26:18that scene. Take it out and nobody would bat
- 1:26:21an eyelid. But the animators wanted to make
- 1:26:23it as realistic as possible to go above and beyond what is
- 1:26:26expected. So in the industry, the term
- 1:26:28bump the land means to go above and beyond what's expected.
- 1:26:31So kind of similar to what we do on this podcast, Fellas, We're
- 1:26:34bumping the land every two weeks, right?
- 1:26:37That's one term for it, yeah. We've got a question from one of
- 1:26:44our patrons, Adam Yates. That's the benefit.
- 1:26:47You follow us on Patreon and then you get the chance to be
- 1:26:50part of the show and ask us a question, obviously within
- 1:26:52reason. Now, Adam says that he's not a
- 1:26:55fan of the movie, but he does appreciate that it broke ground
- 1:26:58in the world of animation and live action animation.
- 1:27:01And he asks us which film do you think after this one did the
- 1:27:04most for the genre of the animated movie?
- 1:27:06It's hard to go anywhere else apart from the likes of Toy
- 1:27:10Story and Pixar. It's just the obvious choice,
- 1:27:12isn't it? But it's to me, it's a different
- 1:27:14kettle of fish like Pixar is the evolution of this technique.
- 1:27:19I guess it's about creating an animated world real, whereas
- 1:27:22this has a real world that needs to incorporate an animated
- 1:27:25element. So I think this is again,
- 1:27:27completely different. So I don't know.
- 1:27:29I haven't seen anything else like this since that's made us
- 1:27:33believe it as much as this does. So to be honest, I think it kind
- 1:27:37of set the bar so high and there was so much work and so much
- 1:27:40energy put into this that they just had to go right.
- 1:27:42Well, how can we do something that's equally as impressive but
- 1:27:45less labour intensive? So let's make I guess.
- 1:27:49I think Japanese animated, there's a special mention.
- 1:27:51I mean stuff like Kira, which came out the same year as Roger
- 1:27:54Rabbit. The animations, they are
- 1:27:56incredible. That's full animations, but they
- 1:27:58raised the ball massively as well.
- 1:27:59I think they had something like three times as many animation
- 1:28:03frames in a short as what was I've been done before.
- 1:28:05They created about 50 new colours specifically for the
- 1:28:08film so that raise the bar. And then Studio Ghibli with
- 1:28:11stuff like Spirited Away, which is maybe the best animated film
- 1:28:14I've ever seen. Absolutely incredible.
- 1:28:16But I agree with Westie in terms of Hollywood.
- 1:28:19My absolute favorite and the most important of the last 30
- 1:28:22years is surely Toy Story. Massive milestone and animation.
- 1:28:26It was the first film to be completely animated on a
- 1:28:29computer. What's maybe most impressive
- 1:28:32about it though, I think, is that when you read reviews from
- 1:28:34the time when Toy Story came out, despite all that
- 1:28:37groundbreaking stuff and the technical innovations that's
- 1:28:40mentioned in Afoot, no, really, the glowing reviews tend to
- 1:28:43focus on the storytelling and the characters of like Woody and
- 1:28:45Buzz. Pixar, for me, are the best
- 1:28:48storytellers of the last 30 years.
- 1:28:49I think The Fantastic and Toy Story, for its importance, I
- 1:28:52think is their best and Hollywood's most influential
- 1:28:55animation of at least the last 50 years.
- 1:28:58Yeah, yeah, I mean, I totally agree.
- 1:28:59It's Toy Story all the way. Like the flag wave of a Pixar
- 1:29:04film that added another dimension to Disney animation
- 1:29:07was Groundbreak. And then Pixar knocking it out
- 1:29:09of the park with every release as well.
- 1:29:11Incredible. Consistency is incredible,
- 1:29:13phenomenal, phenomenal. So the screenplay is excellent,
- 1:29:17but we can't underestimate the painstake and animation skills
- 1:29:20of Richard Williams and his crew.
- 1:29:22Time absolutely well spent. Fantastic.
- 1:29:25Definitely. Nearing the end of the film,
- 1:29:34Valiant makes the connection to RK Maroon and Acme's death.
- 1:29:38Maroon gets bumped off with Jessica running away from the
- 1:29:40scene of the crime, Valiant in hot pursuit and follows Jessica
- 1:29:44into the shady underworld that is Toontown.
- 1:29:47So, John Eddie in Toontown, what do you think?
- 1:29:51This is where they go all in, isn't it?
- 1:29:53Yeah, all animations and valiants, the only real life
- 1:29:56thing on the screen for a good 1015 minutes.
- 1:29:59And we stay there in Toontown. Just the right amount of time I
- 1:30:02think. Yeah, I think so, yeah.
- 1:30:04Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse talking to each other.
- 1:30:06That's pretty great. Brilliant.
- 1:30:07Tweety Pie and Ruby showing up as well.
- 1:30:09I love that. Yeah.
- 1:30:11And Lena Hyena obviously is. She's a very memorable.
- 1:30:15Yeah, I like all those bits when Valian goes from 1 crazy
- 1:30:18situation to another for a few minutes.
- 1:30:20But for me, the storytelling wheels start to fall off a
- 1:30:23little bit here. OK After Valian gets away from
- 1:30:26Lena, when she runs into the wall, which is brilliant.
- 1:30:29Yeah, He just happens to hear. I know he's around the corner,
- 1:30:32which just happens to be exactly what you're looking for.
- 1:30:34And I know it probably shouldn't, but that bit really
- 1:30:37bothers me, to be honest. It always takes me out of the
- 1:30:39film, so it is great to visit Toon Town and we absolutely had
- 1:30:43to at some point, absolutely, obviously.
- 1:30:46But I think it's the right choice to come back to the real
- 1:30:48world for the climax. Yeah, I agree feel as though
- 1:30:51Toon terms this like massive daunting place and Eddie gets
- 1:30:55the gun out with the cartoon characters and he's like
- 1:30:59psyching himself up and he goes to take a drink and that's when
- 1:31:01his his character acts almost complete and he's psyching
- 1:31:06himself up to go in. And then as soon as we end, the
- 1:31:08two town were in this song and dance act.
- 1:31:11Smile down your smile. This massive production.
- 1:31:14Yeah. But it's like all Technicolor
- 1:31:18and it's like drug hazy. It's almost nightmarish.
- 1:31:20It's crazy that song smiled down your smile.
