Movies-TV

Don't cry, Space Jam

Besides Space Jam is eight years younger than Roger Rabbit, and this movie (Space Jam) has CGI effects (this movie is from the Digital era), it lacks a lot of things:

1.- Roger Rabbit was one of the last jobs done by Mel "1000 voices" Blanc.
2.- Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Droopy Dog, Betty Boop (and a loong etcetera) don't appear in Space Jam, meanwhile Bugs Bunny did appear in Roger Rabbit.

This movie is one of my long favorities, when it was released in DVD, i don't think twice and i buy it ..., but i noticed that this DVD have nothing of extras or foreign language support (but the movie itself worth the money that i expended); fortunatelly and finally Touchstone/Disney will release a special edition of this DVD, with all the things that the fans expected from a movie like this (and foreign language support, at least with Spanish audio track, something very important to me)...

I can't wait to buy this precious DVD! (did i say that i have to sell my old DVD for less than 1/5 of the original cost?)

Smile Darn Ya Smile

This movie is excellent! It's funny, suspenseful,& witty. The leads, Roger & Eddie are likable in their own unique ways and the FX are breathtaking! Bob Hoskins & Chris Lloyd deserved Oscar nods IMO.WFRR is what most of today's CGI films "pretend" to be! A mature, family film that people of many generations can enjoy!Anyone who hasn't seen this film I definitely recommend it! If you like quirky comedies,fantasies, suspenseful films, or are a cartoon geek watch WFRR!...As a huge fan of all things comedic, I love the film's message about laughter! When the film opens, detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is this disenchanted, cynical alkie who hasn't gotten over the murder of his brother who was killed by a toon...Because of this Eddie[ who was once known for his penchant for solving toon-related cases, getting the colorful playful creatures out of trouble] resents ALL toons now and refuses to work for or with them. Too bad Roger Rabbit doesn't know this. He is a toon who is wanted for a murder he didn't commit and hounded by the creepy & corrupt judge/jury/executioner : Judge Doom. Thus he seeks Valiant's help. During their search for the true killer and their evasion of Judge Doom & his weasel cohorts, Eddie wonders how Roger can have such an exuberant clownlike spirit in the face of possible death. Roger tells Eddie "a laugh can be a very powerful thing, why sometimes in life it's the only weapon we have."The tone of the film is a mixture of dark noir frenetic tooniness a sultry yet strong damsel (the one and only Jessica Rabbit) and social racial allegory.The film's theme of minorities (the toons) vs. genocide & "the man" (Judge Doom)....And of Eddie's prejudices against toons (due to his brother's murder) disappearing at the end, thus he overcomes his alcoholism and grief or Roger's very motto of "Laughter is a powerful weapon" and how that helps Eddie in the final showdown (by killing the weasels with laughter and thwarting Judge Doom with a toon prop that malfunctions his diabolical machine). American Pop-culture & escapism ARE powerful weapons against misery, hatred & life's hardships in general. And they help unite all different walks of life.WFRR takes place in the WWII era towards the 50s...While the 40's were a time of American unity, escapism & pop-culture (what the "toons" represent) The 50's were more about cold hard, capitalism technology & being superior..I feel that the megalomaniac villain represents THAT as well as the racial/cultural insensitivity that came with the 50's.But no matter how you interpret WFRR it's an American masterpiece! There seems to be some controversy on what age it is appropriate for....Be warned this film IS violent loud climatic and more likely than not, will scare a young child. But if you are a parent you have to know your kid and realize what will give him or her nightmares. Having said that, even if you won't let junior watch it, that doesn't mean you, yourself can't enjoy it, the next time it comes on Encore Mystery. There are a lot of "Judge Dooms" these days...People who are perpetually serious & full of themselves & really have NO sense of humor at all...Don't be a Judge Doom...Watch this movie!

Still searching for the trailer

As you probably know, 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' is a great movie. Unfortunately, the DVD version offers ZERO extras. No cut scenes. No feature commentary. No 'making of' featurette. And NO trailer (the back cover clearly states that the trailer is on the disc)! Isn't there some kind of law against such blatant false advertising? The picture and sound quality are good, but owners of DVD players deserve more than just a bare-bones copy of the movie, especially when it's a cinematic/special effects achievement of this caliber.

