Who Framed Roger Rabbit

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

"Tomorrow's Friday, Eddie. You know what happens here on Friday?:
"Fish special?"

This movie is incredible. All done by hand, with no computers.. just a lot of imagination and hard work, and the ability to envision an end product that is unlike any other film. A once-in-a-generation film.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I adore this movie and still quote it often. Whenever someone at works ask "what's the password", my go to is always "Walt sent me." I get a puzzled look then give the real answer.

It honestly happens a lot.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I adore this movie and still quote it often. Whenever someone at works ask "what's the password", my go to is always "Walt sent me." I get a puzzled look then give the real answer.

It honestly happens a lot.

"Nice monkey suit"
The intro to one of the greatest scenes in cinema

 

[JD]

Yeah, it was a great movie. I still find it amazing that they were actually able to get Warner Bros. and Disney characters onscreen together.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Yeah, it was a great movie. I still find it amazing that they were actually able to get Warner Bros. and Disney characters onscreen together.

I heard that is Spielberg's greatest contribution, holding summit meetings to discuss the fact that the major characters must have identical screentimes. (I actually think Bugs Bunny has more screentime that Mickey.. as Bugs can be seen walking around the Maroon lot earlier in the film)
They also got MGM characters!

 

[Christopher]

And it was a major fight for director Richard Williams to get Disney and WB to agree to authentic 1940s designs for the characters rather than the marketing-approved modern designs. We're lucky they won those fights and succeeded in so many other ways.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

As an affectionato of animation and old special effects and their evolution, it's one of my favorite films to study. This video, clocking in under 8 minutes, does a good b of telling someone new to the film why it's such a breakthrough motion picture... but it only scratches the surface. Not a bad start though

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[JD]

They have the Roger Rabbit shorts they did with the movie on Disney+, I've never seen them so I'm thinking I might have to check them out.

And it was a major fight for director Richard Williams to get Disney and WB to agree to authentic 1940s designs for the characters rather than the marketing-approved modern designs. We're lucky they won those fights and succeeded in so many other ways.

It was directed by Robert Zemekis, not Richard Williams.

 

[Christopher]

It was directed by Robert Zemekis, not Richard Williams.

Richard Williams directed the animation. I forgot for a moment it had live action too.

 

[JD]

Oh, I did not know that. I had just assumed Zemekis did all of the directing himself, it didn't occur to me it would have a separate animation director.

 

[FormerLurker]

For the record, everything that makes the animation look like it's part of the live-action world was in fact done with computers. Stuff like shadowing, the glitter on Jessica's dress, etc. Because of the huge amount of animation done for the live action sequences, computer databases were also used to keep track of which animation was supposed to go where. So computers were used, they just weren't used to create CGI animation. And thank God for that. It would have ruined the film.

 

[Christopher]

Oh, I did not know that. I had just assumed Zemekis did all of the directing himself, it didn't occur to me it would have a separate animation director.

Well, it's a distinct discipline. Directing animation is extremely different from directing live action, since you can't just tell a cartoon character to do another take (except within the movie's world, of course).

For the record, everything that makes the animation look like it's part of the live-action world was in fact done with computers. Stuff like shadowing, the glitter on Jessica's dress, etc.

No, I just checked my issue of Cinefex that discussed the FX work on the film in detail (issue 35, August 1988, which apparently can be purchased digitally here), and it says the interactive lighting effects were done by hand and matted in optically. They were certainly innovative in that the animators experimented with colored shadow layers instead of gray, carefully sculpting with colors to make the toons look more solid and 3-dimensional, but there's no mention of computers being used. Jessica's dress glitter was a mix of hand-animated sequin flashes and an optically added effect created "using steel wool over a plastic bag" (p. 31).

The only mentions the article makes of computers are for things like the computerized synclavier system used to play the pianos in the duelling-ducks sequence, and of course motion-control photography for certain live-action shots -- e.g. the scenes involving Jessica's performance double Betsy Brantley, whose lower body they had to matte out because Jessica's waist was too thin to cover it.

