Party People,

This film is a classic in every sense of the word. As we are on the subject of films today, let's get down with this film.



When talking about Roger Rabbit, we're talking about the greatest collaboration between Disney and Warner Bros. For those of you who have seen this film when you were young, you may remember the classic scene where the detective, Eddie Valiant, winds up in toon town and somehow finds himself free falling from a building. Who does he meet there? Homeboys Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny.

But this is no regular cameo appearance. In terms of story and plot, the cartoons and their partnerships play a significant role in the film. From a storyteller's standpoint (who do you think I am, anyway) every element you see has a purpose. It's solid storytelling, party people. The fictional RK Maroon film company actually contracts cartoon characters to star in their films.

The best line that illustrates this is when Maroon tells Eddie about Dumbo, "we got him on loan from Disney along with the rest of the cast from Fantasia. The best thing about it," he picks up a handful of nuts, "they work for peanuts." Then, he tosses them out the window at my man Dumbo. Dumbo goes crazy.



What's wild about this film is that it has a strong story. Similar to the film noir story, you have a sullied protagonist, a washed out private detective without much of a conscious, hired to take blackmail pictures of Roger Rabbit's wife together with Marvin Acme. The idea is to blackmail Acme, the owner of toontown, to give up the property and the toons. What ensues is murder and mystery and sexual innuendo and trash talking, cigar smoking, gun toting character action which happens to be carried out mostly by toons. Despite the color and cell characters, it's a mature story line. Party people, if you're looking for drama and a captivating story, look no further.



What made this movie monumental outside the partnership with Disney and Warner Bros. are its marketing campaign and its innovation in special effects.

For marketing, the film released a series of Roger Rabbit shorts to play before such films released at the time as Dick Tracy. With Warner Bros. and Disney behind the animation, it set a hype like no other. Of note, the shorts 'Tummy Trouble' and 'Roller Coaster Rabbit'.





By the time the actual film was released, the audience had a frame of what to expect. The film did not disappoint. What's more is that the film gave the audience a chance to see the cartoon actors when they weren't 'working'. Baby Herman, the cigar smoking, deep voiced, ass slapping baby says, "the problem is I've got a 50 year old lust with a one year old dinkie." Once again, a mature story line.



In terms of special effects for cartoon/live action hybrids, before this film the actors would act with markers, such as a stick, to show where the cartoon characters should be. Then, the artists would draw the characters in on the actual film making sure to cover up the stick marker. The film was then filmed again to create the final. This made the appearance grainy and super ugly.

Party people, Roger Rabbit was made before computer technology was reliable enough to imprint cartoons on live action film.

For Roger Rabbit, Bob Hoskins, the actor playing Eddie Valiant, acted with no marker showing where the character would be. The artists then merged the cartoon action with the film to give it a more polished look than it would have been with the artists drawing over the markers. Part of the trademark Disney innovation and part great acting. Hoskins' ability to focus essentially on air gave the illusion that he was actually looking at the cartoon that was later drawn in.



Party People, this is Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The ride you ride when you go to Disneyland's Toon Town. Toon Town, after the place in the movie. It set the standard for all cartoon/live action films that came after it and since then none has come close to the innovation, story and legend status of this film.

Let's end with another line.

"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."
--Jessica Rabbit



Peace, Party People. Be safe!

Watch: Maltese Falcon; Detour; The Set Up; DOA; Touch of Evil; Double Indemnity

Read: A Panorama of American Film Noir by Borde and Chaumeton

Party people and you film buffs,

Why, you ask, will we discuss this. It's so old and hokey. Old is hokey. Talk about politics and ipods and cutting edge technology.

I respond with a quick slap to the face.

This is one of the greatest eras in American Film. It began in 1941 with an epic movie and an epic leading actor: The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart. It came at a time when the United States was starving and weak from the Great Depression. Teeth bared and sharp and gritting hard from pain. The party of the 1920's was over and the hangover was here, hard, those who had become drunk from the excess now hated the world with a headache as big as Europe.



Color film had just been introduced and musicals capitalized on the goodness of it all to try to keep people in love with the saccharine. At the same time, many film directors and cinematographers from Europe were fleeing to the United States, the only nation not involved in World War II at the time. Therein began a harsh reaction that sent movies reeling away from the imagined prosperity and glee. Things weren't about smiles and happy feet anymore. People were poor. Damnit. People were hungry. Imagine you need to feed your family and you see store owners pouring good milk into the sewers, tossing produce into the trash, because they'd rather get rid of their stock and lose the money than give it away.

Films like the Maltese Falcon began to slap these musical films silly, essentially saying, "wake up. Why the hell are you dancing? You look like a fool with those tapping shoes."

Then, the morose of it all shifted films into the extreme and birthed Film Noir. With the Maltese Falcon, one saw a story line where the happy ending dissolved into an ending where no one came out clean. The good guys got beat. The bad guys wound up losing what they were after. Even in terms of character, the 'good guy' didn't even exist. The protagonist you followed on screen was often a crooked and lusty private investigator or a man who's trying to get away from his life and cheat on his girl every chance he got.

Take a look at Bogart's face. This is you're protagonist now.



The effect of these films and this kind of character acting was so profound that people on the street seriously thought that Bogart was a real tough guy like the characters he played on screen. Lucky for him, he was a real tough guy and he kicked serious ass. But I digress.

One can even attribute Film Noir to the advancement of the female character, which would soon be complimented by the 'Rosie the Riveter' campaign that promoted female independence and the image of the working woman, while the men were either enlisted or got drafted to fight in Europe and the Pacific soon after Pearl Harbor.

In Film Noir specifically, the damsel in distress and the innocent, fervently valued woman archetypes were replaced by the sly and foxy and ultimately corrupted. The woman who had her own plans and a gun to get her way. Unlike the singing dancing and melodramatic, this woman lied, had sexual hunger, was selfish and vicious just like the men. To the extreme, she was like this all the damned time.



Needless to say, all the leading ladies today can attribute the depth and complexity of their roles to this movement in film and storytelling. The men too, who the hell would want to keep singing and dancing and forgetting that across the middle part of America dust storms killed vast acres of crops and destroyed the farming economy? People were hungry. Damnit.

Film Noir also incorporated the best in film effects and in the best way--being poor. The bulk of films in this genre were produced by B-rated companies and therefore budgets were low. No color for these films. No expensive backdrops and special effects. They did it the hard way. The hard core way, through the use of dynamic camera angles and use of lighting. The most notable of techniques was Chiaroscuro--the use of shadows to create dynamic effects so to result in visual tension. Thank Film Noir for the image of the menacing shadow crawling up the wall. It began with shadowy figures of men and women running around in their dark dark world with so many secrets and guns that have fired too many bullets.