Prop Culture (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 7 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit - full transcript
Movie props,
like these handcuffs,
are pieces of physical evidence.
These bracelets, exhibit R,
come from one of the most
groundbreaking movies ever made,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Idiot. I got no keys for these cuffs.
Walla Walla, Cucamonga, Kokomo,
there's no place I won't go
to discover the rare artifacts
and uncover the secrets
from one of my favorite films of all time.
In a movie, every detail,
no matter how small,
is designed to tell you something.
I'm Dan Lanigan, and I've spent
my entire life collecting artifacts
from my favorite films.
Now, I'm setting out to learn more
about the props
from the Disney movies that I love...
This thing is so cool.
Because these historic artifacts
make you feel like you're a part
of the story.
Smile, darn ya, smile.
You know this old world
Is a great world after all...
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
takes place in 1947 Hollywood
in classic film noir style.
I hope you're proud of yourself.
Tinseltown is the backdrop
for a tale of, well...
A story of greed, sex, murder.
Please.
When your movie
is about a cartoon rabbit
framed for a human murder by a toon killer
disguised as a human judge,
things can get a little complicated.
This is how we handle things
down in Toontown.
Action.
Director Robert Zemeckis succeeded
in seamlessly blending...
the worlds of live action and animation
to achieve the impossible,
all while making us laugh.
Ooh!
Toons. Gets 'em every time.
My investigation begins
in Los Angeles,
where I'm bringing a small
but important prop
to a guy who knows first-hand
the challenges of blending
live action and animation,
Disney legend Andreas Deja...
supervising animator
on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- Go ahead. Come on in.
- Oh, my gosh.
Welcome to my home studio.
- This is amazing.
- I love being here, you know,
surrounded by all my artwork
and books and cels.
- All this inspiration, right?
- Yeah. Exactly.
- Wow. That's amazing.
- Come on in.
Andreas has a storied history
with Disney Animation Studios,
helping usher in a new era of critical
and commercial success.
Lately, he spends his time working
on his own animated passion project
at this desk. And it's no ordinary desk.
It just happens to be
the same one used by Disney legend,
animator Milt Kahl.
Milt Kahl was one of the most
renowned members
of Walt Disney's core group of animators
known as the Nine Old Men.
From an animator's standpoint,
it's like using Rembrandt's easel.
I actually brought something to show you.
I have been collecting props
for many years.
And this particular piece
was from the film.
It is a set of handcuffs...
Oh, my God. Handcuffs.
That would have been worn by, uh,
Eddie and Roger.
- Wow.
- Did you by chance
- work on that sequence?
- Yeah. I think Roger
and Bob Hoskins were handcuffed together
when he was hiding him.
So Hoskins was hooked up, then the other
part was kind of hovering around,
and it was my job to put Roger's hand
in there.
I had to make sure that Roger's arm
was always perfectly in there
for 24 frames per second.
There's a little bit of, uh, spring here,
so you can almost imagine that Roger,
his hand is in there, so it doesn't need
as much puppeteering.
Yeah.
There was all these contraptions.
I remember there was a tube
with some water coming out
so the rabbit was supposed to...
- spit water...
- Yep.
As he comes up out of the sink water,
so I had to hide that tube.
You didn't just have to hide it,
you had to hide it within character
and within performance.
Even the eye contact had to be perfect.
I remember doing one scene
where the rabbit has just jumped
onto this live action bed,
and Bob Hoskins's eyeline
was a little too high.
The rabbit would be here, but he looked
that way. So what did you have to do?
Put Roger on his toes, you know,
so you are on Bob Hoskins' eyeline.
He was not really difficult to draw.
- I can just show you quickly.
- Oh, yes.
His eyes are just these two beans,
basically.
Put these on here.
And then he's got these
repetitive wrinkles right there.
But, like, the eye unit takes up
the whole...
- The whole cranium. Yeah, yeah.
- Top of the cranium, you know.
Then you branch out for the cheeks
and all of that.
He's got this one, sort of,
crooked tooth right there.
And we flesh out the cheeks a little bit.
And the other one.
Put the tongue in there.
And he's got this clown-y...
orange, out of all colors, tuft of hair...
whoever came up with that.
And a couple of whiskers on each side.
So he's...
What, what I'm basically trying to say,
that he was easy to draw.
He's my favorite cartoon character.
Sorry, Mickey, but it's Roger.
And you know what?
I wanna give this drawing to you
so you have a little souvenir.
- No.
- Yeah, absolutely. Here, take it.
- This is yours.
- Andreas. Oh, my gosh.
This drawing represents the work
of many artists
over several years
to reach Roger's final form.
But to better understand his origins,
I need to look
at some preliminary sketches by people
who were there at the very beginning.
So I'm meeting with Disney animation
veterans Chris Buck and Mike Giaimo.
Recently, Chris directed
and Mike art-directed Frozen.
But back in the early '80s,
they were part of the team
that explored the new tooniverse
of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
I'd love to hear more about how you guys
were thinking about how the characters
were gonna look back then.
So, what I did is,
I riffed off of Mike's initial designs.
And it would be something like this,
you know. This is one of Mike's drawings,
where there's this wonderful attitude.
There's this brightness.
The shapes are fun.
And then I would just go
and turn it around a little bit more
and hone things in a little bit.
