Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Week Three: Who Framed Roger Rabbit
A challenging mix of live action and animation. I think no one has done this as well, before, or, since. What do you think? What's your favorite line from this film? How hard or easy was this to do technologically? Why did the film noir/hard boiled detective story make such an interesting combo film like this work so well? Or does it?
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7 comments:
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is one of the best animation/live action film of all time, that is hardly debatable. As far as actual 2D cell animation goes. The argument could be made that most films are now a mixture of live action/animation films now all done with CG. Ghostbusters meshed live action with mattes of animated puppets instead of animated cartoons and this blend was impressively seamless for it's time as well. What is makes Roger Rabbit so great is all the technologies in the film were to better tell and advance the story. The screenplay is quite phenomenal and the direction and mis en scene in the film is truly worth discussing at length.
In every shot of Roger Rabbit there is a wide range of background elements that further the story or give hints or clues or reveal the character. Everything is setup in Roger Rabbit, but is done so in such a way that it does not interfere with the smooth story line. We learn who Eddie Valiant is through a pan of his brother's desk. We see a younger Eddie goofing around at the beach, wearing clown noses in his police photo with his brother and we see that they grew up on the road with their father in the circus. We see Eddie used to be a fun loving guy with his brother who loved and helped toons. Of course ever since his brother was killed by a toon he now hates them. This sounds trite and simple, but every action and situation in the film reinforces this and makes it more deep then the one liner of a description of the plot might make it seem. The mis en scene also helps emphasize themes not discussed in the main story line.
The importance of cartoons and humor isn't really discussed in the film. Roger says a few lines about it, but it is not until we see Roger performing in the bar that we see the real effects or importance of them. In the bar is a collection of people down on their luck. Their is an African American veteran missing an arm, a little person, a bald dirty guy who wears a toupee, a guy with a cane, and a man who has recently been laid off. When Roger is there, he is performing and everyone is laughing and having a good time. You don't really notice the hardships these men might have when they are laughing at Roger. It is not until Doom comes in and Roger has to hide again that we see them. Doom takes the little person and pushes him down further to the ground to show Roger's height, he takes the sleeve of the veteran to wipe off the chalk board emphasizing the loss of his arm, and he offers money to the poor men who obviously need it. All these subtle actions and scenes emphasize the importance of humor and cartoons, especially in hard times. Even through wars and depressions, the entertainment industry always flourishes. Countless essays are written about the need for temporary escape, but those essays spend thousands of words to say the same thing Roger Rabbit shows in a few minutes with subtle character choices and mis en scene.
The reason why Roger Rabbit is a classic film and revered masterpiece is because everything n the film works for the film and the story. The scenery, the plot, even the jokes and puns, and most importantly, the special effects. That's what separates Roger Rabbit from being a good special effect film, one that can be forgotten as technologies change, and makes it a film with a place among one of the greatest films ever made.
Good observations. Excellent point, so many films try to carry themselves based on effects and new technologies that, of course, grow stale and dated over time, but a strong STORY lives forever! Also, many films are stagnant visually whereas, this film leaves much to discover and uncover visually and all of it appears to move the story forward. Nothing extraneous here.
j
Who framed roger rabbit is an icon in animated movies. There have been a lot of movies that try to bring together the cartoon characters as well as real actors and in most of those movies they do a really good job. This film contributes to the world of animation as a pioneer in animation/real actor interaction.
Roger Rabbit is different in the sense that the cartoon world they depict in that film gather together all the famed characters (real and animated) from d ifferent studios and perform with real actors. The way the story develops as an old detective movie and the dark humor that is scattered present in almost every single scene of the movie.
Thought the cartoons imply a kids movie, the script and topics depict an adult based context; babies smoking cigaretts and flirting with women, gangsters, violence, and guns. What I llike most about the movie is the technical quality of how they achieve the illusion compositing the animated features on the real footage, all in single frames; requiring it to be drawn on top film for the cartoons. Maybe its beauty lays in the lack of CGI that doesnt impact at all the quality of the final product but it gives a different character to the film.
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” goes down as one of the greatest live action/animation movie not only for its compositing and bridging the gap for all audiences to enjoy but basically everything else including the kitchen sink. Ok, well minus any 3D CG elements. What makes this film far more enjoyable than most Live action + CG/animated films is that the director and the cast know full well how to interact with their imaginary actors that will later be composited along with them. In that sense the film can be technically compared to the “Mary Poppins” of its time but with all the popular toon characters of the past and more instead. To go even further and trespass into stop motion animation compositing it can be the “Clash of the Titans” of its time but with evil gangster weasels instead of gigantic scorpions. This reviewer believes that almost every critic and intellectual out on the planet that has seen this will rave about the storytelling and almost everything else about it to the point where it’s the Holy Grail or something short of it. In short, all of that is very true, especially the time period in which it is set and what the movie did for the future of animation.
Why set the story in the 40’s rather than the 80’s. Well for one thing, this particular setting is still at a point where cartoons were still shown in movie theaters and the local TV tube wasn’t in every home. In a way it makes the toons gain a level of importance equivalent to that of movie stars of today and past.
