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Description
DAY 301

Today is National Animation Day, the day for acknowledgement of one of the most diverse film mediums. Here's to the pencil pushers; may you all avoid getting lead poisoning. With that, there's so many different Disney projects to choose from that perfectly display cartooning pushed to its full potential, but ultimately, there is only one film that not only has astounding animation but celebrates the art of cartooning from... the cartoons theirselves: Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
I didn't grow up with this movie as a child. I think I saw it around the time I was in middle school. I was channel surfing and came across this being shown on Cartoon Network. I remember commercials advertising going to be on, but I thought it was just some Looney Tunes movie (since it only showed the Looney Tunes characters). When I saw it, it was at the Toon Town scene. I was instantly glued to the tube with every shot. All those different cartoon characters together, Toon Town looked exactly like it did at the Magic Kingdom, Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse skydiving together?! That's House of Mouse levels of awesome escalated to the next level! There were also a lot of questions asked. Why does Tweety look so depressed? Who's the busty lady in red? I think I've seen her before. That guy running down the alley, is that Hacker from Cyberchase? Wait a sec, that's the taxi cab from those 2 House of Mouse episodes! And once Roger drove out of the Toon Town entrance in Eddie's car seeing Benny busted up, I went "Roger?! Is that you?!" See, I vividly remember seeing Roger in Disneyland Fun and a few meet and greets at the Disney Parks. I didn't finish watching the movie from there, but I knew this was a movie I had to own. Sure enough, my family went to Blockbuster Video and we saw a special edition DVD was on sale and we bought a copy. The movie takes place in 1940s Hollywood. Private eye Eddie Valiant is called to investigate a murder case that's believed to be done by cartoon star Roger Rabbit. Roger claims his innocence to Eddie and despite Eddie having a massive prejudice against toons, he's willing to take the case and solve the mystery that's actually a lot bigger than anyone in LA expected. It's based off the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit by Gary K. Wolf and by "based" I mean... not really a proper adaptation. I've seen videos comparing the book and movie's differences and... it really is a shocker how different they are, but this is talking strictly about the movie so moving on. This was with Robert Zemeckis in his directing prime, just hot off directing the first Back to the Future. The story's really interesting. The mystery does build and build on itself revealing such a peculiar conspiracy (the good kind of peculiar), the comedy is a surefire hit, there's so many quotable lines from a wonderfully written script, there's wonderful atmosphere, action sequences that range from car chases to one-on-one action, it's not just about the comedy because there are a huge amount of pure tearjerkers, the allegories presented with toon prejudices has intriguing deep meaning and the fantasy elements of how humans and cartoons co-exist is exacty what we all thought Hollywood was like as a child. I think this was also the movie I've seen that had full-on swearing throughout. I'm sure there were a couple movies with only 1 or 2 swears in 'em, but never full out PG-13 as presented in Roger... but that went right over my head (as did the more adult content/jokes). The production is just flawless. All the different sets and locations totally feel like you're in the timeless era of Hollywood's Golden Age. The Maroon Cartoons studio, the Acme Factory, Eddie's office, the Terminal Bar, the Ink & Paint Club, all of them massive in scope and decorated to the brim of great touches. The special effects? Good God, I still get blown away with how impressive they are, they still hold up, deserves each special effects Oscar win they got (as well as the other 3 Oscar wins) and you can see where a lot of current movies got their special effects influences. The animation with Richard Williams at the helm is fantastic. The blending of the painted cell work must've been so complicated, but it was worth it. It's also a lot smoother than most animation in movies, most likely because of Richard Williams' approach for doing 24 frames a second instead of 12. There's also the shadowing and highlight effects which also make these cartoons look MORE like they're actually there. Top that off with over 82000 cells being used and not a single computer worked. All the little puppetry, rigging and robotic tricks do the same job for any props the toons happen to hold and that also must've been hard to work with the blending. There's the weasels carrying guns, Roger drinking shots or smashing plates, holding real props, even an entire wire frame car driven by a BLIND MAN for the chase scenes with Benny! Groundbreaking is the word of the day indeed. The characters are all lovable. Eddie Valiant has a sharp eye for detective work, an often quick temper, a tragic backstory of his partner in crime brother being killed by a toon; he goes through a perfect hero's journey narrative. Roger's a goofy energetic well-mannered basket case who only does what he does just for the purpose for a laugh, Jessica is a giant pile of steaming sexiness who keeps you guessing with where she stands (but she's just drawn that way), Judge Doom is an utterly horrifying antagonist with a role unlike any of Christopher Lloyd's other roles and one of the most nightmarish pieces of Disney cinema ever (you all know it), Dolores is Eddie's girlfriend who has brief romance scenes with Eddie (but nothing too distracting or derailing), Baby Herman's a gruff baby with a 50 year-old lust and a three year ol' dinky, Benny's a great embodiment of classic Brooklyn cab drivers, the Weasels are Doom's lackies with one-trait personalities but they work so well with that and their contagious laughing fits, RK Maroon and Marvin Acme have questionable business standards with opposing personalities but still show they have appreciation for toons and that's about it for the main characters. Each of the live actors do such a wonderful job interacting with nothing yet they totally believe they're really in the same scene with them. The only other characters to talk about is also one of the best factors this movie has going: a gigantic cavalcade of the best-known cartoon faces ever to be inked filling up the background (which I also would've included in this picture, but sadly, there wasn't enough space so I apologize in advance for that). I've stated this before but cartoon crossovers is just something animation-aholics just eat up. That's one of the reasons I adore House of Mouse so much and Roger Rabbit took that concept to the next level. There's characters from Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Fletcher Brothers and so many more, all sharing equal amount of screentime and the way they work off each other is exactly what we knew it'd be. Sure, there's the inaccuracy like characters that were made AFTER 1947 appear here and some of the characters' designs change, but seeing them all in this massive crossover that'll most likely never happen again is still a treat still so hard to take in. And there's also so much great vocal work, from Charles Fleischer, an uncredited Kathleen Turner, Lou Hirsch, David Lander, Fred Newman, June Foray, Joe Alaskey, Wayne Allwine, Tony Anselmo and Clarence Nash doing the same duck, Tony Pope, Mae Questel returning to play Betty Boop, Russi Taylor, Pat Buttram, Jim Cummings, Nancy Cartwright, Cherry David, Frank Welker, Richard Williams actually lending his voice and the man of a thousand voices himself, Mel Blanc in one of his last performances. The music is also beautiful. Like the scenic design, it totally captures the feel of early 40s Hollywood. It's got an emotional weight, I particularly love the horn work, lots of score pieces are downright heartbreaking (you know the pieces), it's whimsical, there's pieces that embody the steryotypical cartoon music and it's not a full out musical but there's a few songs sung here and there ("Why Don't You Do Right", "Merry-Go-Round Broken Down", "Smile Darn You Smile"). Overall, this is just a fantastic movie; the perfect love-letter to every single person who loves animation of all kinds.