You were trying to figure out what
he would look like in three dimensions
- from a two-dimensional perspective.
- Yeah.
Where did the suspenders
and, uh, the shorts come from?
I think, in a way, we were riffing off,
if you remember,
the original book published.
There is an image of Roger
on the cover of the book.
A lot of it was based on '40s,
very early 1950s cartoon style.
Although it is a different design
that ultimately wound up in the film,
I mean, the trademarks were all there.
The bulbous nose, the big eyes,
the big feet.
It's just the proportions are slightly
different and the nose is smaller.
And that speaks
to the strength of that design...
- Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
- That a lot of that stayed.
So, how did other characters
develop? Like Jessica Rabbit?
How she started,
ultimately to where she ended up?
We really based Jessica off
of Lauren Bacall,
such a great film noir actress
in the early '40s.
And that's where I would say
Jessica's really divergent...
- Yeah. That's right.
- From our iteration to the final film.
- Right.
- When you think of Bacall,
like, her features are much more linear...
- Right. Yeah.
- And kind of horizontal in a way,
- a little sharper.
- Sharp. Yeah, yeah.
There's straights
against curves.
So I think you can see that
in this drawing.
And the test footage Chris did of Jessica,
I thought was great.
- You will take my case, won't you?
- Not a chance.
What do you mean, not a chance?
It was a really, really fun,
very challenging scene to do.
And I was acting it out in my room when,
I don't remember who walked in,
but one of my friends walked in.
But they... My back was to them
as I was acting it out.
And then, they finally said, you know...
then I kind
of turned around and went...
- Oh, boy!
- They went, "Nice." I went, "Yeah, okay."
I think I locked my door after that...
just to act things out.
This test footage is a glimpse
into what might have been.
In the end, there could be
only one Jessica Rabbit...
Kathleen Turner.
I've carefully packed a few pieces
of evidence...
And I'm off to New York City.
Let's see if I can jog
this Tinseltown star's memory
regarding our favorite
redheaded bombshell.
He said if I didn't pose
for those patty cake pictures,
Roger would never work in this town again.
- Ah, Jessica.
- You hear Jessica,
and as much as she's Jessica, she's you.
When you think
about adding the voice
to the drawn physicality,
you know, how does she breathe?
So how does her chest move?
And... how does she talk so that her lips
are drawn a certain way and...
Oh, it was such fun.
You know, they'd say, "Let's...
let's make her a little breathier."
All right. Why not?
Roger, darling,
I want you to know I love you.
I've loved you more than
any woman's ever loved a rabbit.
"I love you more than
any woman's ever loved a rabbit."
I think that's my favorite line.
I just had chills.
- I think that's my favorite line.
- Well, this maquette here,
is from the Disney Archives.
It was made as an example
of what Jessica would look like.
And then ultimately what is in the film
is even more different than this.
- Her legs are longer in the film.
- Yeah.
Her waist is narrower.
Absolutely. Well, some of that, now,
honestly, is my doing.
- Really?
- I suggested that her legs be longer
because, frankly,
I was rather known for that myself.
And the bustier business came
about in my memory because...
"I kept saying," Wouldn't it be funny,
you know, Bob,
"if we... we get some really big..."
"in there? We can bounce them."
And he liked the idea.
I'd do anything for my husband,
Mr. Valiant. Anything.
So, I have been searching left, right,
and center for pieces from this film.
And as much as that... the stuff
from the film was very rare,
stuff connected with your character
is even more so.
- Ah.
- Um, but I did track down
one of the newspapers
that would have been
in Eddie Valiant's office.
Oh, yeah. Right.
"Toon kills man."
"Murdered at the hands
of jealous rabbit. No will."
And he puts the glass over the will.
In the pocket, he's able to see... Oh!
Well, that's wonderful.
See, this is why Jessica fell
in love with Roger. Look at that photo.
- He was a stud of a rabbit.
- Yeah. He was a leading man.
Seriously, what do you see in that guy?
- He makes me laugh.
- Ah.
And this is some
of the patty cake photos.
Oh, how different
she looks there.
- Exactly.
- She looks like.
- Little Mermaid or something here.
- Yeah.
A little bit. This is the design
- that she was when they were shooting.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- And this is in the film.
Now, this...
- is a cel that I have of Jessica.
- Oh, yes.
"You don't know how hard it is.
"Looking the way I do."
And then he says...
You don't know how hard
it is being a man...
looking at a woman looking the way you do.
I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way.
She can't help it.
It's really not her fault.
She's so misunderstood.
I mean, that film to this day, holds up.
And I think it will be considered
a classic.
Oh, it's not... Yeah, I think
it is legitimately, in every...
sense of... of every medium,
a work of art.
And your voice is one of the best
- in... in the industry.
- Thank you.
A seductive toon is one thing,
but the filmmakers also succeeded
in creating a terrifying toon
in human clothing...
Judge Doom. For the film's villain,
Zemeckis went back to the future
and called actor Christopher Lloyd,
a guy who's made a career
out of playing characters who are...
well, let's call them eccentric.
I swung by the Walt Disney Archives
to pick up exhibit D,
Doom's infamous costume.
Now, I'm heading to Santa Barbara
to get Lloyd's eyewitness account
as to how this costume
helped shape his character.
No toon can resist
the old "Shave and a Haircut."