- 1:31:23That was the animators singing that, so they got their little
- 1:31:25moment in the limelight as well. Nice, lovely.
- 1:31:28I love the moment where he's driving through the tunnel and
- 1:31:30he comes up with the curtains. The entrance in the Toontown.
- 1:31:32It has the open. It does the Loony Tunes bound.
- 1:31:35Yeah, yeah. That's.
- 1:31:36Great, brilliant. That tunnel that he drives
- 1:31:38through as well is from the same one from Back to the Future 2
- 1:31:40where there's the hover board after the sports Almanac.
- 1:31:44Oh fantastic, great scene now. So yeah, there's a Mac just
- 1:31:47loves that location. Of course he does.
- 1:31:50Back to the future forever. Yeah, I've been there before.
- 1:31:52Let's just use that again. But yeah, I'm exactly the same
- 1:31:55as you guys. It's a bit like a real sugar
- 1:31:57headache that you've just had too much and it's like, I need
- 1:32:01to get the fuck out of here. But it is fantastic.
- 1:32:04But to me, it seems a very unpredictable place, very fast,
- 1:32:07very loud, very much as you would expect it to be.
- 1:32:10And it hits every expectation. You just think, well, that's
- 1:32:13exactly what you would expect to in town to be from every single
- 1:32:16element of it. And like you say, it goes from
- 1:32:17this really happy, smiley Wizard of Oz kind of location to then a
- 1:32:21car crash and then you're in the middle of downtown and it's
- 1:32:24really unpredictable. But that bit works for me.
- 1:32:26I mean, I'm not going to get into Lena Hyena, but I love
- 1:32:29Droopy in this. I love Droopy in the lift.
- 1:32:31And I look like how fast it goes up and how fast it goes down.
- 1:32:34And it's just, he's like, your floor is there.
- 1:32:37It's just. Have a nice day, Sir.
- 1:32:42And his face, he's great. And that bit that John was
- 1:32:47touched on there, that kind of pulls you out of it.
- 1:32:50I totally believe that because I find Toontown to be so
- 1:32:54unpredictable that if you just turn the corner, turn your back
- 1:32:57on it, it can rearrange itself. It's almost like Inception where
- 1:33:01it's like, you know, he can pick up the road and she can run into
- 1:33:04the wall and he can like manipulate any part of anything.
- 1:33:07And it all feels like really unpredictable.
- 1:33:09So when you're there, it's almost impossible to be a
- 1:33:11private investigator or a detective in Toontown because
- 1:33:14it'll own you. It'll just basically manipulate
- 1:33:17you to do what it wants to do because it's tunes and they
- 1:33:20can't be trusted. So I totally get that element.
- 1:33:22And but you're absolutely right. We're in there just enough time.
- 1:33:25Any any longer and I would I would think one though I'm
- 1:33:28looking at to just be a little bit too hard to keep up with.
- 1:33:31It's an absolute death trap tune tone for a human.
- 1:33:33Being it's a nightmare, Tweety Pie totally stitches Eddie up.
- 1:33:38Really. No more pitties.
- 1:33:43And saw the bugs and Mickey Mouse as well to give them the
- 1:33:46spare. And it's a spare tire.
- 1:33:48And yeah, Boogs goes, ain't I a stinker?
- 1:33:53Couple of Dicks. And you mentioned Lena Hyena as
- 1:33:59well. That reveal is brilliant.
- 1:34:01He thinks he's got Jessica and it's her silhouette, her outline
- 1:34:05and everything. And then it turns out to be this
- 1:34:07rampant gargoyle. Brilliant.
- 1:34:10It really unsettles me. Again, it's another one of their
- 1:34:13moments where I'm just, oh, and then she keeps coming after him
- 1:34:16and when she scuttles up the street, I just feel sick.
- 1:34:22I'm like, I can't get out of there quick enough.
- 1:34:24I'm like, Eddie, just get out of there.
- 1:34:25Just forget about the whole case and get the fuck out of there.
- 1:34:31She's just been waiting in that room for how long?
- 1:34:33Just for a man to come in? Yoohoo, lover boy.
- 1:34:39There's this truly bizarre deleted scene which happens
- 1:34:43earlier on in the action, but it ends in Toontown where Doom
- 1:34:46catches Valley and snooping around the Ink and Pain Club,
- 1:34:49and he and his goon send him to Toontown.
- 1:34:52They send him to Toontown and they put an animated pig head on
- 1:34:56top of his own head. So he's screaming with this pig
- 1:35:00head on his own head. It's petrifying.
- 1:35:02Oh, that sounds. Horrible.
- 1:35:04And then there's a scene straight after it where he
- 1:35:05remedies it by being in the shower and he puts turmentine on
- 1:35:09it and it shrivels and you see the head in like the water in
- 1:35:14the bath, but it's just a tiny face with eyeballs and the
- 1:35:17eyeballs get sucked down the plug or what?
- 1:35:20Really frightening. Well, you can see this scene,
- 1:35:22can you? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:35:23It's online. Check it out.
- 1:35:25I mean, you'll have nightmares afterwards.
- 1:35:27Good. No thanks.
- 1:35:29Then another bit of love in Toon tone, as well as when Eddie's
- 1:35:32walking down that back alley and he shadows there and he sneezes
- 1:35:35and it's like, because I'm type. I'll.
- 1:35:37Absolutely. Love that.
- 1:35:38Wonderful. Really.
- 1:35:39Really. Good, lovely little bit.
- 1:35:41There's so many bits like that, just it's so clever.
- 1:35:43You said John there that it takes you out a little bit when
- 1:35:46you see he's the the noise and then he goes around the corner
- 1:35:49and it's what he's after. I feel a similar way when Benny
- 1:35:52the cab shows up because it sticks out like a sore thumb.
- 1:35:56Which is ironic actually, because he says to Roger and
- 1:35:59Eddie just like a throwaway line right at the end of that scene,
- 1:36:04if you ever need a ride, just stick out your thumb, right?
- 1:36:06And Eddie quite obviously says no, it's this way.
- 1:36:09And then Benny appears. It just feels a little bit like
- 1:36:12shoe corned in. Yeah, I quite like that because
- 1:36:15you've got that real big close up on the thumb and like when
- 1:36:19you say Benny, you're just like, yes, great, there's no way I'm
- 1:36:22going to be disappointed by them again.