 

[gblews]

As an affectionato of animation and old special effects and their evolution, it's one of my favorite films to study. This video, clocking in under 8 minutes, does a good b of telling someone new to the film why it's such a breakthrough motion picture... but it only scratches the surface. Not a bad start though

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Wow, very informative and mind blowing. Really a shame there was no Oscar category for Best Animated feature back in the late 80’s.

 

[Tosk]

I love Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It's just the perfect confluence of people at the perfect time. The movie could not have been as good if it were made a few years earlier or a few years later. Ten years too early and the technical achievements would not have reached so high, a year or so too late and Mel Blanc is dead.

One of my only gripes is that in the final scene, several characters appear in their modern styles instead of the '40s styles they had earlier in the film. Some of the shots of the group gathered around Judge Puddle also seem a lower quality of animation than the rest of the film (both in terms of models and of movement), and I have often wondered if some of it was a late addition.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I love this movie. The animation and VFX are of course fantastic, as are the story and toon voices. But to me a lot of the success of the film depends upon both Hoskins and Lloyd, who both turned in outstanding performances. So, this post is giving a shout-out to them!

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Wow, very informative and mind blowing. Really a shame there was no Oscar category for Best Animated feature back in the late 80’s.

I respect (and love) what you are saying, but I think the "best animated feature" is a terrible Oscar category to begin with.. but that is a whole nother discussion.

 

[FormerLurker]

No, I just checked my issue of Cinefex that discussed the FX work on the film in detail (issue 35, August 1988, which apparently can be purchased digitally here), and it says the interactive lighting effects were done by hand and matted in optically. They were certainly innovative in that the animators experimented with colored shadow layers instead of gray, carefully sculpting with colors to make the toons look more solid and 3-dimensional, but there's no mention of computers being used. Jessica's dress glitter was a mix of hand-animated sequin flashes and an optically added effect created "using steel wool over a plastic bag" (p. 31).

The only mentions the article makes of computers are for things like the computerized synclavier system used to play the pianos in the duelling-ducks sequence, and of course motion-control photography for certain live-action shots -- e.g. the scenes involving Jessica's performance double Betsy Brantley, whose lower body they had to matte out because Jessica's waist was too thin to cover it.

Well, my source (which I admit I haven't looked at in years) was an at least two year long installment review of how the effects for the film were done, that was published in Starlog. They regularly referred to using computers on the film. It's plausible that they were used for motion-control rather than actual graphics, but each installment went into detail of how the computers were essential for getting it all right.

 

[Christopher]

Well, my source (which I admit I haven't looked at in years) was an at least two year long installment review of how the effects for the film were done, that was published in Starlog. They regularly referred to using computers on the film.

Ah, you must mean this:

https://www.dix-project.net/item/19...-framed-roger-rabbit-a-special-fx-achievement

Luckily I still have the original issues (easier to read than the Archive.org reader), and I just re-read the whole 6-part series, and I think you must've fallen prey to the Mandela Effect, becasue there isn't a single word about computers that I could see. Everything the series talks about was done by hand, and by meticulous trial-and-error testing of traditional animation, optical and mechanical effects, and the like. The relevant part for the interactive lighting effects is Part 4, and it goes into detail on how they were done by optical, not digital, techniques; there's even a full-page spread showing the different strips of film that had to be matted together to create the illusion of 3-dimensional shadows.

 

[JD]

I respect (and love) what you are saying, but I think the "best animated feature" is a terrible Oscar category to begin with.. but that is a whole nother discussion.

What's so bad about the best animated feature Oscar? Is it just a technical thing or do you just not like animated movies?

 

[Christopher]

What's so bad about the best animated feature Oscar? Is it just a technical thing or do you just not like animated movies?

I think the usual objection, which I share, is that it ghettoizes animation. Why not just let animated films compete for Best Picture along with everything else? Giving them a separate category precludes the possibility of one getting the top honor.