Shave and a haircut...
Two bits!
This is quite a surreal experience,
getting a shave and haircut
with Christopher Lloyd.
Shave and a haircut.
- Two bits!
- Bum bum!
- Did you grow up watching cartoons?
- Yes. I grew up...
with, I guess the first great
animated features...
- Right. Right.
- Disney features, Bambi and...
- Snow White, right?
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,
Pinocchio.
- Classics.
- Yeah.
But in each of those films, there was some
development where it was very scary.
And kids would go home,
including myself...
Mm-hmm.
Having nightmares about those moments.
They were so powerful.
A lot of people come up to me
and say that when they saw...
Who Framed Roger Rabbit,
it scared them, you know,
when I put that little shoe
into the dip...
Gee!
You really embodied
a despicable character...
- Yes.
- With... with strong motivations
that were a little insane.
Wait a minute.
Insane? Ugh.
How did he get in here?
Action, Chris.
I'm looking for a murderer.
Woah!
- Look at that. Look at that.
- That's a blast from your past.
Does it have your smell?
No comment.
Wow.
What does it feel like seeing
this costume so many years later?
Well, I kind of wish I was still
wearing it...
actually.
- Really?
- Yeah. Look at that.
I'd say the hat fits.
- Look at the work here.
- It's a very powerful cape, isn't it?
Yeah. And I remember
early on in the film,
Bob Zemeckis, he had a fan going.
It was the first hint that maybe
- I'm not what I seem to be.
- Oh!
And the fan would flicker
the cape.
- To make it feel more alive, huh?
- Yeah.
One scene that I have the glasses on,
and Bob Zemeckis wanted the light
to hit my glasses in a way that there was
like a white glare on the glasses...
- Right. Right.
- Where you did not see through them.
And I think there were more takes
for that because I had to have
my angle on my head just right.
And the cane. What about the cane
helped you with your performance?
Well, the cane,
you can sort of tap it.
- Right.
- And swish it around,
and it kind of gives you that feeling
of being...
sort of... debonair...
- Debonair, right.
- You know?
It's doing it to me
just thinking about it.
Yeah.
This is cool. Oh, my gosh. I saw him.
There he was. Judge Doom.
Oh, my gosh. You still got it.
- Some things you just can't... expunge.
- That's right.
Don't move.
From a billowing cape
to a secret sword,
each object gave Lloyd insight
into his character.
And even after all these years,
you can tell.
Christopher Lloyd and Judge Doom
are still never far apart.
Benny, is that you?
No. It's Eleanor Roosevelt.
Come on, Roger. Get me out of here.
Eddie, we got ourselves a ride.
Open the doors.
Working with toon co-stars
can present interesting challenges.
A perfect example of this
is Benny the Cab.
Ah! That's better.
The special effects team
had to create a functioning car
small enough to be hidden
beneath animation.
And I've located this elusive vehicle
in the dusty dessert town
of Agua Dulce, California.
I'm meeting with the owner,
Charlie Croughwell,
stunt coordinator
and self-proclaimed back seat driver.
- Charlie.
- Hey, Dan.
- This is an awesome place.
- It's a playground.
- Yeah. So you have Benny here?
- I have Benny here.
- I'd love to see him.
- Come on in.
Charlie's made over 150 films,
including over a dozen
as Michael J. Fox's stunt double.
- Wow. Is that it?
- That's it.
- Let me pull it out.
- Okay. Cool.
Wow.
- Benny the Cab.
- Yeah. That's him.
Awesome. Look at this guy.
- This is a 1986 ATX 300 Honda.
- Wow.
And I must say
that it's an animal to have lasted
- as long as it has.
- Wow. This is so cool.
There was an exact duplicate
of this seat
mounted here, and we had seatbelts on it.
Action, Bob.
We made it.
Charlie.
Just stick out your thumb.
Hey, share the road, will you, lady?
This was a gas tank. This was a fuel cell.
- So, the fuel cell is intended...
- It's right under his feet.
- Right, right in his crotch.
- I mean, it's... Oh, God!
Bob Hoskins would sit just like this,
and then he had a steering wheel
on a bungee cord. And I would have
to watch him from back there.
So if he did this...
- You had to make sure Benny did that too?
- I had to do that too. Yeah.
So, Bob Hoskins, he would lead
- the movements of the vehicle?
- Yeah. Yeah.
How did he react to being thrown around?
- In the beginning, you know, he's like...
- Yeah.
"You're gonna do this...
what with this? With me where?"
"You want me to sit on there?"
Well, the whole thing's disconcerting.
I'm... driving a car
that I'm not driving. I'm sort of acting
with a rabbit that's not here.
And so, the engine's Charlie.
You know what I mean? And he can't see.
You know, he got comfortable
with me after a while.
And it always takes time.
He's an awesome guy.
Action, Bob.
Were the fenders added
for a particular reason?
We added them later,
because I was getting soaked
- anytime we did a wet-down.
- Ooh.
- You changed it as needed for the film?
- We did.
- And that continued.
- Wow.
Aside from that,
I can take him for a drive.
- All right. Let's check it out.
- All right.
Wow. Awesome.
- That was fun.
- Benny the Cab.
Charlie.
Benny the Cab is an example
of practical effects wizardry.
