Filmmakers have been combining animation and live action since the days of tranquil film–but 1988’s WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT not only bested everything done previously, it place a standard that is unlikely to be surpassed. Although it has been available on VHS and in a mediocre DVD release for quite a few years, the film finally gets the star treatment in this “Vista Series” double DVD release, which includes the film in both pan-and-scan and letterbox formats and an assortment of extras, many of which are quite absorbing.
The conception and account are well known: cartoon characters are not drawings, but are living entities who work in the film industry, and when Maroon Cartoon star Roger Rabbit is accused of murdering Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye), he turns to private detective Eddie Doughty (Bob Hoskins) for support. Peril is, Eddie hates “Toons.” After all, one of them offed his brother, and Eddie hasn’t been sober since. The belief is a clever one, and the legend could have gone in any number of directions–but ROGER RABBIT hops down a completely unexpected traipse. Site in 1947 Los Angeles, the film uses classic “noir” elements (and references everything from THE MALTESE FALCON to CHINATOWN) ; it also makes distinguished sly social commentary on racism, with the “Toons” performing in a Cotton Club-like nightclub, literally working for peanuts at the studios, and more or less confined to living in “Toontown,” which might easily be read as social ghettoization. And all of these sidelights are spellbinding and sharp. But the most comely thing about ROGER RABBIT is that it is unprejudiced dull fun to see.
Part of that fun comes from the well-behaved performances of Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd (as the wrong Think Doom), and Joanna Cassidy (Valiant’s sidekick Delores), who lead the live action cast. Another chunk of the fun is the plot in which the film cameos a host of illustrious cartoon characters, ranging from Betty Boop to Bugs Bunny and the Warner Bro.s gang to Dumbo–and animation buffs will like the fact that Betty Boop and Bugs Bunny, to name but two, are voiced by the artists (Mae Questel and Mel Blanc) who created the character voices in the first residence. But the stout deal here is the extremely believable method in which the “Toons” fit into the dependable world. They rendered with extraordinary detail and noteworthy three dimensionality. It’s honest an fabulous thing to see.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Who Framed Roger Rabbit! Click Here
The overall DVD package is a bit outlandish, for it offers less in the plot of bonuses than one might inquire of. The first disk includes a pan-and-scan version of the film, three Roger Rabbit/Baby Herman shorts, a kid-friendly documentary, and a CD-ROM game; the second disk offers the letterbox film with extras that will appeal to more venerable viewers, most particularly on-set shots and a nifty documentary called “Gradual the Ears.” The upshot is really a one-disk release that has been expanded to two by the trick of cramming both pan-and-scan and letterbox versions into a single package. That’s annoying–but even so, this is easily the best release of this film to date. It at gives the rabbit some justice at last, and I give it five stars on that basis.
One of the expansive joys of movie-going is to peek a plan, that on-the-face-of-it is so goofy and off-beat that it should never work, but, in the raze, does work and works in spades! So it was for me with Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This Vista Series DVD brings the film to us with a crisp & dapper report, THX sound, and a beautifully packaged site of extras that include a very clever interactive menu, plus loads of goodies presented smartly, with humor and surprises.
Seeing the film again reminded me how impressed I was with the audacity and accomplishment of Bob Zemeckis and his collaborators on bringing off with care and intelligence, a provocative & laughable film that plays to both children & adults. Who would have thunk it?
Taking a Chinatown-like yarn of early Los Angeles with some basis in fact (destroying the Red Line to develop method for freeways) complete with destroy & intrigue & marrying it to the screwy conceit that cartoon figures, aka Toons, actually lived and worked as live actors and inhabited a fraction of LA called Toontown is such a manifestly dopey thought that it would seize mountainous inspiration, intelligence and attention to detail to develop it even nominally work. All of those qualities were reveal, as the extras show, in abundance here, and the result was movie magic.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Who Framed Roger Rabbit! Click Here
Made prior to CGI coming into its gain, the characters were brought to the camouflage brilliantly. As one of the animators pointed out, even early CGI was rejected because the film-makers wanted the characters to acquire their cartoon see, only brought into 3 dimensions. The hows and whys of what they did to enact this magic are worth a glimpse.
Anchored by the mountainous casting of Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd and Joanna Cassidy and Charles Fleischer, shimmering technical work, and a clever account strung through with tall honorable humor, dialogue and jokes for kids and adults, this film has some cherished, current lines, from Baby Herman’s “That’s my pickle, I’ve got a 50 year-old lust, and a 3 year-old runt.”, to Jessica Rabbit’s: “I’m not dreadful, I’m impartial drawn that procedure.”, to Eddie on the wayward bullets “Eh, Dum Dums!” This is broad stuff.
“Toons, gets em every time!” Some kind of classic here, and well worth your while.
Residual Income Opportunity Online | Extra Cash Income
Earn Extra Cash from Home | Multiple Income Streams | Multiple Streams of Income | Money From Home | Make Money on the Internet
You’ll even accept to examine Kim become a mini jack advance the extinguish. Overall a satisfying season that did more things suitable than it did unfriendly.