- 1:36:25Lovely. However he gets in there, I
- 1:36:26don't really care. So as we delve further into
- 1:36:29Toontown, Doom captures Eddie and Jessica and takes them to
- 1:36:32the ribbon cutting event at the Acme factory where we get one
- 1:36:35hell of a finale involving 5000 gallons of heated dip.
- 1:36:40John the ending at the Acme factory.
- 1:36:43On paper the ideas are fantastic, there's loads of
- 1:36:47things I like, the wheels are in there.
- 1:36:50Brilliant. Great.
- 1:36:51Yeah. I like the jeopardy we have
- 1:36:52where Roger and Jessica are tied up hanging from the ceiling and
- 1:36:55the dips being shot of them. I like that as an idea.
- 1:36:58Love it. Dooms big reveal as being the
- 1:37:00tune that killed Valiant's brother.
- 1:37:01That's great. And then he gets run over by a
- 1:37:03steamroller like Otto and a Fish Called Wanda I love.
- 1:37:06Him brilliant. I see it on paper, I like it
- 1:37:09because those things are all really good, but as the climax
- 1:37:12of the film, it does feel just a little bit underwhelming to me
- 1:37:16sometimes as well. I think Dooms reveal as being
- 1:37:18the tune that killed Valiant's brother.
- 1:37:21I'm not sure that has the impact that the megas wanted to have.
- 1:37:23Not on me anyway. I mean, it is good, it's a great
- 1:37:25idea, everything's all tied up. It just doesn't crescendo as a
- 1:37:28climax in the way that I know the megas can do and that I've
- 1:37:31seen do a lot of times before, which is a shame.
- 1:37:34But it is really good. But I think, like I was saying
- 1:37:37before, the storytelling sometimes lets the film down a
- 1:37:40little bit for me, and I think that becomes apparent for me
- 1:37:42here. Wow, Wesley.
- 1:37:44It's the same for me. It is a little bit
- 1:37:46underwhelming, but I just think that's the location in which
- 1:37:48it's set. I think it's quite a boring
- 1:37:50location, even though on paper, like John said, it's the Acme
- 1:37:53factory. There's going to be loads of
- 1:37:55these things around and all these props that you can fire,
- 1:37:57and it's going to be like all these things happening, which on
- 1:38:00paper, yeah, it works really well.
- 1:38:01But I think it's played down a little bit too much, in fact,
- 1:38:03that there's just kind of three acne props which you've seen
- 1:38:06before. Yeah, they've been set up.
- 1:38:08They've been set up in the the investigation.
- 1:38:10You've got like the hammer and you've got the black hole and
- 1:38:12you've. Yeah, that's great in the in the
- 1:38:13magnet. And they're wonderful.
- 1:38:14Yeah, fantastic. And there's some really, really
- 1:38:16funny bits. And there's probably the
- 1:38:17funniest bit in the film for me when Roger's on about going to
- 1:38:21drop me like a ton of bricks and the tonne of bricks.
- 1:38:23There's probably, that's probably the funniest scene in
- 1:38:26the whole thing, like a ton of bricks.
- 1:38:28Boom. It's just that timing.
- 1:38:31It's amazing. I love it.
- 1:38:32I love the set piece. I love the fact that, you know,
- 1:38:34it all comes back round and everything's rounded off here.
- 1:38:36And from the story point of view, there's a few things I
- 1:38:39don't like. I don't like when one of the
- 1:38:41weasels dies and then he just hits the lever as his souls.
- 1:38:45Floating up. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:38:46It's kind of like, Oh well, is it working or not?
- 1:38:48Can they just do anything at any time?
- 1:38:50You're in the floor then I guess.
- 1:38:52Do you know what the dips made out of?
- 1:38:54Tell us in the film, don't they? Yeah, acetone, turbentine,
- 1:38:57benzene. Benzene, which are the three
- 1:38:58things that animators use to remove the ink from cells.
- 1:39:02So it's a combination of how to kill a cartoon, which again, I
- 1:39:05loved that when I read that. It's a good sequence, but I
- 1:39:08think it could have been, like John said, a little bit more
- 1:39:11elevated given what Zemeckis did with Back to the Future for a
- 1:39:14start. Like, if it was anywhere near as
- 1:39:17as nail biting as that clock tower sequence, then we probably
- 1:39:20would have been in for a real thrill, right?
- 1:39:21But it does feel like we've seen everything and now they're just
- 1:39:24tying it up. Yeah.
- 1:39:27I've got to go against you. All right?
- 1:39:29I am totally satisfied by this ended.
- 1:39:31That's fine. Like you said, the Jeopardy's
- 1:39:33there and it's fantastic. The weasels are in there and are
- 1:39:36on top form, but we also get 2 Dooms.
- 1:39:39We get obviously Doom when he's a human being, but then this
- 1:39:43massive reveal. Holy smoke, he's a doom.
- 1:39:46That Doom is this awful cartoon who takes his glove off and he's
- 1:39:50got an anvil and slams him across the room, and then it's
- 1:39:54like that menace and sore. Yeah, it's fantastic.
- 1:39:57He's got knives for eyes as well, isn't he?
- 1:39:59Yeah. Yeah, yeah, his voice.
- 1:40:01Love it. Jesus.
- 1:40:02Yeah. Awful, awful.
- 1:40:06It keeps getting higher and higher.
- 1:40:08Remember Me when I killed your brother?
- 1:40:11It's it's them Springs when he when he.
- 1:40:15The springs are ridiculous. But terrifying It's that's
- 1:40:20probably the problem I've got with it.
- 1:40:21I just, I've had enough with one Doom.
- 1:40:22I don't need to see this guy. And I always try and invade what
- 1:40:25he looks like under that rubber mask because everything's just
- 1:40:28obviously the human element of Doom is just to cover up the
- 1:40:31cartoon underneath. Yeah.
- 1:40:33So what does that cartoon look like?
- 1:40:35That's terrifying for me. I love it when Roger shows up
- 1:40:38from the sewer and he's given it the big and wave and he's gone
- 1:40:41around like he owns the place. That's hilarious.
- 1:40:44He's never been more confident. Yeah.
- 1:40:47You shouldn't have been brilliant.
- 1:40:52What do you think about this song and dance act from Valiant?