But if there's one gag
that's always baffled me, it's this one.
At least he took it well.
I'm at The Walt Disney Studios
to see these special window blinds
and meet the man who made it happen:
Who Framed Roger Rabbit's
mechanical effects supervisor,
George Gibbs.
For decades, George has been
one of the geniuses
behind some of Hollywood's biggest stunts.
With a reputation for nailing the shot
the first time every time,
he's picked up the nickname
One-Take George.
My job is, uh, overseeing all the various
gimmicks and gags
and special-effects equipment being built
by the boys on the crew.
On a movie like this, we've probably got
two or three hundred different gags
to put together.
Every day, we have to account
for the movements of people
that are invisible,
and I can honestly say that this movie
is the most challenging movie
that I've ever been asked to work on.
In fact, it's a nightmare.
Look at this thing.
- One and only of Roger Rabbit.
- Wow.
This is an example of what you would
normally think of as a cartoon trope,
something that's a gag
that's used in cartoons all the time.
Yet you guys took it and put it
in the real world.
He's breaking through a window
and some blinds.
- Yeah.
- In a way that nobody
could ever do realistically,
but a cartoon...
- No. It's amazing.
- Does all the time. Yeah.
Yeah. They can do anything.
- Yeah. This makes it look real.
- They're magical.
Yeah. It took us about two weeks
to set it all up.
We laid the blind flat on a bench,
got one of the artists
to draw Roger Rabbit,
and then he cut the Venetian blind
very carefully with a very fine jigsaw.
And then we add a big sheet of plexiglass.
Then we had Roger Rabbit cut out by laser.
After that, we have to put all the pieces
back...
and dab them with super glue.
And then behind there,
we add long fishing line.
- Right.
- Right?
Which connected to each individual piece.
And they would have been on the pieces
that were part of the missing...
- Exactly. Exactly.
- Section that's not here right now?
From there we would have a ring
on an electric release.
- So you could just hit a switch?
- Yeah.
Got the cue from Bob Zemeckis.
- "Now."
- Mm-hmm and then...
Pop. When it worked first time,
that was wonderful.
- One time, huh?
- One time.
- One-Take George.
- One-Take George.
It's immediately iconic and recognizable.
- Yeah.
- This is your Mona Lisa.
Roger was sent crashing
through window blinds,
betrayed by a patty-cake-playing wife,
and tortured by a "Shave and a Haircut."
I've found plenty of dirt
on this rabbit on the I am.
Now, I'm down to one final suspect.
My buddy's Eddie V
A sourpuss, you'll see.
But when I'm done, he'll need no gun
'Cause a joker he will be.
Roger is my name
And laughter is my game...
My Roger Rabbit stand-in and I
are driving to Sherman Oaks, California,
to meet Charles Fleischer.
Who's your tailor, Quasimodo?
Charles provided the voices
for Roger Rabbit, Benny the Cab,
and two of the weasels.
That means there was a moment
when he was trying to escape from himself
while driving himself.
- I'll drive.
- But I wanna drive.
No. I'll drive. I'm the cab.
Out of my way, pencil neck.
- Hello? Charles.
- Hey. Dan, right?
- I'm Dan.
- Nice to meet you. Come on in.
- Come in. Come in.
- Thanks, man.
Now shake... whose hands do I shake first,
yours or the...
- Shake mine.
- Rubber Roger. Look at that.
I haven't seen that a long time.
- Unbelievable. Please, please come in.
- He was one of the stand-ins.
For actors and animators alike,
a full-sized Roger, weasels, Baby Herman,
and even penguin stand-ins
were used for visual references on set.
So, how did they actually use these things
on set?
The stand-in was there so
the actors or anyone in the crew,
would know exactly where Roger was,
'cause you're dealing with empty space.
So this allowed Hoskins,
for instance, to see...
where Roger was.
"All right. Okay. Got it."
They wouldn't shoot with him in the shot,
right?
No. That was just for rehearsal.
Right. Okay. How did you come up
with the voice for Roger?
You read what's in the script,
then in addition to that,
you see what he looks like.
So, because of his size...
it couldn't be
- a really deep voice.
- Right.
Couldn't be a tiny voice.
And then he had to have
a speech impediment. So, you know...
"Jeepers, I can't believe it."
"It sounds like a rabbit."
- Oh, my God. It sure does.
- "Please."
Please. Please.
- Get out of here.
- Please.
Richard Williams... videotaped me,
"Please," so the animators would know
how to animate it.
Literally based off of you
doing the exact same sound?
- That's what it is.
- That's amazing.
Now, one of the reasons Charles
was cast as the title role...
Was his manic level of energy.
I don't describe him, 'cause the movie's
not out yet. I signed a paper.
So, you're, uh...
Could we have
a little more noise, please? Thank you.
Cue the jet and cue the quake!
Welcome to California.
He was practically
an animated character already.
Speed. Are we rolling?
- Charles?
- Line?
I told you, not till 6:30.
You seem to be Roger in real life.
- You have so much energy and so much...
- Really?
Excitement.
Well, that's because we,
and I say that
in the literary sense of cooperation,
uh, have many things in common.
And the odd thing is,
of all the characters I've ever played
in any... any scenario,
- whether it'd be a movie or a film or a...
- Right.
Production in high school, a slideshow,
no one has been as close
to my core being as Roger.
