Writer of Pop Culture

Loosely based on Gary K. Wolf’s novel, Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a hybrid film of live-action and animation with real actors interacting with animated ones. Disney began working on the movie as early as 1981 with the studio filming a lot of test footage to make the various gags look seamless on the big screen.

Robert Zemeckis was hired to direct the movie after Terry Gilliam declined. Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy of Amblin Entertainment came on to produce the movie alongside Disney.

Spielberg gets the credit for talking to rival studios asking permission to use their competitors’ characters in the movie. This included Warner Bros. who required Disney to feature their I.P’s the same amount of screen time as the Disney counterparts. That’s how the dueling duck piano players (Donald Duck and Daffy Duck) came about. Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny also share a scene together.

As for the casting, Disney considered everyone from Harrison Ford to Sylvester Stallone to play the part of detective Eddie Valiant before setting on Bob Hoskins. Many actors were considered for the role of Judge Doom as well including Tim Curry (who lost out because he was too scary), Christopher Lee and Sting. They landed with Christopher Lloyd because Spielberg and Zemeckis worked with him on Back to the Future.

Casting Humans and Toons

As for the animated characters, Paul Reubens (aka PeeWee Herman) auditioned to be the voice of Roger, but Disney went with Charles Fleischer instead. Kathleen Turner voiced Jessica Rabbit. Famous voice actors played the cartoon characters including Fred Newman, June Foray, Mel Blanc, Wayne Allwine, Tony Anselmo, Tony Pope, Mae Questel, Russi Taylor, Jim Cummings, Nancy Cartwright, Frank Welker and Jack Angel.

When Roger Rabbit was completed, Michael Eisner and Roy E. Disney felt that the movie was too risqué with its adult themes and sexual references. However, Zemeckis had final cut privilege, so no alterations were made. Now between a rock and a hard place, Roy E. Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg agreed that this movie needed to be released under the Touchstone Pictures Banner instead of the family-friendly Walt Disney Pictures banner.

When Roger Rabbit opened in theaters on this day, Disney had their biggest opening ever. The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four Oscars for Best Film Editing, Sound Effects Editing, Visual Effects and a Special Achievement Award. And despite the controversial content, the character of Roger Rabbit continued to make cartoon shorts and was welcomed in the Disney theme parks. Today though, Roger’s presence isn’t as strong as it once was.