- 1:40:57I find it a little bit uncomfortable to watch, to be
- 1:40:59honest. Really, I think the main reason
- 1:41:01is because it's Bob Hoskins doing it, and he just seems so
- 1:41:04far out of his comfort zone. I can almost imagine him getting
- 1:41:07the shooting schedule and dreading the day I do the song
- 1:41:09and dance act. Yeah, I have no idea how that
- 1:41:11was the case, obviously, but that's a bit how it feels.
- 1:41:14Apart from that, I love it as a plot point.
- 1:41:16The complete Valiant arc, the wheels all laughing themselves
- 1:41:19to death is great. Although at the same time I am a
- 1:41:22bit sad to see them go as well. I am.
- 1:41:24And Roger has a great line where he's like, you're killing them,
- 1:41:26Mehdi, you're slaying them, you're not going.
- 1:41:28To be dead. Yeah, Really.
- 1:41:30So it is. It's an important plot point,
- 1:41:32needs to be in there, but watching through my fingers a
- 1:41:35little bit as well. Really, I think it could be a
- 1:41:38lot more cringe and juicing than it is, but just over the mark a
- 1:41:43little bit. But I still like, and it does
- 1:41:44hark back to Eddie's days, the circus.
- 1:41:47He's the song and dance man. Yeah, and that pay off with the
- 1:41:50weasels die and laughing. They're actually laughing at
- 1:41:52each other being murdered, which is chilly.
- 1:41:58There's no level of the sleeves of this film like it's so.
- 1:42:01Dark. But I love this bit.
- 1:42:03I love how it's totally against type of the character and
- 1:42:05totally against type of the actor.
- 1:42:07It does make it cringe worthy, but you know that this is what
- 1:42:09he's got to do. He's got an idea and he's got to
- 1:42:12do this and it works for me. It's a very theatrical scene.
- 1:42:15Doom like leaves almost stage left and goes behind the curtain
- 1:42:19and then he then comes out and does this big performance.
- 1:42:22And I absolutely love the singing Sword as well.
- 1:42:24That's an art recall back. Witchcraft I.
- 1:42:30Love him. That's hilarious.
- 1:42:32It's hilarious, that guy, like I could have done with another 20
- 1:42:35seconds of him. Just loads of great little bits.
- 1:42:37But yeah, that that song and dance for me.
- 1:42:38I think it works really well and I it's great that yeah, do so
- 1:42:41well with it. Beautiful.
- 1:42:43I really love it when Benny busts in a Sister Mary Francis,
- 1:42:48he says. I've been a cab for 37 years,
- 1:42:51not a cab driver. I've been a cab for 37 years,
- 1:42:53meaning he's just 37 years old. Great.
- 1:43:00And then glory. You send them with all the
- 1:43:01cartoon characters together having a wonderful time.
- 1:43:04And then the disappear and reappear in ink reveals the will
- 1:43:08that Acne left Toontown never feels to put a smile on me face
- 1:43:11that. Yeah, that is all great.
- 1:43:12Apparently Wiley Coyote is in there somewhere from what I've
- 1:43:15read, but I've looked and I can't see him.
- 1:43:16I mean, I love Wiley Coyote and Speedy Gonzalez.
- 1:43:18Apparently he's in there as well.
- 1:43:19I can't see hear my life. No, I've not noticed them.
- 1:43:23It's when it pans round. They're all just like part of
- 1:43:24the group. But another thing I've read, I
- 1:43:26don't know if you guys have read this or have seen it, but Luke
- 1:43:29might have seen it. But if you watch it frame for
- 1:43:31frame, you know when the DIP machine goes.
- 1:43:33Through the wall. Yeah, and the train comes past.
- 1:43:36If you watch that frame by frame, apparently there's a
- 1:43:38murder in every courage of the train.
- 1:43:40Oh my God. Which might be like a murder on
- 1:43:42the Orient Express type of thing.
- 1:43:43Or it's supposed to, Oh my God, dip.
- 1:43:45There's like this silhouettes of like murder and every courage
- 1:43:50and I've looked, but I kind of get frame by frame on me telly
- 1:43:52downstairs. So I've just seen that like
- 1:43:54every three or four frames, but you can tell the silhouettes
- 1:43:57there and they are doing something.
- 1:43:58So I think I need to check that out.
- 1:43:59Check that out, Yeah. If anyone could check that out,
- 1:44:02that's a brilliant. Fact.
- 1:44:03Finally, what I love is the old hand buzzer comes into play
- 1:44:06again. Yeah, and Eddie lands a big wet
- 1:44:10one straight on Roger's kisser. Yeah, fantastic.
- 1:44:14You fucking love this film. I love it.
- 1:44:17I love. It as you know as well that the
- 1:44:19end credits were the longest end credits reel ever. 800 names on
- 1:44:24there with all the animators, Jesus and Kathleen Turner like
- 1:44:27you mentioned before, she wasn't on there.
- 1:44:28So yeah, could have been 801. Yeah.
- 1:44:34I mean, I'm not surprised. Yeah.
- 1:44:35One of the Guinness World Record and then Turner's like left it
- 1:44:38off. I could have won it.
- 1:44:41I could have won it. So all's well that ends well.
- 1:44:43Roger and Jessica are finally reunited, the tunes have their
- 1:44:46town back, and then he gets closure from his demons.
- 1:44:49He's not such a sour puss after all.
- 1:44:56Reception and awards. There's been some disputes on
- 1:45:01the budget of Hoofing and Roger Rabbit.
- 1:45:02In initial reports it said it was 70 million, but Amblin and
- 1:45:05touched on insist that it's only 50.
- 1:45:08This was 20 million over the initial projected $30 million
- 1:45:11budget, which is tiny for a production like this.
- 1:45:15Despite the confusion in budget, there's no confusion about the
- 1:45:18return. Roger Rabbit returned a weapon
- 1:45:21156,000,000 domestically and overall $329 million worldwide.
- 1:45:27In today's money, that is $720 million big return.
- 1:45:31Massive. And it held the record in it for
- 1:45:33a while for the most expensive movie ever made.
- 1:45:36Yeah, it did. Yeah.
- 1:45:38And then it was taken over by Terminator Two in 1991.
- 1:45:42That's right. Yeah.
- 1:45:43Yeah. Do you know what had the record
- 1:45:44before Roger Rabbit? Was it Rambo 3?
- 1:45:47Rambo 3 Yeah, yeah, what a waste of money that was.
- 1:45:53Terrible. Man, it's.
- 1:45:56The best one? Rambo 3, Mission Impossible two.