Why is that?
Because I am a toon.
Why did you ask? Because you understand.
Most voice actors don't work
on set with the actors.
TPA, which is transprojectional acting.
I'm standing here with my own mic
watching what's going on over there,
projecting myself into that space
as though I were there.
It's possible that Charles
was a little too good
at transprojectional acting.
Eddie Valiant, you're under arrest.
Just kidding.
Word is, actor Bob Hoskins
was still seeing cartoon characters
for months after filming was over.
There he was,
in his costume, doing Roger.
And the... My point is,
he might be doing it over there
and I'm doing it here looking here...
but he was there. And he's...
he does it to such a degree,
you can even smell this rabbit.
It's so unusual in... in such a great way.
You have touched me in ways.
- Bump that tow-a-brow!
- Yeah.
The costume that you wore on set,
whatever happened to that?
The actual red suit was destroyed
by agents of an unknown government.
I was able to escape, however,
with the ears and the bowtie.
Really? And are they still
in your possession?
Yeah.
Welcome to 40 Rise.
Hi, I'm Paula Patton.
Here we are. Our next item are the ears
worn by Charlie Fleischer
on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
These are the actual ears
worn by Mr. Fleischer on the set.
Bidding starts right now at 25,000 shmoly.
We got that right there.
And we just got this in from Beverly.
Here's the actual tie that Mr. Fleischer
wore on the set
of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Original film.
- I'll buy that for a dollar.
- A dollar?
We're gonna shut this whole thing down!
Shut it down, Frank!
After spending time
with Charles Fleischer,
I can't imagine anyone better suited
to bring this level of cartoon lunacy
to my favorite Disney character.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit...
At first glance,
it looks like a simple kid's movie...
Hold still, will you?
But nothing in this film is simple.
The cutting-edge blending of live action
and animation holds up
to anything created today.
But don't hold your breath
that characters from different studios
will ever again be in the same movie.
After examining these artifacts...
I'd say the hat fits.
And meeting the people who helped
make this masterpiece...
- That was fun.
- Benny the Cab.
I have a greater appreciation
for how unique it truly is.
This is your Mona Lisa.
As my investigation winds down,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit has left me
with a lot of questions and more leads
than I could ever chase down.
This foam Roger still refuses to talk,
but there will forever be
a gentle voice echoing in my head.
That's lunch. Running half.
like these handcuffs,
are pieces of physical evidence.
These bracelets, exhibit R,
come from one of the most
groundbreaking movies ever made,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Idiot. I got no keys for these cuffs.
Walla Walla, Cucamonga, Kokomo,
there's no place I won't go
to discover the rare artifacts
and uncover the secrets
from one of my favorite films of all time.
In a movie, every detail,
no matter how small,
is designed to tell you something.
I'm Dan Lanigan, and I've spent
my entire life collecting artifacts
from my favorite films.
Now, I'm setting out to learn more
about the props
from the Disney movies that I love...
This thing is so cool.
Because these historic artifacts
make you feel like you're a part
of the story.
Smile, darn ya, smile.
You know this old world
Is a great world after all...
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
takes place in 1947 Hollywood
in classic film noir style.
I hope you're proud of yourself.
Tinseltown is the backdrop
for a tale of, well...
A story of greed, sex, murder.
Please.
When your movie
is about a cartoon rabbit
framed for a human murder by a toon killer
disguised as a human judge,
things can get a little complicated.
This is how we handle things
down in Toontown.
Action.
Director Robert Zemeckis succeeded
in seamlessly blending...
the worlds of live action and animation
to achieve the impossible,
all while making us laugh.
Ooh!
Toons. Gets 'em every time.
My investigation begins
in Los Angeles,
where I'm bringing a small
but important prop
to a guy who knows first-hand
the challenges of blending
live action and animation,
Disney legend Andreas Deja...
supervising animator
on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- Go ahead. Come on in.
- Oh, my gosh.
Welcome to my home studio.
- This is amazing.
- I love being here, you know,
surrounded by all my artwork
and books and cels.
- All this inspiration, right?
- Yeah. Exactly.
- Wow. That's amazing.
- Come on in.
Andreas has a storied history
with Disney Animation Studios,
helping usher in a new era of critical
and commercial success.
Lately, he spends his time working
on his own animated passion project
at this desk. And it's no ordinary desk.
It just happens to be
the same one used by Disney legend,
animator Milt Kahl.
Milt Kahl was one of the most
renowned members
of Walt Disney's core group of animators
known as the Nine Old Men.
From an animator's standpoint,
it's like using Rembrandt's easel.
I actually brought something to show you.
I have been collecting props
for many years.
And this particular piece
was from the film.
It is a set of handcuffs...
Oh, my God. Handcuffs.
That would have been worn by, uh,
Eddie and Roger.
- Wow.
- Did you by chance
- work on that sequence?
- Yeah. I think Roger
and Bob Hoskins were handcuffed together
when he was hiding him.
So Hoskins was hooked up, then the other
part was kind of hovering around,
and it was my job to put Roger's hand
in there.
I had to make sure that Roger's arm
was always perfectly in there
for 24 frames per second.
There's a little bit of, uh, spring here,
so you can almost imagine that Roger,
his hand is in there, so it doesn't need
as much puppeteering.