A madcap cartoon mystery for young and old alike

In Robert Zemeckis' "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" the titular rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer) goes on the run from the law after being framed for a crime he didn't commit. With the help of private dick Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) he sets out to clear his name and get to the bottom of the murderous plot.The acting is better than you would normally expect for what is ostensibly a kids' movie. Bob Hoskins, despite his British origins, fits seamlessly into the role of a seedy private eye. Christopher Lloyd deserves special mention as the menacing Judge Doom. The voice talent for the animated characters is top-notch, with Charles Fleischer imbuing Roger with plenty of personality and Kathleen Turner lending her unmistakable voice to the femme fatale Jessica. Of course, there's also the legendary Mel Blanc and others voicing the established characters who appear in cameo roles.The story is an interesting one though I'm doubtful of how many children will be able to follow a story that has stylistic similarities to "Chinatown". The script also has plenty of double entendres that I'm sure flew well over my head when I saw this as a kid close to twenty years ago. These elements make the story appeal to adults while kids will no doubt enjoy the shenanigans of the animated characters.Zemeckis' direction is well handled as usual though I can't help but wish that the film had been helmed by executive producer Steven Spielberg instead. Nevertheless, Zemeckis and the Richard Williams-led animators do a fine job of blending the live and animated action, all without the benefit of CGI. The film is still impressive today and deserved all of the accolades that it garnered on the basis of its technical merit.This is a film that should appeal to both the young and the young at heart, especially those who grew up watching the likes of Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse and others. It is nothing short of a celebration of animation, produced by talented professionals with passion and reverence.

who framed roger rabbit

this movie brings a blend of live action and amimation thanks to touchstone pictures and amblin entertaiment. the motion picture stars cartoon charecters from a crowd of studios like disney, warner bros,mgm,flesicher,and universal. charles fleischer plays roger rabbit,benny the cab,and weasels psycho and greasy. the other weasels are smart [butt], stupid, and wheezy. the movie is about a 1940,s private eye in hollywood 1947 who helps a rabbit clear his name of murder until a judge tries to kill him and his wife and trying to clear toontown but he melts which he proves that he had killed marvin acme,r.k maroon and valiant,s brother which invites all of the toons to the acme factory.

Comic Genius

This started Space Jam, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Movie, Osmosis Jones and more movies that mix animation with live action actors. I loved the usage of the wacky looney tunes in the more innocent setting of the Mickey Mouse cartoons. From tweetie's cameo, to Roger's hero Goofy, to Porky Pigs's camoes, to these godfather like weasels, to Tinkerbell. Out of toon town they used elements from Italian-American hit movies. I loved Christopher Llyod as well as the role of Jessica's Performance Model. She is the most sexiest cartoon ever. Above all this is comic genius having a movie for adults using kid themes. It is a really good film.

12 years later it's still cool

This movie is absolute perfection. Laugh if you must, but it manages to come up with a great premise, and pulls it off it flawlessly. The special effects are still impressive today, and the campy, hammed up performances are all perfect for the over the top satire of film noir and corporate greed. Is it the best movie ever? Hell no. But it does what it sets out to do and that alone is a great feat. And any film with Micky Mouse and Bugs Bunny in the same scene deserves a hallowed place in film history.

One Whaky Toon Movie

Special effects are excellent in this movie. Mel Blanc did a bunch of the original cartoon voices he once did. Why didn't he do Yosemite Sam? Interacting the toons with real people made the movie that much more enjoyable. Christopher Lloyd was perfect as Judge Doom. Lloyd has proved that he can be a serious actor as well as a comical one. Bob Hoskins is great as Eddie Valiant, and did an excellent job with that straight accent. (This was before I knew he was British). I couldn't tell. A well thought out story.

That's what I call one seriously disturbed Toon......

One of the great joys of movie-going is to see a concept, that on-the-face-of-it is so goofy and off-beat that it should never work, but, in the end, 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 & clean picture, THX sound, and a beautifully packaged set 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 sharp & funny film that plays to both children & adults. Who would have thunk it?

Taking a Chinatown-like story of early Los Angeles with some basis in fact (destroying the Red Line to make way for freeways) complete with murder & intrigue & marrying it to the screwy conceit that cartoon figures, aka Toons, actually lived and worked as live actors and inhabited a section of LA called Toontown is such a manifestly dopey idea that it would take enormous inspiration, intelligence and attention to detail to make it even nominally work. All of those qualities were present, as the extras demonstrate, in abundance here, and the result was movie magic.

Made prior to CGI coming into its own, the characters were brought to the screen brilliantly. As one of the animators pointed out, even early CGI was rejected because the film-makers wanted the characters to maintain their cartoon look, only brought into 3 dimensions. The hows and whys of what they did to achieve this magic are worth a look.

Anchored by the great casting of Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd and Joanna Cassidy and Charles Fleischer, brilliant technical work, and a clever story strung through with great good humor, dialogue and jokes for kids and adults, this film has some cherished, favorite lines, from Baby Herman's "That's my problem, I've got a 50 year-old lust, and a 3 year-old dinky.", to Jessica Rabbit's: "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way.", to Eddie on the wayward bullets "Eh, Dum Dums!" This is great stuff.

