What A Cartoon! - Roger Rabbit Shorts/Cancelled Sequels

After listening to this, I did watch the new Chip and Dale movie, and I’m DYING to hear what you guys thought.

Despite loving the movie, I had no idea any of these Roger Rabbit shorts existed until I was an adult with Internet access. Disney really did a good job burying them! However, speaking of theatrical shorts buried by Disney, I DID see the Mickey Mouse cartoon Runaway Brain in theatres when it was attached to A Kid In King Arthur's Court, a movie that everyone remembers.

Christmas Ape

As they say on We Hate Movies: still haven't, still happy

Bob Mackey

Heh heh…”rabbit hole”.

Did you eventually see Thumbelina?

Dylan

Hee hee, bosom. https://youtu.be/heHpX8SSvaw

16_oz_mouse

Really appreciated the extent of this deep dive. While I was aware of the Roger Rabbit shorts and remembered some controversies about future use of the character from when I read DisneyWar, I never really appreciated just how deep of a rabbit hole this was and was kind of surprised when you alluded to that in the "main" episode.

SomeBloke

Here's my Roger Rabbit sequel pitch: It's the late 70's and Roger's career has taken a turn. Him and Jessica are starring in low-grade Bakshi like fantasy films like Wizard, Fire & Ice, Heavy Metal, etc. he's trying to get out of that world and back into the limelight.

Alex Atchley

I think the fact that other movies like Space Jam, Cool World, Rocky & Bullwinkle, etc. tried to imitate the LOOK of Roger Rabbit—but otherwise didn’t have much else going for them—proves just how much of a special, lightning-in-a-bottle type of movie Roger Rabbit really was. I’m grateful no sequels were ever made…it preserves the integrity of the original film.

I admire the faster timing of these than the movie on ones (for good reason). I discovered these shorts a few years ago and was happy to see more Roger. The Tex Avery influence is better achieved in these shorts and it's a real shame more weren't made. Disney has never been funnier but the Paul Ruddish Mickey stuff comes close. Imagine if Bonkers was canceled and Roger shorts were expanded past him saving Herman.

Mr. Animation Enthusiast

it's funny, i was born in 2001 and grew up watching roger rabbit all the time. i loved it and it's still one of my favorite movies. i was surprised to learn when i was older that it wasn't a childhood staple for other kids like it was for me.

Max Graves

I wanted to use this opportunity to give a shoutout to the underrated talent you briefly spotlighted: Mark Kausler. Kausler did so much great work that doesn't get talked about to the extent of his peers but is just as equally wonderful. Kausler did a lot of storyboarding work for the Roger Rabbit movie. He was also one of the animators at Dale Baer's Glendale unit for the 10 minutes of footage they took from Richard Williams. A couple scenes he animated were the Tweety scene, the Droopy elevator scene, and the shot of Benny the Cab driving the real car. Kausler and Joe Ranft reboarded the Daffy/Donald piano duel from Chuck Jones's original storyboards. So on top of Dave Spafford, you can thank Mark Kausler for being one of the many artists who plussed up that iconic sequence. Kausler himself recounts the Roger Rabbit shorts faced numerous production hurdles. Such as the original director on Rollercoaster Rabbit getting fired for "nefarious activities". When Rob Minkoff took over directing duties, six months' worth of work on the short had to be tossed out and started from scratch. Because of this, it ended up being an expensive short costing around $8 million. But apparently one of the biggest things that upset the shorts staff was they were never allowed to do anything except the "baby in peril" storyline. Kausler mentioned they had tried numerous ideas to branch out the shorts such as the Hare in My Soup waiter concept. But the only shorts Spielberg or Disney would approve of were the same "Save Baby Herman" cartoons. But he did enjoy his experience overall on the shorts. Especially getting to work with his friend Pat Ventura. The Jessica Rabbit animation Kausler did from Trail Mix-Up was a favorite. Originally the scene was assigned to Mark Henn but Kausler was able to take it from Henn. Kausler was (as you could imagine) very happy to animate on Jessica Rabbit. Which he could never do when he worked on the movie. Mark Henn was not subtle about his frustration over Kausler. (Source: https://animationguild.org/oral_history/mark-kausler/). But I just wanted to give praise to not only one of the most versatile artists of the animation industry in the 1980s-2000s, but to an important animation historian as well. He did animate the "ocean waves" Stimpy butt dance from Stimpy's Invention. So he has to be worth his salt for that at least.

tiny crow

Roger Rabbit is a fascinating character because there's a lot of "What could have been," around him despite the fact that he starred in a massively popular film that's also beloved critically. While I would have liked to see where the film franchise could have gone, I don't think it's a huge loss because the original film is just as good as it is and ends in a satisfying manner. I think if the shorts were a bit better then maybe I'd lament the loss of a sequel more. The shorts are fine, but like many post golden era toons, it feels like those working on them felt as if screams were a huge driver of the comedy of classic cartoons when they really weren't relied upon as frequently as some 90s shorts seemed to imagine. Still, they look incredible though and I'm glad to have them. To my surprise, one area where Roger Rabbit still exists and actually had some money thrown at him is at Disney World and its Pop! Century Resort. It opened in 2003 and is a hotel themed based on the decades 1950-1990 and basically right in-between the 80s and 90s area is an almost 3 story tall statue of Roger Rabbit. I visited the resort last year and made it a point to get some pictures in front of that thing since there's so little Roger to be found elsewhere throughout the entire Disney World campus. I am the total opposite of Bob when it comes to roller coasters. That Incredicoaster is just the old California Screamin', if I am not mistaken. I love that ride and my wife and I went on it several times because it had almost no line when we were last at California Adventure 8 years ago. The Rock n' Roller Coaster at Disney World is like an indoor version with a bizarre Aerosmith theme - quite enjoyable! On the other hand, I hate Space Mountain. I never went on the Disneyland version because I don't like the Disney World one. I know the Disneyland version is newer so maybe it's better, but in Disney World the car is so uncomfortably small. I'm about 6' and lanky and my knees stick out to the sides when seated on it and it just beats me up. The Matterhorn I found similar, but not quite as unpleasant, but definitely not as comfortable as a newer roller coaster. I'm actually not a big roller coaster guy, but I've found if the ride is smooth I'm fine, when it's jerky it's not fun and, yeah, those little coasters like the Goofy one can sometimes be the worst.

Joe Hodgson

Sorry for the double post, but just wanted to say thanks for doing this episode. I finally started playing Yakuza Like a Dragon for the first time this whole weekend and I got so addicted I fucked up my sleeping last night. So barley got any sleep, woke up all miserable, but this helped lol.

ShyRanger