Yeah.
There was all these contraptions.
I remember there was a tube
with some water coming out
so the rabbit was supposed to...
- spit water...
- Yep.
As he comes up out of the sink water,
so I had to hide that tube.
You didn't just have to hide it,
you had to hide it within character
and within performance.
Even the eye contact had to be perfect.
I remember doing one scene
where the rabbit has just jumped
onto this live action bed,
and Bob Hoskins's eyeline
was a little too high.
The rabbit would be here, but he looked
that way. So what did you have to do?
Put Roger on his toes, you know,
so you are on Bob Hoskins' eyeline.
He was not really difficult to draw.
- I can just show you quickly.
- Oh, yes.
His eyes are just these two beans,
basically.
Put these on here.
And then he's got these
repetitive wrinkles right there.
But, like, the eye unit takes up
the whole...
- The whole cranium. Yeah, yeah.
- Top of the cranium, you know.
Then you branch out for the cheeks
and all of that.
He's got this one, sort of,
crooked tooth right there.
And we flesh out the cheeks a little bit.
And the other one.
Put the tongue in there.
And he's got this clown-y...
orange, out of all colors, tuft of hair...
whoever came up with that.
And a couple of whiskers on each side.
So he's...
What, what I'm basically trying to say,
that he was easy to draw.
He's my favorite cartoon character.
Sorry, Mickey, but it's Roger.
And you know what?
I wanna give this drawing to you
so you have a little souvenir.
- No.
- Yeah, absolutely. Here, take it.
- This is yours.
- Andreas. Oh, my gosh.
This drawing represents the work
of many artists
over several years
to reach Roger's final form.
But to better understand his origins,
I need to look
at some preliminary sketches by people
who were there at the very beginning.
So I'm meeting with Disney animation
veterans Chris Buck and Mike Giaimo.
Recently, Chris directed
and Mike art-directed Frozen.
But back in the early '80s,
they were part of the team
that explored the new tooniverse
of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
I'd love to hear more about how you guys
were thinking about how the characters
were gonna look back then.
So, what I did is,
I riffed off of Mike's initial designs.
And it would be something like this,
you know. This is one of Mike's drawings,
where there's this wonderful attitude.
There's this brightness.
The shapes are fun.
And then I would just go
and turn it around a little bit more
and hone things in a little bit.
You were trying to figure out what
he would look like in three dimensions
- from a two-dimensional perspective.
- Yeah.
Where did the suspenders
and, uh, the shorts come from?
I think, in a way, we were riffing off,
if you remember,
the original book published.
There is an image of Roger
on the cover of the book.
A lot of it was based on '40s,
very early 1950s cartoon style.
Although it is a different design
that ultimately wound up in the film,
I mean, the trademarks were all there.
The bulbous nose, the big eyes,
the big feet.
It's just the proportions are slightly
different and the nose is smaller.
And that speaks
to the strength of that design...
- Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
- That a lot of that stayed.
So, how did other characters
develop? Like Jessica Rabbit?
How she started,
ultimately to where she ended up?
We really based Jessica off
of Lauren Bacall,
such a great film noir actress
in the early '40s.
And that's where I would say
Jessica's really divergent...
- Yeah. That's right.
- From our iteration to the final film.
- Right.
- When you think of Bacall,
like, her features are much more linear...
- Right. Yeah.
- And kind of horizontal in a way,
- a little sharper.
- Sharp. Yeah, yeah.
There's straights
against curves.
So I think you can see that
in this drawing.
And the test footage Chris did of Jessica,
I thought was great.
- You will take my case, won't you?
- Not a chance.
What do you mean, not a chance?
It was a really, really fun,
very challenging scene to do.
And I was acting it out in my room when,
I don't remember who walked in,
but one of my friends walked in.
But they... My back was to them
as I was acting it out.
And then, they finally said, you know...
then I kind
of turned around and went...
- Oh, boy!
- They went, "Nice." I went, "Yeah, okay."
I think I locked my door after that...
just to act things out.
This test footage is a glimpse
into what might have been.
In the end, there could be
only one Jessica Rabbit...
Kathleen Turner.
I've carefully packed a few pieces
of evidence...
And I'm off to New York City.
Let's see if I can jog
this Tinseltown star's memory
regarding our favorite
redheaded bombshell.
He said if I didn't pose
for those patty cake pictures,
Roger would never work in this town again.
- Ah, Jessica.
- You hear Jessica,
and as much as she's Jessica, she's you.
When you think
about adding the voice
to the drawn physicality,
you know, how does she breathe?
So how does her chest move?
And... how does she talk so that her lips
are drawn a certain way and...
Oh, it was such fun.
You know, they'd say, "Let's...
let's make her a little breathier."
All right. Why not?
Roger, darling,
I want you to know I love you.
I've loved you more than
any woman's ever loved a rabbit.
"I love you more than
any woman's ever loved a rabbit."
I think that's my favorite line.
I just had chills.
- I think that's my favorite line.
- Well, this maquette here,
is from the Disney Archives.
It was made as an example
of what Jessica would look like.
And then ultimately what is in the film
is even more different than this.
- Her legs are longer in the film.
- Yeah.
Her waist is narrower.
Absolutely. Well, some of that, now,
honestly, is my doing.
- Really?
