More info on the DVD
I'm surprised. In spite of all the bad blood between these two companies, it sounds like they're really putting differences aside to make this a DVD worth buying. Here's an article on it:
"Charles Fleischer will recreate some of the voices he made famous in Who
Framed Roger Rabbit for the extra material and elaborate DVD menus being created for a two-disc special edition of the 1988 movie from Disney with
Amblin Entertainment. Work has only recently begun on the project, which is
set for release in the first half of next year, but sources say a DVD menu
design crew spent a day last month shooting at the same historic Ren-Mar
Studios in Hollywood where scenes of the fictional Maroon Studios from the
movie were shot. That production, which includes compositing, effects, 2D
and 3D animation and rotoscoping, is expected to be complete this month. As
with the movie itself, which had the largest cast of animated characters
ever assembled from all studios, getting clearances to produce new animation
of certain non-Disney characters, such as Betty Boop and even major studio
characters, presented a challenge. So the characters chosen to be animated
in the DVD supplemental material were those that will "create the least
resistance, licensing-wise," according to a source. The movie brought
together the unprecedented partnering of Steven Spielberg and Disney, and
now the DVD is bringing together Spielberg's longtime DVD producer Laurent
Bouzereau with Mark Herzog and Disney's longtime menu designer John Ross of
Gork Enterprises under Disney's executive producing team led by David
Jessen. B1 Media is producing the interactive games. Although not nailed
down yet, the three subsequent Roger Rabbit shorts, Tummy Trouble, Roller
Coaster Rabbit and Trail Mix-Up, which were introduced with other theatrical
releases and issued on a compilation video in 1996, are expected to be
included on the special edition DVD. (Thanks to Video Premiere Magazine)"
Interesting things to note:
--Charles Fleischer returning to do Roger and other characters (in the movie, he also voiced Benny the Cab and at least one of the Weasels -- the main one). In a recent theme-park attraction, Roger's voice was oddly enough done by someone else: Josh Harnell (sp??), a.k.a. Wakko of "The Animaniacs." Glad to know Charles is back to the job.
--They're not just doing new animation; they're actually shooting new footage at the studios! (Most likely they're for backgrounds for the 'toons to interact with, rather than new footage with Bob Hoskins et al.)
--OK, they're going with the "least resistance liscencing-wise." But the fact that they're doing new animation with any of the characters outside of the Disney stable is, to me, astonishing in a good way.
--I'd love it if all the shorts were on the 2-disc set. I'll second the vote for the CBS behind-the-scenes special (entitled "The Secrets of Toontown," I believe), as well as the Diet Coke and McDonald's commercials which featured animation and footage created specifically for those ads. I also want the short deleted scene where Eddie gets "tooned" that was added for part of a network showing once. That would be a cool extra feature!
So, Roger fans, rejoice. With all this attention and care being shown the original film, maybe the idea of a follow-up Roger movie isn't such a long shot after all.
It is too bad he wasn't in Kingdom Hearts, though! (That's the PS2 Disney game, right?)
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Eddie: "Wait a minute. Do you mean you could have taken your hand out of that cuff at any time?"
Roger: "No, not at any time. Only when it was funny!"
P-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-pleeee....