- 1:46:02What's the matter with you? Had the Oscars, it was nominated
- 1:46:067 times, winning four for sound effects editing, visual effects,
- 1:46:09film editing and Richard Williams won a special
- 1:46:12achievement award for animation direction as well.
- 1:46:16Well deserved. The film also won Best Fantasy
- 1:46:18Film, Best Director and Best Visual Effects of the Saturn
- 1:46:21Awards and Visual effects of the Baftas as well.
- 1:46:23So cleaning up technical awards. It has a huge 97% rating on
- 1:46:28Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb.
- 1:46:33From a critical point of view, Pete Travis and People magazine
- 1:46:36said your eyeballs have no other choice than to go boing.
- 1:46:42Gene Siskel said this is a movie that demands to be seen twice.
- 1:46:45The first time one is likely to be dazzled to the point of
- 1:46:48exhaustion. The second time we're going to
- 1:46:50appreciate the artistry and good humor more easily.
- 1:46:52Nice and his pal Roger Ebert said she enchanted entertainment
- 1:46:56from the 1st frame to the last. Surprise from Roger.
- 1:46:59Surprised he didn't say it's a load of shit.
- 1:47:03Just because his name's in there, that's why.
- 1:47:07There are very few negative reviews, but Richard called us
- 1:47:10right in. Time magazine said the opening
- 1:47:12cartoon Upstage is the movie that emerges from it.
- 1:47:15That's not true. No.
- 1:47:17I mean, it's great, but come on, yeah.
- 1:47:19It's you've seen it before, but Tom and Jerry have done that.
- 1:47:21Before and completely dismissing all of the genius work from the
- 1:47:26animators that have gone into it.
- 1:47:28So while in audiences and critics alike, Hooper and Roger
- 1:47:30Rabbit is as fresh today as it's always been.
- 1:47:36Sequels and influence. The success of Hooper and Roger
- 1:47:41Rabbit led to talk of a sequel almost immediately and pretty
- 1:47:44much consistently to this day, but unfortunately that is yet to
- 1:47:47materialise. Roger does pop up in a few
- 1:47:50cartoons of his own that premiered at screenings of some
- 1:47:53big movie releases. I do remember personally going
- 1:47:55to see Honey Action with the kids and seeing the first one,
- 1:47:57which is called Tummy Trouble. And this for me, in my what, 9
- 1:48:02or 10 year old head, was proof positive that there was going to
- 1:48:04be a sequel and I couldn't quite compute in my mind when it
- 1:48:09didn't materialize, I thought, well, surely they're making them
- 1:48:13again, so why isn't it a sequel? How devastated?
- 1:48:16Still devastated. I'd love to see a sequel.
- 1:48:18That brings about with me, actually.
- 1:48:20Yeah. Did you see that as well?
- 1:48:21Now you mentioned, I think I did.
- 1:48:22I can definitely remember seeing Roger Robert on the screen in
- 1:48:24the cinema, which wasn't the film.
- 1:48:27Yeah, there are a few of those cartoons, a few sequels to the
- 1:48:31book as well. In the intervening years, like
- 1:48:33we talked about, Roger starred in a series of comic books that
- 1:48:36continue his story as well, but that film still evades us.
- 1:48:41It does, but there have been a couple of possible sequels that
- 1:48:45have been mentioned over the years.
- 1:48:46So there was one. There was a prequel called Tune
- 1:48:49Patrol. That was where Roger and some
- 1:48:51other tunes were drafted into the army during World War Two
- 1:48:54and go on a mission in Nazi Germany to save Jessica.
- 1:48:59Spielberg said no chance. No chance.
- 1:49:03He was right. Surely that sounds ridiculous.
- 1:49:05Ridiculous. And there was a sequel idea
- 1:49:08called Who Discovered Roger Rabbit set in the 50s.
- 1:49:11The Mecca says about that a script exists and it was more of
- 1:49:14a continuation than a sequel. Disney said no because there's
- 1:49:17no Princess in it. Yeah.
- 1:49:20Wow, okay. He said he doesn't know where it
- 1:49:22fits in the universe, but there is a wonderful script sitting at
- 1:49:26Disney. The word is that Disney don't
- 1:49:28care for the character of Jessica, which in this day and
- 1:49:30age, I'm not surprised. Yeah, I can't believe that
- 1:49:33hasn't been a sequel though. I mean, nowadays if something
- 1:49:35made done, was it $720 million, it would be straight in there.
- 1:49:39I know. Greenlit before it even came
- 1:49:40out. Make another one straight away.
- 1:49:42No. I think just the workload
- 1:49:44attached to it. Yeah, good point.
- 1:49:47The animators are going no, I know how hard that is to do.
- 1:49:50Our price is now 700 million, that's what.
- 1:49:53The budget needs to do. Not doing that again.
- 1:49:56Yeah. I'm not throwing all that shit
- 1:49:57again because we went on a whim. We went against everything that
- 1:49:59we thought we're going to go against.
- 1:50:01I've had live action stuff. I didn't know it was going to
- 1:50:03work. It worked really, really well.
- 1:50:04So pay us four times as much. That's probably what happened.
- 1:50:07It's probably why they never made them.
- 1:50:08IMDb is showing that a sequel slated for a 2022 release seems
- 1:50:14a bit premature, and I mean be very surprised if that
- 1:50:17materialized at all. But another question from one of
- 1:50:20our patrons, George Anderson, asks how would we feel a sequel
- 1:50:25would go over now with classic 2D animation not really in vogue
- 1:50:28anymore? Should the film makers stay true
- 1:50:30to the source and do only 2D or go for more CG animation?
- 1:50:34What do you think? Usually when I hear about
- 1:50:37sequels planned for classics I do roll my eyes a little bit,
- 1:50:41but this one I'd be all for. I mean, Hoskins of course
- 1:50:44wouldn't be around, unfortunately.
- 1:50:45All right, they. But there's loads of stuff that
- 1:50:47could do within that world still.
- 1:50:49I mean, if they do make it, what I'm expecting is for it to
- 1:50:51basically ape the original like Hollywood tends to do.
- 1:50:55But if they really try and do something ground breaking again,
- 1:50:57I think they definitely could. What I'd love to see them do is
- 1:51:00combine all these different elements of animation that we
- 1:51:02have now. So keep the live action aspect
- 1:51:05obviously, and blend it with hand roll animations like in
- 1:51:07Roger Rabbit, but also incorporate Pixar style CGI as
- 1:51:11well. Bring in Japanese anime
- 1:51:12influence as well, like we're talking about something that
- 1:51:15includes all these different animation styles with live
- 1:51:17action and does it to the level that Roger Robert does.