- I suggested that her legs be longer
because, frankly,
I was rather known for that myself.
And the bustier business came
about in my memory because...
"I kept saying," Wouldn't it be funny,
you know, Bob,
"if we... we get some really big..."
"in there? We can bounce them."
And he liked the idea.
I'd do anything for my husband,
Mr. Valiant. Anything.
So, I have been searching left, right,
and center for pieces from this film.
And as much as that... the stuff
from the film was very rare,
stuff connected with your character
is even more so.
- Ah.
- Um, but I did track down
one of the newspapers
that would have been
in Eddie Valiant's office.
Oh, yeah. Right.
"Toon kills man."
"Murdered at the hands
of jealous rabbit. No will."
And he puts the glass over the will.
In the pocket, he's able to see... Oh!
Well, that's wonderful.
See, this is why Jessica fell
in love with Roger. Look at that photo.
- He was a stud of a rabbit.
- Yeah. He was a leading man.
Seriously, what do you see in that guy?
- He makes me laugh.
- Ah.
And this is some
of the patty cake photos.
Oh, how different
she looks there.
- Exactly.
- She looks like.
- Little Mermaid or something here.
- Yeah.
A little bit. This is the design
- that she was when they were shooting.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- And this is in the film.
Now, this...
- is a cel that I have of Jessica.
- Oh, yes.
"You don't know how hard it is.
"Looking the way I do."
And then he says...
You don't know how hard
it is being a man...
looking at a woman looking the way you do.
I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way.
She can't help it.
It's really not her fault.
She's so misunderstood.
I mean, that film to this day, holds up.
And I think it will be considered
a classic.
Oh, it's not... Yeah, I think
it is legitimately, in every...
sense of... of every medium,
a work of art.
And your voice is one of the best
- in... in the industry.
- Thank you.
A seductive toon is one thing,
but the filmmakers also succeeded
in creating a terrifying toon
in human clothing...
Judge Doom. For the film's villain,
Zemeckis went back to the future
and called actor Christopher Lloyd,
a guy who's made a career
out of playing characters who are...
well, let's call them eccentric.
I swung by the Walt Disney Archives
to pick up exhibit D,
Doom's infamous costume.
Now, I'm heading to Santa Barbara
to get Lloyd's eyewitness account
as to how this costume
helped shape his character.
No toon can resist
the old "Shave and a Haircut."
Shave and a haircut...
Two bits!
This is quite a surreal experience,
getting a shave and haircut
with Christopher Lloyd.
Shave and a haircut.
- Two bits!
- Bum bum!
- Did you grow up watching cartoons?
- Yes. I grew up...
with, I guess the first great
animated features...
- Right. Right.
- Disney features, Bambi and...
- Snow White, right?
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,
Pinocchio.
- Classics.
- Yeah.
But in each of those films, there was some
development where it was very scary.
And kids would go home,
including myself...
Mm-hmm.
Having nightmares about those moments.
They were so powerful.
A lot of people come up to me
and say that when they saw...
Who Framed Roger Rabbit,
it scared them, you know,
when I put that little shoe
into the dip...
Gee!
You really embodied
a despicable character...
- Yes.
- With... with strong motivations
that were a little insane.
Wait a minute.
Insane? Ugh.
How did he get in here?
Action, Chris.
I'm looking for a murderer.
Woah!
- Look at that. Look at that.
- That's a blast from your past.
Does it have your smell?
No comment.
Wow.
What does it feel like seeing
this costume so many years later?
Well, I kind of wish I was still
wearing it...
actually.
- Really?
- Yeah. Look at that.
I'd say the hat fits.
- Look at the work here.
- It's a very powerful cape, isn't it?
Yeah. And I remember
early on in the film,
Bob Zemeckis, he had a fan going.
It was the first hint that maybe
- I'm not what I seem to be.
- Oh!
And the fan would flicker
the cape.
- To make it feel more alive, huh?
- Yeah.
One scene that I have the glasses on,
and Bob Zemeckis wanted the light
to hit my glasses in a way that there was
like a white glare on the glasses...
- Right. Right.
- Where you did not see through them.
And I think there were more takes
for that because I had to have
my angle on my head just right.
And the cane. What about the cane
helped you with your performance?
Well, the cane,
you can sort of tap it.
- Right.
- And swish it around,
and it kind of gives you that feeling
of being...
sort of... debonair...
- Debonair, right.
- You know?
It's doing it to me
just thinking about it.
Yeah.
This is cool. Oh, my gosh. I saw him.
There he was. Judge Doom.
Oh, my gosh. You still got it.
- Some things you just can't... expunge.
- That's right.
Don't move.
From a billowing cape
to a secret sword,
each object gave Lloyd insight
into his character.
And even after all these years,
you can tell.
Christopher Lloyd and Judge Doom
are still never far apart.
Benny, is that you?
No. It's Eleanor Roosevelt.
Come on, Roger. Get me out of here.
Eddie, we got ourselves a ride.
Open the doors.
Working with toon co-stars
can present interesting challenges.
A perfect example of this
is Benny the Cab.
Ah! That's better.
The special effects team
had to create a functioning car
small enough to be hidden
beneath animation.
And I've located this elusive vehicle
in the dusty dessert town
of Agua Dulce, California.
I'm meeting with the owner,
Charlie Croughwell,
stunt coordinator
and self-proclaimed back seat driver.
