Who Made Roger Rabbit? (Disney or WB)

[9oldmen]

The bulk of the hand-drawn animation was done by Richard Williams, but a lot of Disney animators, or future Disney animators were working for him at the time. People like Nik Ranieri (who I noticed worked on the "Buck Cluck" character in "Chicken Little"), Andreas Deja and Eric Goldberg. Also, some additional animation was done by Baer Animation in Los Angeles. It was a company run by Dale and Jane Baer, who had worked for Disney before, and ended up back there years later. Baer did all of the "Toontown" sequences, and most of the exterior scenes, like the "Benny the Cab" chase sequence. Baer also animated about 10 minutes of "The Little Mermaid", and about half of "Mickey's Prince and the Pauper". You wouldn't think Disney would farm out animation to another studio, but it happens.
Notice that two characters who do NOT appear in "Roger" are Felix the Cat and Popeye. From what I understand, the owners of those characters were each offered a mere $5,000 for the use of each one in the film and they didn't feel that that was enough. This is kind of ironic, seeing as just 7 or 8 years earlier, Disney had teamed up with Paramount to make a whole live action movie STARRING Popeye (with Robin Williams), and at that time, guess who was at Paramount! You are correct! Eisner! Funny how it works that way.

[Witches of Morva]

ORDDU: From what my sisters and I have heard, Roger Rabbit is not allowed to make appearances at the Disney theme parks any longer--because of the high cost of such appearances.

ORWEN: (sigh) Since our dear little bunny is jointly owned, Disney would have to pay through the nose to have him out. He used to be a part of Spectro Magic for the longest time--before he got replaced by the Genie from ALADDIN.

ORDDU: Even Roger Rabbit merchandise wasn't available for a time. But, lately, we've been seeing a modest come back. Disneyland came out with another plush version of Roger over a year ago--and it may still be available.

ORWEN: And--just recently--there was a really nice snow globe pictured in the Christmas Disney catalog. Who knows what this might mean? But we love Roger Rabbit and are even personal friends with him. He's been to Morva many times as our dinner guest.

[FrumiousBoojum]

Notice that two characters who do NOT appear in "Roger" are Felix the Cat and Popeye. From what I understand, the owners of those characters were each offered a mere $5,000 for the use of each one in the film and they didn't feel that that was enough.

Interesting, though, is that they were able to get the other major Max Fleisher properties -- even the more obscure Koko the Klown that appeared with Betty Boop at times. I'm sure there was a bit more to it than this... possibly.

However, Popeye did appear with one Roger-related item: in the NES game, Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, one of the trivia questions were "What non-Disney character did not appear in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Guess what the answer was... Popeye.

[pjdonnell]

ORWEN: And--just recently--there was a really nice snow globe pictured in the Christmas Disney catalog. Who knows what this might mean? But we love Roger Rabbit and are even personal friends with him. He's been to Morva many times as our dinner guest.

You... you didn't try to eat him, did you?

(Hey, they're three witches, m'kay? Problems like this sometimes come up!)

[BDBopper]

Wow! What a great movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit was. I can't beleive I conned my parents into letting me go see it with my Aunt. I was eight and the movie was the the first PG-13 I ever saw. My parents really didn't want me to go see it but I won with my ignorance and nievity. I told them that it couldn't be too bad because it had cartoon characters in the movie that I was quite familiar with from TV. The language was a little graphic for an eight year old but I really liked it. My parents didn't like that I learned the word "toots" from Baby Herman and started using it. Other than that I really wasn't scarred for life.

My favorite scene is Donald and Daffy going at it with their dueling pianos. I loved it.

The interesting thing is that this movie had tons of characters from differant studios. Sort of a twist on what actually went down in the world of cartoons. You may not realize but there was a lack of contracts for cartoon voice actors. Many of the greats voiced characters of differant studios. For example Peter Colvig (Goofy) also did work for Warner Brothers (remember the cartoon where Daffy stows away on a Navy ship...Colvig voiced the sailor who didn't sing very well).

[FrumiousBoojum]

I was eight and the movie was the the first PG-13 I ever saw.

The movie was only PG... looks like you had a few more movies left till you saw a PG-13 movie.

[BDBopper]

Are you sure? I think they have lowered the rating since it first came out.

[FrumiousBoojum]

Never lowered... it was always a PG film. Actually, by today's standards, it would probably be PG-13 if they were to ever re-evaluate the content, but by 1988 standards (a time when the PG-13/PG seperation was still being tweaked), it was PG.

And for all other ratings:

Certification: Argentina:Atp / Australia:PG / Belgium:KT / Brazil:Livre / Canada:PG / Chile:TE / Finland:K-11 (DVD rating) / Finland:K-12/9 (original rating) / France:U / Iceland:LH (video rating) / Iceland:L (original rating) / / Italy:T / Netherlands:AL / Norway:10 / Peru:PT / Portugal:M/6 / Singapore:PGSpain:T / Sweden:11 / UK:PG / USA:PG / West Germany:12

[DisneyNut2004]

ORDDU: From what my sisters and I have heard, Roger Rabbit is not allowed to make appearances at the Disney theme parks any longer--because of the high cost of such appearances.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

With Michael Eisner finally gone from the parks, there's a chance that all of this will finally change and Roger will finally be allowed to make appearances in the parks again.

[TheDisneyInquisitor]

Also, since Eisner is now gone, will it be easier for Disney to make a sequel to RR?

I doubt it. Spielburg is now the 'S' in Dreamworks SKG, Disney's rival. He is partner's with Katzenberg. Although nothing's impossible, I don't think we'll be seeing a sequel anytime soon.

And although contracts keep Roger Rabbit from doing anything Speilburg doesn't want him to do, it is nice to see the new Jessica Rabbit Merchandice (you know, the ones that say "Big Peak Mnts").

[Lost Boy]

Yes, Speilberg really doesn't have much or any control over any of the original Roger Rabbit characters, only Roger. So it might take some "negotionations" on Bob Igers part to losen Speilberg up. I think Speilberg did have some issues with Eisner anyway. What a surprise, eh?

[DisneyNut2004]

I doubt it. Spielburg is now the 'S' in Dreamworks SKG, Disney's rival. He is partner's with Katzenberg. Although nothing's impossible, I don't think we'll be seeing a sequel anytime soon.

Even if we don't get a sequel anytime soon, the least we can hope for, as I've said before, is that they'll get new contracts negotiated for Roger to make appearances in the parks again, more merchandise, etc.