DAY 303

Comment & enjoy!

Description
DAY 301

Today is National Animation Day, the day for acknowledgement of one of the most diverse film mediums. Here's to the pencil pushers; may you all avoid getting lead poisoning. With that, there's so many different Disney projects to choose from that perfectly display cartooning pushed to its full potential, but ultimately, there is only one film that not only has astounding animation but celebrates the art of cartooning from... the cartoons theirselves: Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
I didn't grow up with this movie as a child. I think I saw it around the time I was in middle school. I was channel surfing and came across this being shown on Cartoon Network. I remember commercials advertising going to be on, but I thought it was just some Looney Tunes movie (since it only showed the Looney Tunes characters). When I saw it, it was at the Toon Town scene. I was instantly glued to the tube with every shot. All those different cartoon characters together, Toon Town looked exactly like it did at the Magic Kingdom, Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse skydiving together?! That's House of Mouse levels of awesome escalated to the next level! There were also a lot of questions asked. Why does Tweety look so depressed? Who's the busty lady in red? I think I've seen her before. That guy running down the alley, is that Hacker from Cyberchase? Wait a sec, that's the taxi cab from those 2 House of Mouse episodes! And once Roger drove out of the Toon Town entrance in Eddie's car seeing Benny busted up, I went "Roger?! Is that you?!" See, I vividly remember seeing Roger in Disneyland Fun and a few meet and greets at the Disney Parks. I didn't finish watching the movie from there, but I knew this was a movie I had to own. Sure enough, my family went to Blockbuster Video and we saw a special edition DVD was on sale and we bought a copy. The movie takes place in 1940s Hollywood. Private eye Eddie Valiant is called to investigate a murder case that's believed to be done by cartoon star Roger Rabbit. Roger claims his innocence to Eddie and despite Eddie having a massive prejudice against toons, he's willing to take the case and solve the mystery that's actually a lot bigger than anyone in LA expected. It's based off the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit by Gary K. Wolf and by "based" I mean... not really a proper adaptation. I've seen videos comparing the book and movie's differences and... it really is a shocker how different they are, but this is talking strictly about the movie so moving on. This was with Robert Zemeckis in his directing prime, just hot off directing the first Back to the Future. The story's really interesting. The mystery does build and build on itself revealing such a peculiar conspiracy (the good kind of peculiar), the comedy is a surefire hit, there's so many quotable lines from a wonderfully written script, there's wonderful atmosphere, action sequences that range from car chases to one-on-one action, it's not just about the comedy because there are a huge amount of pure tearjerkers, the allegories presented with toon prejudices has intriguing deep meaning and the fantasy elements of how humans and cartoons co-exist is exacty what we all thought Hollywood was like as a child. I think this was also the movie I've seen that had full-on swearing throughout. I'm sure there were a couple movies with only 1 or 2 swears in 'em, but never full out PG-13 as presented in Roger... but that went right over my head (as did the more adult content/jokes). The production is just flawless. All the different sets and locations totally feel like you're in the timeless era of Hollywood's Golden Age. The Maroon Cartoons studio, the Acme Factory, Eddie's office, the Terminal Bar, the Ink & Paint Club, all of them massive in scope and decorated to the brim of great touches. The special effects? Good God, I still get blown away with how impressive they are, they still hold up, deserves each special effects Oscar win they got (as well as the other 3 Oscar wins) and you can see where a lot of current movies got their special effects influences. The animation with Richard Williams at the helm is fantastic. The blending of the