"Toons, gets em every time!" Some kind of classic here, and well worth your while.

Remastered, huh? More like destroyed! A classic ruined!

I cannot believe this! I am outraged! DARN BUENA VISTA! They have given us the most shabbiest image that I have ever seen of WFRR. I did not see the original DVD which I'm sure was probably better, but on the new Vista DVD, the picture is destroyed. In certain areas the image is dark, muddy and hard to see through. In others, characters' colors darken and lighten. I am outraged! I hope that BV can fix this, because Roger Rabbit is one of my favorite movies and to see it destroyed like this outrages me. If you don't mind the shoddy image (it will not be noticed by people with smaller tvs but to those with a 27" or higher definition TVs will notice) get this DVD because the extras are fun to view and the DTS sound quality is amazing, its loud but at some points you can tell that the sound has somewhat deteriorated over the last 15 years. But it's still an okay release but I am going to be keeping the VHS tape that i've viewed many times since I was a little kid, until the image can be restored (I'm sure the original laserdisc probably had a better image). Oh well, but I'm still going to buy this just to have it on DVD! Sad, really, sad!

Brilliant - for 15 minutes

It is impossible not to enjoy Roger Rabbit for its inventiveness...but after that, what else is left? You certainly don't care about the characters. Roger himself is extremely annoying for the most part. In fact, the best part of the film for me was the beginning... about 5 full minutes of pure cartoon fun, between Roger and a baby - reminiscent of the kinds of situations that we usually see Wile E; Coyote getting himself into. It was a scream. Bu then the rest of the film takes over, an d after the first few minutes of being amazed at the technical slight of hand...it begins to go downhill. By two-thirds of the way through, I was barely paying attention any more. The only thing that kept me awake was trying to see how many different cartoon characters I could recognize and remember where they came from originally.So all in all, I couldn't find myself capable of giving it more than a 5... if I were voting on the first 5 minutes I would have given it a 9; if I were voting just on technical merit i would give it a 10... but as a whole? I much preferred Peter Pan or Mary Poppins or Ratatouille

Cartoon Noir

This was such an amazing piece of work when it came out. I just saw it again, and it was just a bit dated. But while the physical part of mixing cartoon and live action was excellent, the best part was the writing, the envisioning of a world where interactions between "toons" and humans were commonplace. Fantastic work by Bob Hoskins, particularly in losing his English accent and sounding completely like a bitter, hard-boiled, mid-40's, SoCal, PI. Most of the time, when an actor fakes an accent, it will bleed through a bit in some scenes. One could blame the director for this, not being willing to take enough takes to make sure that he never has to use one that doesn't sound right. But Hoskins was utterly Streepian here.Interesting that some felt there were themes of racism and genocide in this movie. OK, I guess the genocide angle is fairly explicit, except that it never really occurred to me because the "toons" weren't seen as human. (Although now that I think about it, the weasels were depicted as having souls) But it's just too much of a stretch to see "toons" as being analogous to "coons". I cannot imagine Disney or Zemeckis going there at all. "Toons" were, in this film, gently treated as subhuman, simply because they WERE subhuman, and nobody was interested in denying that reality out of some sort of cartoon political correctness. Anyway, this film is a masterpiece, even if a silly one, and it comes highly recommended by me. Grade: A

I liked it.

Being a kid, I probably shouldn't have seen this movie, but it was awesome! The cartoon elements are cool, and Bob Hoskins makes for a great show. My parents hate this movie because of all the language, but I thought it was great! Definately a must-see if you love cartoon/live action movies. No wonder it won a ton of Oscars!

Extremely funny

It makes you laugh constantly.Even when I remember it I smile

Great Purchase

It's an excellent film, a classic DVD everybody should have. The only problem is that the DVD menu itself is a little confusing, so you may have a little trouble finding trailers, or specific special features listed in the box. In other words, everything written in the box is in the DVD, but it may take some time until you find it...

always a classic

A great product, not a whole lot of extra features, but who needs it when you have Roger Rabbit?

Great movie that looks great on DVD

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a cutting edge film in its day, and is still a classic. And it looks absolutely fabulous on DVD!!! I love the fact that you have the option of watching it in widescreen or full screen, because some of us don't have big, widescreen, digital TV's yet. And even after all of this time, this film still delivers the laughs.

Boy, this is something I'll treasure and remember always.

