On this very date, over two decades ago, animated movies were about to experience a rebirth. It was the summer of 1988, a film called Who Framed Roger Rabbit debuted to the general public as a technologically advanced cinematic breakthrough, and helped set forth a decade-long string of success for Disney — often referred to as the “Disney Renaissance.”

[Who Framed Roger Rabbit] simply fast tracked the Disney Renaissance … I believe that Rabbit truly set the stage for successful animated movies. This film reminded the execs that there was money to be made in animation.

So Roger Rabbit is widely acknowledged as being the springboard for some of the best Disney films to come out of “The House of Mouse” during the period 0f 1989-1999 — a span that included The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King among others.

What made Roger Rabbit so unique?

The movie combined live-action with animation, certainly not the first to blur the line between reality and make-believe. However, Roger Rabbit looked really, really good in comparison to its predecessors aiming for similar results.

To create the animation, over 85,000 hand-inked and painted cells were created and composited with the live-action backdrops, live-action characters, and hand-animated tone mattes (shading) and cast shadows using optical film printers. NO computer animation was used in creating the animations. Some scenes involved up to 100 individual film elements. Any live-action that had to be later composited was shot in VistaVision to take advantage of the double-area frame of the horizontal 35mm format. The finished film thus does not suffer from the increased grain that plagued previous live-action/animation combos such as Mary Poppins (1964).

Aside from the actual animation techniques utilized, another stand-out quality of Roger Rabbit centered around the fact that the film was a virtual cartoon smorgasbord combining several iconic characters from competing studios Disney and Warner Bros. on screen together for the first time ever. Never prior, and never after have beloved characters like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Donald and Daffy Duck crossed over to interact on screen. Quite the nostalgic scene for animation enthusiasts, young and old. For a complete list of cameos listed by studio, go here.

"Nyaaa...What's up, Doc?" "I'm sorry, I don't have any catch-phrases, but...you know...I've inspired a few theme parks here and there."

And let’s not allow the great story be overshadowed. Director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg were, in essence, paying homage to the golden age of animation with heavy throwback references to over-the-top comedic cartoon violence and slapstick. 1947 Hollywood at its finest. If you are a younger reader and have not gotten around to laying your peepers on this classic, please do yourself a favor and give it a rent. But trust me, you can just buy it sight unseen and won’t regret adding it to your collection.

Oh, who am I kidding!? Jessica Rabbit is 1947 Hollywood at its finest!

Source(s):
futureworld84.blogspot.com
Wikipedia (Disney Renaissance)
IMDb