Touchstone Pictures was formed in 1984
as a separate brand of The Walt Disney Company
to produce films containing
mature elements.
Amblin Entertainment
is a production company headed by
Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall,
and Kathleen Kennedy.
SilverScreen Partners III was the last
of three limited partnerships offered
to the public to help finance productions.
Investors received a portion of a film's gross.
Artists studied titles of
various cartoons of the 1940s.
They decided on a look most reminiscent
of Warner Bros. cartoons.
Notice how the wood floor
is also animated to move as
the camera changes perspective.
Animated backgrounds
were unusual due to expense.
Mrs. Herman
was voiced by April Winchell.
Who was April Winchell's father,
who voiced a famous Disney character?
Paul Winchell voiced Tigger,
in addition to other characters.
He also hosted a children's TV show
and even invented an early version
of the artificial heart.
Animation pioneerTex Avery was
probably the single biggest influence
on the animation comedy style
of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
The next shot of Roger is known as a "take;"
a character's sudden reaction.
In an Avery-style take, eyes pop out,
jaws drop to the floor, bodies become
stiff as boards, to visually show
in extreme how a character feels.
Avery exaggerated action gags,
through speed and body changes,
as never before.
This influenced everybody's animation.
Born in Taylor, Texas, Tex Avery
was a leading Animation Director
at Warner Bros. from 1936 to 1942.
Then at M-G-M, he did his most
distinctive work from 1942 through 1954.
Later, Avery created TV commercials.
His best known ad shows an insect world's
view of a leading bug spray.
Avery developed a following
of young admirers who rediscovered
his work after his death in 1980, at age 72.
This is classic "cause-and-effect"
comedy structure.
Something happens that causes another event,
which causes a wilder event,
and gags keep building layer upon layer.
Silent-film comedians like
Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton pioneered
comedy stories as a "chain-of-events."
The early Disney animation staff
studied Chaplin's movies.
Director Robert Zemeckis stated,
"Moving out of the cartoon into reality
was the crucial scene in the movie.
That shot had to work or everything would
be over three minutes after it began."
"The last three shots are
subtly rendered so they are not flat
cartoon animation but watercolours.
We built a three-dimensional set and painted
it flat, with even the shadows painted on.
All of a sudden the director walks in."
Baby Herman was animated
here by Richard Williams,
the film's director of animation.
Director Zemeckis first got excited
about this project-in-development in 1982.
He felt this opening transitional scene,
"was the ultimate concept shot," meaning
it was a great sounding premise for a movie.
Zemeckis feels that a key opening shot
in his movies sets the tone for what follows.
Raoul J. Raoul, the live action
director of"Somethin's Cookin"
is played by Joel Silver
better known for his role as producer
of big budget action films such as
Die Hard and the Lethal Weapon series.
Born in England,
a 25-year-old Bob Hoskins
(Eddie Valiant) was sitting
in a pub next to a theatre
when a stranger told him to go upstairs
and read for the lead in a play.
He actually got the part.
After his first performance,
an agent advised him to take up
acting professionally.
Previously, he had been a porter,
circus fire eater, steeplejack, and seaman.
Eddie glances down at a small
Mickey Mouse figurine on the table.
The editor hunched over the moviola
is Morgan Deare, who also voices
Bongo, the ape bouncer
of the Ink and Paint Club.
The dialogue is a parody of lyrics
from an Irving Berlin song, "There's
No Business Like Show Business,"
written for Annie Get Your Gun.
The filmmakers thought Bob Hoskins
fit the 1940s style of detective better than