Oh, this is the first movie I've seen to have live characters and cartoons come together, maybe not for the first time, I've seen Jerry dance with Gene Kelly once, but that's another movie! Anyways this was my childhood favorite and perhaps an all time, and will always be a favorite to me. Every time I watch there is a magic moment, that the cartoons we all loved as kids are still the best today, even though we are into computer animation, Batman, X-Men, or anime, we can never say we hate those old Looney Toons or Disney shows. And the antics and jokes and gags and gimmicks they did will always remain the funniest, even though we dig jokes from Saturday Night Live or sex jokes these days. This is also the first time I've seen Disney and Warner cartoons for the first time! And not to mention Betty Boop and Droopy! Overall, this is the best animated and live movie the whole family can enjoy, and fans of the old cartoons will love. Recommended to all fans of cartoons of the golden years of Disney and Warner. Thank you Disney, thank you Warner. And if liked this, I recommend you play the video game Kingdom Hearts, this time it's Final Fantasy/Squaresoft and Disney together! >>>> 10/10

The apotheosis

If there is one thing that is difficult, it's to mix live actors with animated characters. Well today, it could look easy with the development of computers and more and more sophisticated filming methods. But if there is one thing that is even more difficult, it's to proceed to the mixing at the point that it becomes homogeneous and where the unreal merges into the reality with an extreme subtlety.The year is 1988. Computer animation still is at a prehistoric level and the only way to do the famous live-action/animation mix, it's to shoot all live scenes and to add the animated scenes one by one. To make a feature-length movie that way could look crazy and utterly visionary, but producers Frank Marshall and Robert Watts decided to take their chance and hired Robert Zemeckis and Richard Williams, so they would direct what has become one of the greatest gems in cinema history."Who Framed Roger Rabbit" begins with an almost-completed animated short film starring Baby Herman and Roger Rabbit. However, when the director (cameo by Joel Silver) shouts "cut!", the film's wizards enter into action.The story is set in Los Angeles in 1947 and pretends to be some new form of film noir. Every film noir story needs an hard-boiled detective and this one is no exception with Eddie Valiant, perfectly played by Bob Hoskins.Valiant doesn't like the "Toons" which live in Toontown, an isolated borough somewhere in L.A., but he accepts an offer which gives him the mandate to spy on nightclub owner Marvin Acme and Roger's wife, the hypnotizing femme fatale Jessica Rabbit.What Eddie doesn't suspect is that he just got embarked into a palpitating adventure, filled with murder, lies and big-money business. Then you add the terrifying Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) and a conspiracy inspired from a real-life urban legend."Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is at the same time an homage and a parody of classic noirs from the 40s and the 50s and contains classic elements and others intended to provoke laughs and frenzy for the viewers who could only leave the theater with an open smile on their faces.Directing a film noir is already complicated enough, so imagine if you have to add animated characters inside. Fortunately, Robert Zemeckis clearly shows that he's the man for such a feature. Zemeckis shows that he has an overflowing imagination and he visibly has fun in making this movie.What more, Zemeckis et Williams use a technique and a philosophy both borrowed to Walt Disney himself : what's difficult isn't avoidable and even desirable. Both directors never try to simplify their task and the actors react with an immaculate professionalism, especially those who directly interact with Toons.The very complicated plot, the nihilistic environment and the lighting methods are worth the greatest noirs, but some characteristics (such as Valiant's shadow saying "Bless you" after the detective sneezes) attenuate this sinister landscape and make the film more attracting to people of all ages.But the main problem with the movie is precisely about the targeted audience. There is no doubt that "Roger Rabbit" is an adult film. But I have no doubt that some mature movie buffs will believe that it's a kiddie flick, just because of the Toons' presence. And this is definitely not a children's movie. The story is way too complicated, there's enough sex and violence to unleash an outcry and Judge Doom can become so disturbing that he could worry youngsters.However, I encourage adults to see this movie because they would bitterly regret it if they miss their chance. Adding to the already-mentioned elements are the brilliantly orchestrated action sequences by Zemeckis and his crew. The wild chase with Benny the Cab is stirring and the final battle in the warehouse gave me fun like I've rarely had before.Anyway, the entire movie gave me fun like I've rarely had before. It would take an entire dictionary in order to find all the appropriate terms to describe "Roger Rabbit". But words aren't necessary. You just need to watch it to experience a goofy orgasm which is the apotheosis of the live-action/animation mix.

A timeless classic!

I saw this movie in the theater when it came out, fifteen years ago. I thought it was ahead of its time! The way they combined animation with 'real time' was amazing and, to me, believable. The story line is mature enough to entertain an adult audience, yet the 'toons make it fun for even young children to watch (with supervision). I was so glad to see this finally come out on video! I had to run out and get the DVD right away! It'll be one of our family favorites for years to come!