- 1:51:19It could be just as good as Roger Robert and just as
- 1:51:21groundbreaking as Roger Robert. I'm not expecting them to be
- 1:51:24that adventurous, but if nothing else, it'll be great to see
- 1:51:28Roger and Jessica again. Oh yeah, absolutely.
- 1:51:31I think maybe we'll edit that out, John, because if Disney
- 1:51:35hear about your plans, you'll be snapped up by them.
- 1:51:37That's a genius idea. Maybe they'll just lift the
- 1:51:43idea. And then about anything ever
- 1:51:46again. Yeah.
- 1:51:47I wonder which one of those two things would happen.
- 1:51:49Yeah. We'll be investigating someone
- 1:51:52drop a piano in your head and answer that question for the two
- 1:51:59DI think it's the point. I feel that it needs to stick
- 1:52:03with the original concept in the original premise, and it needs
- 1:52:06to be two D. And I think if they do that and
- 1:52:09they maintain that retro look of Roger Rabbit from 1988 and they
- 1:52:13have that exact same premise and that exact same procedure and
- 1:52:18that exact same technique, it's exactly what's needed for
- 1:52:20uptight and grumpy millennials like us to turn around with a
- 1:52:24younger generation and go. You don't need all that Pixar
- 1:52:26shit you just see. You just draw it.
- 1:52:29Just draw it like we used to. Do 1,000,000 illustration.
- 1:52:32Just do that, yeah. Look, it's. 14 months worth of
- 1:52:36painstaking. Work.
- 1:52:38I think that they should definitely stay true to what
- 1:52:42Roger Rabbit is, and if they were going to combine all the
- 1:52:44things like John said, which I think is a phenomenal idea, it
- 1:52:47could be something completely different, but I think Roger
- 1:52:50Rabbit should just be Roger Rabbit.
- 1:52:52It is traditional. It is retro anyway, even to us
- 1:52:55in the 80s. It's retro and it's traditional.
- 1:52:58You know, it's the 40s tunes. It's the 40s kind of vibe.
- 1:53:01I would love to see it updated to maybe the 60s or maybe the
- 1:53:0470s, just exploring that genre of time or that place in time
- 1:53:10where it could be, you know, really Pixar animation made
- 1:53:13Toontown a desolate place and there's somewhere else you can
- 1:53:16go. Nice.
- 1:53:17Toontown is now dying because 2D in traditional elements have
- 1:53:21been replaced by something else. So I think there is a lot of
- 1:53:23things that that can do with it and a lot of ways that can
- 1:53:26address the progression in technology.
- 1:53:29But in the delivery of the film, I think it should all be retro,
- 1:53:32old fashioned 2D. Do it that way because that's
- 1:53:35Roger Rabbit, isn't? It yes it is.
- 1:53:38My need to see a sequel hasn't relented since I was seven since
- 1:53:41I first saw the film. I still feel the same now, but I
- 1:53:44just can't see it happening. I've no doubt that if it's done
- 1:53:47in the old fashioned way that it would appeal to kids and adults
- 1:53:50if it follows the same vein as the original.
- 1:53:52I just don't think that Disney would have the balls to follow
- 1:53:56through on doing the classic animation style in case that it
- 1:53:59didn't go over with audiences and they wouldn't want to give
- 1:54:03the the animation of modern spin potentially because that might
- 1:54:06be a backlash from Love as the original.
- 1:54:09So I think it's maybe a bit of a rock and a hard place.
- 1:54:12I'd love to see it. I just can't see it happening.
- 1:54:14It's been talked about for 2032 years now.
- 1:54:18Yeah, they wouldn't take a risk. But if anyone's in a position to
- 1:54:20take a risk on a big budget film, it's Disney.
- 1:54:23The own Marvel, the own Star Wars, the own picture that could
- 1:54:26easily make a $200 million film that flopped make no difference
- 1:54:30to them. They could, but really, when
- 1:54:31they've got loads of plates spinning then really why would
- 1:54:35they want to resurrect this when a 32 year old film does it still
- 1:54:39have a fan base? What's the point when they've
- 1:54:40got loads of other franchises going?
- 1:54:42I think because of everything that we've spoke about, I think
- 1:54:45because the character really works on every level and because
- 1:54:48the premise works on every level and there's nothing like this
- 1:54:51out there now, and that could release something now that still
- 1:54:54has that retro vibe to it. I think they could have another
- 1:54:58Roger Rabbit on the hands and reintroduce this character to a
- 1:55:00new generation. The reason a deal will be for
- 1:55:02artistic reasons. Let's do something incredible
- 1:55:05that's never been done before that will be watched for the
- 1:55:07next 100 years like the all these classic characters are.
- 1:55:11Is that desire still there in Disney like it was 70 years ago?
- 1:55:15Probably not. But then if you look at all the
- 1:55:17parodies that have been done, I mean, look at the success of
- 1:55:19Shrek, which it's computer animation, Yeah, fair enough.
- 1:55:24It's DreamWorks. Spielberg's behind it.
- 1:55:25And that's fine. But they do the same thing with
- 1:55:27the parody of mythical creatures and fairy tales.
- 1:55:31It's the same kind of vibe. They're still riffing off
- 1:55:33something. So you can now bring back that
- 1:55:36idea, but it's just, I don't think it will be as fresh.
- 1:55:38I think people still know who Bugs Bunny is and who the Looney
- 1:55:42Tunes are. And I think you could really
- 1:55:44bring that back. I mean, Spielberg try to do that
- 1:55:46early 90s with the Animaniacs and try to bring this whole kind
- 1:55:49of Looney Tunes thing back. And I think there's always
- 1:55:52people looking for a franchise, especially now.
- 1:55:55And if you can kick start something that's then going to
- 1:55:58have animations to spin off onto Netflix and to spin off on a
- 1:56:01different streaming programs and then go to Amazon Prime and have
- 1:56:05the bullets from the gun. Like we said, I'd love to see a
- 1:56:07cartoon with them. I think it's going to go ahead.
- 1:56:09I think it's going to get made. I think they're going to take a
- 1:56:11chance on it because I don't think it's as important to
- 1:56:15everyone else in the world as it is to you, Luke, to be honest.