To put the setting past the 40’s would introduce a very big culture shock as to the way toons would exist to some degree in the film as a whole. There would be a lot of toons that would be either retired or seen out of work due to the magic of reruns. Production wise, going beyond the 40’s could bring a whole set of new difficulties in terms of execution of the technical and story aspects of the film that probably at the time of production would be financially more expensive to pull off as the inclusion of more toons would be needed to show a span of toons from today all the way back to the 20’s. Not to mention, production running the chance of limiting the general audience to a certain generation or interest group rather than a general audience across the board. Going through with those risks led to the film “Cool World” which technically is well done at the time but the feel of the movie is far more gritty and dangerous than most audiences would like to see. Thus leading to lesser-known recognition than most animated masterpiece films today.
The main reason why the setting is based in the 40’s is that basically it’s the heyday of a lot of famous cartoon characters that even most people in the 40’s would recognize such as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny. One interesting note to mention about the time period is that you also get a glimpse as to what happens to supposedly out of work cartoon characters who have past their prime. This is told briefly through a conversation between Eddie and Betty Boop, where Betty comments about how a lot of people would come to see her shows before the advent of color was put into the picture. This type of realization is kept to a minimal in order to focus on toons exhibiting a more happy appealing comedic feeling that keeps us, the viewing audience, from being depressed and worn out from the troubles of the world. That being said, though the tone of the plot of the murder of Marvin Acme is serious, the overall tone of the movie is that of seeing toons for what they are and how we remember them back when they were originally produced in that time period: being darn goofballs that keep us smiling and/or laughing. This holds true and can be seen where Roger just goes into his usual entertaining toon mode as he entertains the guys at the bar prior to the weasels appearance. This ironically leads to the guys, who in actuality needed a good laugh, not to rat out Roger as he hides from the weasels.
One other reason that the setting is in the 40’s is the simplicity of pulling off a private detective aspect into the story. If the setting was set beyond the 40’s, there would be a lot of more red tape that may need to be exhibited in the movie that would be unnecessary needed in the story wise. This aspect also seems to be very popular back in the 40’s especially old films that echo detective movies made at the time. The setting of the 40’s just makes things much more simpler and peaceful so that everything else in the story gets more detailed attention to. It makes how the characters react to the “freeway” plan as something that can be only thought of by a toon more genuine.
Setting aside, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” is considered a masterpiece to a lot of animators. Not only does it break new ground in the 2D technology field but also it opened the floodgates to research into the history of animation. This led to renewed interest in past animators such as Tex Avery and Chuck Jones in more of a revered new light. The movie appeared at a time when animation was going through a bit of its own recession when animated movies didn’t get the hype it once had back during the golden days of animation and everyday cartoons were considered only to be popular and marketable in Saturday and weekday mornings amongst children not to the overall movie public. Disney and other major animation studios were even thinking about hanging up their major animation studios to rest prior to Roger. Creating the movie was quite a big risk at the time seeing that if it failed then future feature length animated movies would not be made at all except through independents film companies. Quite possibly through this high risk, it was actually possible to get all the famous cartoon characters from their respective studios and give them one glorious sendoff as quite possibly the only chance audiences that fondly remember them would actually see new material of their favorite characters mixing it up with one another. Since the movie was a complete success, we’ve actually seen quite a resurgence of energy into new technologies in mixing live and animation together via major studios, quality full feature animated films coming out on a yearly basis, and new appreciation of animation for young and old.
Aimed mainly at the general audience, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” accomplished that goal with more than satisfactory results. The setting it was in allowed a more believable and simpler time for the story to move at a good pace while focusing on the aspects of the characters and the general storyline. The success and commitment to this movie, allowed quite frankly renewed interest into the research of how to produce better technical and animation work while at the same time entertaining the general audience.
Yorch:
Why do you suppose that cartoons have become over time so totally associated with children. In the beginning they were meant for adults?
Z:
Excellent look at why the film was set in the '40's. Good evaluations of those points. Good to point out that this film allowed for a resurgence in interest in the classic animators of that time period.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is absolutely the most incredible film of all time blending live action film with traditional animation. I personally believe that it cannot get any better technically than Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Watching the movie as a child I overlooked the details of the animation and probably didn’t make sense of the storyline or any inside jokes. Recently, I have been able to study more movements of the live and animated characters to analyze their functionality. What made the movie fully functional was how well the actors in the film cohesively blended scenes with the animated characters which allowed them to come to life by amazing acting.
The storyline of the movie was very well developed because the toons and the humans live in this special place where there is a mixture of the two. So the story continues and there is some fooling around with Roger Rabbit’s wife Jessica Rabbit. The owner of the Acme Company has been playing patty cake with Jessica and Roger loses his mind. This is very funny how he reacts because everything in the real world is affected by what he does and how he reacts. This becomes a vital part to the rest of the movie. We try to figure out just how far these toons can defy the law of physics in the real world. The law of toon physics has become an intregal part of understanding how complex a funny animation can be. We take this concept and apply those effects to the real world and decide if the interaction is worth watching. Who Framed Roger Rabbit has capitalized on the effects of the toons and combined them to create a great, stunning special effect movie
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