painted cell work must've been so complicated, but it was worth it. It's also a lot smoother than most animation in movies, most likely because of Richard Williams' approach for doing 24 frames a second instead of 12. There's also the shadowing and highlight effects which also make these cartoons look MORE like they're actually there. Top that off with over 82000 cells being used and not a single computer worked. All the little puppetry, rigging and robotic tricks do the same job for any props the toons happen to hold and that also must've been hard to work with the blending. There's the weasels carrying guns, Roger drinking shots or smashing plates, holding real props, even an entire wire frame car driven by a BLIND MAN for the chase scenes with Benny! Groundbreaking is the word of the day indeed. The characters are all lovable. Eddie Valiant has a sharp eye for detective work, an often quick temper, a tragic backstory of his partner in crime brother being killed by a toon; he goes through a perfect hero's journey narrative. Roger's a goofy energetic well-mannered basket case who only does what he does just for the purpose for a laugh, Jessica is a giant pile of steaming sexiness who keeps you guessing with where she stands (but she's just drawn that way), Judge Doom is an utterly horrifying antagonist with a role unlike any of Christopher Lloyd's other roles and one of the most nightmarish pieces of Disney cinema ever (you all know it), Dolores is Eddie's girlfriend who has brief romance scenes with Eddie (but nothing too distracting or derailing), Baby Herman's a gruff baby with a 50 year-old lust and a three year ol' dinky, Benny's a great embodiment of classic Brooklyn cab drivers, the Weasels are Doom's lackies with one-trait personalities but they work so well with that and their contagious laughing fits, RK Maroon and Marvin Acme have questionable business standards with opposing personalities but still show they have appreciation for toons and that's about it for the main characters. Each of the live actors do such a wonderful job interacting with nothing yet they totally believe they're really in the same scene with them. The only other characters to talk about is also one of the best factors this movie has going: a gigantic cavalcade of the best-known cartoon faces ever to be inked filling up the background (which I also would've included in this picture, but sadly, there wasn't enough space so I apologize in advance for that). I've stated this before but cartoon crossovers is just something animation-aholics just eat up. That's one of the reasons I adore House of Mouse so much and Roger Rabbit took that concept to the next level. There's characters from Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Fletcher Brothers and so many more, all sharing equal amount of screentime and the way they work off each other is exactly what we knew it'd be. Sure, there's the inaccuracy like characters that were made AFTER 1947 appear here and some of the characters' designs change, but seeing them all in this massive crossover that'll most likely never happen again is still a treat still so hard to take in. And there's also so much great vocal work, from Charles Fleischer, an uncredited Kathleen Turner, Lou Hirsch, David Lander, Fred Newman, June Foray, Joe Alaskey, Wayne Allwine, Tony Anselmo and Clarence Nash doing the same duck, Tony Pope, Mae Questel returning to play Betty Boop, Russi Taylor, Pat Buttram, Jim Cummings, Nancy Cartwright, Cherry David, Frank Welker, Richard Williams actually lending his voice and the man of a thousand voices himself, Mel Blanc in one of his last performances. The music is also beautiful. Like the scenic design, it totally captures the feel of early 40s Hollywood. It's got an emotional weight, I particularly love the horn work, lots of score pieces are downright heartbreaking (you know the pieces), it's whimsical, there's pieces that embody the steryotypical cartoon music and it's not a full out musical but there's a few songs sung here and there ("Why Don't You Do Right", "Merry-Go-Round Broken Down", "Smile Darn You Smile"). Overall, this is just a fantastic movie; the perfect love-letter to every single person who loves animation of all kinds.

DAY 303

Comment & enjoy!