- 1:56:19Like I would take a put on this no problem.
- 1:56:21I can't believe they haven't done it because it's this real
- 1:56:24golden egg they've got their potentially it's only one film.
- 1:56:26It's untapped that whole world in that character.
- 1:56:29Any other studio would chop their arm offered to have Roger
- 1:56:31Rabbit on the. Course.
- 1:56:32Yeah, well, the influence of Roger Abbott was far reaching.
- 1:56:37Live action mixed with animation was attempted in other films in
- 1:56:40the years following it. Films like Cool World from 1992
- 1:56:44star and Brad Pitt and an animated Kim Basinger.
- 1:56:47And it's got a 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes so not
- 1:56:51fantastic. Yeah.
- 1:56:52I think part of the reason for that is that Basinger's
- 1:56:55character name, she's called Holly HOLLI and her surname is
- 1:56:59Wood, WOULD terrible. Space Jam in 1996 was more
- 1:57:08successful. Stars Michael Jordan, Bill
- 1:57:10Murray finally had his crack and Meldon live action and
- 1:57:13animation. Yeah, it's got the Lunar Tunes
- 1:57:15cartoons in there as well. And also, that's got a sequel
- 1:57:18coming out slated for release next year with LeBron James.
- 1:57:21It has, yeah. I think we were probably bit old
- 1:57:22for that. We were about 1516.
- 1:57:24I never. Saw it for that reason.
- 1:57:26But I know people that are younger than us who were kids at
- 1:57:28the time love it. Yeah.
- 1:57:31Most strikingly, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is talked about is
- 1:57:34being held directly responsible for what's referred to as the
- 1:57:37Disney Renaissance directly after the film's release.
- 1:57:41Disney had been going through this low period from the late
- 1:57:4370s onwards. There was a change of ownership
- 1:57:45and one of their biggest stars, Don Bluth, left to form his own
- 1:57:48studio and took a big chunk of Disney's animators with him.
- 1:57:52Don Bluth Productions was a major rival to Disney,
- 1:57:54outstripping in the box office for a few years as well, but the
- 1:57:57circumcise of Fufri and Roger Rabbit influenced Disney to
- 1:57:59focus their attention to largely well known stories.
- 1:58:02It paid off. For the next 10 years Disney
- 1:58:05produced films like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas,
- 1:58:08Tarzan, Hercules which were hugely successful and that put
- 1:58:12Disney back on top again, leading to the birth of the
- 1:58:15Pixar movies. So not only your success with
- 1:58:18audience and critics, Who Framed Roger Abbott was hugely
- 1:58:20influential on the industry. If only we could have got that
- 1:58:24goddamn sequel though. I.
- 1:58:25Thought you could have got the goddamn sequel.
- 1:58:36So there you have it then we've reached the end of the tale, the
- 1:58:38final curtain. Goofy, Daffy, Tinkerbell,
- 1:58:41Donald, they're all waiting with bated breath to hear our scores
- 1:58:44for Hoofer and Roger Rabbit. So John, what are your final
- 1:58:47thoughts on the film? And you score out of 10.
- 1:58:50I like the film a lot. The thing Roger Rabbit gets
- 1:58:52praised for is the blend of animation and live action, and
- 1:58:55that's the thing it should get praised for.
- 1:58:57That hasn't been much before since and it is incredible.
- 1:59:01I love how they set out to do something they had never been
- 1:59:03done before. I love that about the film.
- 1:59:05That never happens with big budget films nowadays, or not
- 1:59:09since Avatar anyway. I love the passion and the love
- 1:59:12for the art that leaps off the screen from the whole animation
- 1:59:15team. Richard Williams work here is 10
- 1:59:18out of 10. Whatever the highest score is,
- 1:59:20he gets it. That's it.
- 1:59:22For those reasons, the film has the meanings of a masterpiece
- 1:59:24for me, but the final product just isn't.
- 1:59:28I mentioned the storytelling, and the level of that to me is
- 1:59:30way below the level of the animations, and it does feel a
- 1:59:34bit like a missed opportunity because of that.
- 1:59:37That said, I love Roger, I love the Looney Tunes cameos.
- 1:59:41Jessica, Bob Hoskins, the weasels are all great, lots of
- 1:59:44great things. So I'm going for 9 out of 10.
- 1:59:49Why was that OK? That was expected lower.
- 1:59:53Yeah, I was expecting. No, that's a.
- 1:59:54Decent those animations, I can't go all the wide bit.
- 1:59:57Incredible. Yeah, they are fantastic.
- 2:00:00What about you, Westie? Right, OK, fucking right.
- 2:00:03So. I mean, you don't have to if you
- 2:00:05don't want to. Yeah, yeah.
- 2:00:08That is what we do generally, though.
- 2:00:09I know, right? It's not a surprise.
- 2:00:11I know I just didn't expect to come round so quick.
- 2:00:14I was still thinking about it. It was great fun when I was a
- 2:00:17kid. It was something I'd seen and
- 2:00:19haven't seen before and I haven't seen since really.
- 2:00:23I watched it again and I really appreciate the craft behind it.
- 2:00:26For me, this separates itself out.
- 2:00:28Like John said, you know, there's some elements that
- 2:00:30really let it down. For me, it's the overall
- 2:00:33seediness and their overall dourness of it.
- 2:00:37It just leaves us feeling a little bit sad when it finishes.
- 2:00:41You love. That shit.
- 2:00:51I love it when it's intentional. I don't like it when it's
- 2:00:53unintentional as this is. I love the characters, I love
- 2:00:57all the elements. But like John said, when it's
- 2:00:59put together, it doesn't gel consistently as a whole film for
- 2:01:04me. Like I watched it again for this
- 2:01:07and I thought to myself, like when I finished I thought I
- 2:01:09don't really have much desire to see that again for about 10
- 2:01:13years really. It's fun.
- 2:01:15I've no real desire to watch it again.
- 2:01:17It's a breakthrough in the craft, but I'll be totally
- 2:01:20honest, it's not necessarily a craft that I'm passionate about
- 2:01:22or interested in the animation side of stuff.
- 2:01:25I think it's fantastic what they achieved, but it's not something
- 2:01:28that I'll go out me with or get excited about.
- 2:01:30It's just that element of cinema to me that doesn't really
- 2:01:33appeal. I appreciate it.
- 2:01:35It's good fun. Terrified of it.
- 2:01:37It leaves us a little bit weird, a little bit dower.
