"Roger" Stands Alone

[Sarangel]

From Yahoo! News:

Don't expect to see Roger Rabbit in a sequel — getting co-stars Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop and Porky Pig together again would be too difficult for producers.

"It was never in the cards, we could never get the planets back into alignment," co-producer Don Hahn said in an interview to promote Tuesday's DVD release of the original film. "There was something very special about that time when animation was not as much in the forefront as it is now."

"Who Framed Roger Rabbit," directed by Robert Zemeckis, became a $156 million hit in 1988 with its mix of live-action detective noir and cartoon silliness.

Bob Hoskins starred as a gumshoe investigating a murder case to prove the innocence of the rambunctious bunny (voiced by Charles Fleischer). Kathleen Turner supplied the smoky voice of Roger's bombshell cartoon wife, Jessica.

Although Roger was an original character conceived by author Gary K. Wolf, the Disney film was populated with some of Hollywood's most celebrated ink-and-paint actors, including the rival Warner Bros. studio's Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam and Tweety Bird.

Steven Spielberg executive-produced the project and helped secure the rights to many of those characters.

The success of "Roger Rabbit," however, made it more complicated — and expensive — to get those properties again, although the studio continued to develop sequel ideas for years.

"There were ideas about how Roger got to Los Angeles, how he met Jessica. Musical ideas, how he came to the Broadway stage," Hahn said. "There were lots of ideas knocking around but nothing that ever got far enough to develop and make into a movie."

Roger appeared in three short films, 1989's "Tummy Trouble," 1990's "Roller Coaster Rabbit" and 1993's "Trail Mix-Up," but Hahn said there are no longer plans to bring the character back for a feature film.

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

You know Sara, Hill did a rather good piece on this a while back.

You can see it HERE.

I think this little gem ought to start things off nicely:

What happened? How is it that a film like "Roger Rabbit II" -- a project that's almost guaranteed to make money -- keeps failing to get made?

Part of the problem is cost. Then there's that deal Eisner made with Spielberg. Plus all the personality conflicts involved.

And as I recall it goes downhill from there. Nice going Ei$ner!! You did it again!!

 

[d-r]

OK,
I haven't said anything gushing about Disney lately, and especially Disney DVD / Home Video, but I have a lot of positive things to say about the Roger Rabbit 2-dvd set.

I have to admit that WFRR isn't my absolute favorite - honestly, it tires me a little during the wharehouse scene in the climax. But I do really enjoy the first parts, though, with the humor and gags. But I was never motivated enough by it to purchase the Anchor Bay dvd release, which was a bare-bones and costly dvd back in the day when DVD was new and Disney wasn't really in the business (I do have the Anchor Bay" The Black Hole" though). Well, even though it was a - what, four years? wait, it was worth it!

But, anyway, the new HFRR discs are really great. I gave myself some downtime today and put them in. IMHO, the shorts and just the menus make it worth the price. The menu work is fantastic, fun, and interesting. Very nice job. There is a ton of bonus material on the second disc. The video and audio are great. This set is really worth the price (I think it was 19.95 at disney store before discounts). Any animation fan should have this, absolutely. This is release at the level of Pixar/Fantasia/Vault Disney/Snow White. A step up from Tarzan / ENG / Atlantis/ Dinosaur / batb/ SE's, and treasures too, really, imho. A really nice job.

DR