- 2:01:41I don't think I'm going to show me kids it because it'll fucking
- 2:01:43terrify them. So I'm going to go for 7.5.
- 2:01:46Wow. Sorry.
- 2:01:49Hey, it's fine. That's fine.
- 2:01:51I generally can't fathom when people say they don't find this
- 2:01:56fun or they don't like the film. I think it doesn't disappoint to
- 2:01:59me in the slightest. I think the film's so multi
- 2:02:02layered that you can watch it from loads of different angles.
- 2:02:05You can wonder at the animation and the fact that they've
- 2:02:07managed to get all these classic cartoon characters together in
- 2:02:10one place. That's remarkable.
- 2:02:12That'll never happen again. The fact that new cartoon
- 2:02:15character is introduced and integrate perfectly with the old
- 2:02:17ones, amazing. I really love the script and I
- 2:02:20love contrary to what you say in Westie, I love this CD.
- 2:02:24Underbelly and the cheeky gags are great.
- 2:02:27I like that it's not afraid to go to those dark places and any
- 2:02:30film with any kind of noir elements, I'm all in.
- 2:02:34And in the years since its first release, it didn't stick with me
- 2:02:37like things like Ghostbusters, Raiders, Back to the Future
- 2:02:40date. Like I said at the top, I think
- 2:02:42it was because the animation as I got older, it's not cool for a
- 2:02:4516 year old to be watching Hoover and Roger Rabbit and I
- 2:02:48didn't go back to it till my late 20s.
- 2:02:51So for that reason, I'm going to strip a mark off it and I'm
- 2:02:54going to give it a nine out of 10.
- 2:02:56Good score. It is a good score.
- 2:03:00If you do, say so yourself. It's one of mine.
- 2:03:06On Twitter, our followers have been voting on who frame Roger
- 2:03:08Rabbit as well. Few comments.
- 2:03:10First, Gary W at Flail and Kermit.
- 2:03:14Gary is a patron of ADRM. He said.
- 2:03:17It's a lighthearted crime noir film, it's a period piece, it's
- 2:03:21genuinely funny comedy, it's a dazzling showcase of practical
- 2:03:24effects, and it's an animation nerds dream come true.
- 2:03:28It is Gary's favorite film, and he concluded by saying that he
- 2:03:32loved it as a kid. He loves it even more as an
- 2:03:35adult, and he's positive that people will still be loving it
- 2:03:37long after he's dead. Oh, fucking hell.
- 2:03:40I'm sorry, Gary Green. It's there's no relation here.
- 2:03:47I'm not doing this to get back at me brother or something.
- 2:03:49Evil twin. Evil twin.
- 2:03:53Matt Packer at MJP Writer said a brilliant tuned up pastiche of
- 2:03:57Chinatown that still elicits wonder and or deep into the age
- 2:04:01of pixels and processing power, replete with gonzo ideas and
- 2:04:04despite all the references has its own identity thanks largely
- 2:04:07to Hoskins who carries the whole thing on his shoulders.
- 2:04:10Big prayers for Bob. James Holson Beach at James
- 2:04:14Holson B Simply said. Bob Hoskins, man, Bob bloody
- 2:04:18Hoskins. That is it.
- 2:04:24That's his review, yeah. Brilliant.
- 2:04:30And finally, not everyone can love the same thing of course.
- 2:04:33Matt Loom at Matt Loom, one who was also a Peter and the RM says
- 2:04:38I always thought it was shit. All right, fair enough.
- 2:04:43Cheers, Matt. Thanks for that.
- 2:04:45Thanks for backing me up. With all the votes in on
- 2:04:49Twitter, who friend Roger Rabbit came out with it?
- 2:04:528 out of 10. You're right, disappointing
- 2:04:55results. Surprised by that?
- 2:04:56No, not at all really, to be honest.
- 2:04:58I was. I was expecting a little bit
- 2:05:01higher considering it was voted for by Twitter followers to do
- 2:05:06on the podcast. It was.
- 2:05:07Yeah, it was. And then they bumped us with an
- 2:05:09S. Screwed us over like twitty pie.
- 2:05:16No more pities. So that means that with our
- 2:05:21votes and the vote from Twitter combined, Who Framed Roger
- 2:05:24Rabbit has an overall score of 33.5 out of 40.
- 2:05:29Go to alltherightmovies.com/leaderboard
- 2:05:31to see how Who Framed Roger Rabbit is shaping up against the
- 2:05:34others we've covered. Not that well, I suspect.
- 2:05:37No, it'll be one of the lower ones I think.
- 2:05:38Yeah, as mentioned at the top, sign up to us on Patreon,
- 2:05:43www.patreon.com/all the Right Movies for regular additional
- 2:05:48exclusive movie podcasts and access to our podcast archive.
- 2:05:52And a shout out to our directors.
- 2:05:54Cheer to your patrons. They are Adam Cowie, Adam Yates,
- 2:05:57Damian Lennox, Anna Randall, Andrea Barker, Saeed Matlum,
- 2:06:01Graham Cheddar, Just Joe, Kenny Morrison, Gary W, Jamie Russell,
- 2:06:05Robert Shearer, Mike Riley, Robbie D and George Anderson.
- 2:06:09Thanks everybody. Thanks guys.
- 2:06:11Great gang of guys. Thank you guys.
- 2:06:12So that's a wrap. We're now off to Toontown to
- 2:06:15have a good old sing along. I'm not invited, obviously.
- 2:06:23For all sure notes, credits and references that were used in
- 2:06:25production of the podcast, you can visit us at all the right
- 2:06:28movies.com/who Hyphen framed hyphen Roger Hyphen Rabbit.
- 2:06:33Join us next time in All the right Movies when John, Westie
- 2:06:35and Matt will Burrow into your subconscious as they talk about
- 2:06:38Chris Nolan's mind bending inception.
- 2:06:42Going to be a big in. As always, if you could
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- 2:06:47thrilled. You probably know, but we're on
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- 2:06:53up on our website regularly. That's
- 2:06:54www.alltherightmovies.com. Check that out for loads of
- 2:06:58great stuff. As always on Twitter, we are at
- 2:07:01Right under score movies, Instagram at all the under score
- 2:07:05right movies and the website againalltherightmovies.com.
- 2:07:09That's all folks. See you soon.
- 2:07:11Thanks everybody. See you guys.
- 2:07:12Bye.