- Charlie.
- Hey, Dan.
- This is an awesome place.
- It's a playground.
- Yeah. So you have Benny here?
- I have Benny here.
- I'd love to see him.
- Come on in.
Charlie's made over 150 films,
including over a dozen
as Michael J. Fox's stunt double.
- Wow. Is that it?
- That's it.
- Let me pull it out.
- Okay. Cool.
Wow.
- Benny the Cab.
- Yeah. That's him.
Awesome. Look at this guy.
- This is a 1986 ATX 300 Honda.
- Wow.
And I must say
that it's an animal to have lasted
- as long as it has.
- Wow. This is so cool.
There was an exact duplicate
of this seat
mounted here, and we had seatbelts on it.
Action, Bob.
We made it.
Charlie.
Just stick out your thumb.
Hey, share the road, will you, lady?
This was a gas tank. This was a fuel cell.
- So, the fuel cell is intended...
- It's right under his feet.
- Right, right in his crotch.
- I mean, it's... Oh, God!
Bob Hoskins would sit just like this,
and then he had a steering wheel
on a bungee cord. And I would have
to watch him from back there.
So if he did this...
- You had to make sure Benny did that too?
- I had to do that too. Yeah.
So, Bob Hoskins, he would lead
- the movements of the vehicle?
- Yeah. Yeah.
How did he react to being thrown around?
- In the beginning, you know, he's like...
- Yeah.
"You're gonna do this...
what with this? With me where?"
"You want me to sit on there?"
Well, the whole thing's disconcerting.
I'm... driving a car
that I'm not driving. I'm sort of acting
with a rabbit that's not here.
And so, the engine's Charlie.
You know what I mean? And he can't see.
You know, he got comfortable
with me after a while.
And it always takes time.
He's an awesome guy.
Action, Bob.
Were the fenders added
for a particular reason?
We added them later,
because I was getting soaked
- anytime we did a wet-down.
- Ooh.
- You changed it as needed for the film?
- We did.
- And that continued.
- Wow.
Aside from that,
I can take him for a drive.
- All right. Let's check it out.
- All right.
Wow. Awesome.
- That was fun.
- Benny the Cab.
Charlie.
Benny the Cab is an example
of practical effects wizardry.
But if there's one gag
that's always baffled me, it's this one.
At least he took it well.
I'm at The Walt Disney Studios
to see these special window blinds
and meet the man who made it happen:
Who Framed Roger Rabbit's
mechanical effects supervisor,
George Gibbs.
For decades, George has been
one of the geniuses
behind some of Hollywood's biggest stunts.
With a reputation for nailing the shot
the first time every time,
he's picked up the nickname
One-Take George.
My job is, uh, overseeing all the various
gimmicks and gags
and special-effects equipment being built
by the boys on the crew.
On a movie like this, we've probably got
two or three hundred different gags
to put together.
Every day, we have to account
for the movements of people
that are invisible,
and I can honestly say that this movie
is the most challenging movie
that I've ever been asked to work on.
In fact, it's a nightmare.
Look at this thing.
- One and only of Roger Rabbit.
- Wow.
This is an example of what you would
normally think of as a cartoon trope,
something that's a gag
that's used in cartoons all the time.
Yet you guys took it and put it
in the real world.
He's breaking through a window
and some blinds.
- Yeah.
- In a way that nobody
could ever do realistically,
but a cartoon...
- No. It's amazing.
- Does all the time. Yeah.
Yeah. They can do anything.
- Yeah. This makes it look real.
- They're magical.
Yeah. It took us about two weeks
to set it all up.
We laid the blind flat on a bench,
got one of the artists
to draw Roger Rabbit,
and then he cut the Venetian blind
very carefully with a very fine jigsaw.
And then we add a big sheet of plexiglass.
Then we had Roger Rabbit cut out by laser.
After that, we have to put all the pieces
back...
and dab them with super glue.
And then behind there,
we add long fishing line.
- Right.
- Right?
Which connected to each individual piece.
And they would have been on the pieces
that were part of the missing...
- Exactly. Exactly.
- Section that's not here right now?
From there we would have a ring
on an electric release.
- So you could just hit a switch?
- Yeah.
Got the cue from Bob Zemeckis.
- "Now."
- Mm-hmm and then...
Pop. When it worked first time,
that was wonderful.
- One time, huh?
- One time.
- One-Take George.
- One-Take George.
It's immediately iconic and recognizable.
- Yeah.
- This is your Mona Lisa.
Roger was sent crashing
through window blinds,
betrayed by a patty-cake-playing wife,
and tortured by a "Shave and a Haircut."
I've found plenty of dirt
on this rabbit on the I am.
Now, I'm down to one final suspect.
My buddy's Eddie V
A sourpuss, you'll see.
But when I'm done, he'll need no gun
'Cause a joker he will be.
Roger is my name
And laughter is my game...
My Roger Rabbit stand-in and I
are driving to Sherman Oaks, California,
to meet Charles Fleischer.
Who's your tailor, Quasimodo?
Charles provided the voices
for Roger Rabbit, Benny the Cab,
and two of the weasels.
That means there was a moment
when he was trying to escape from himself
while driving himself.
- I'll drive.
- But I wanna drive.
No. I'll drive. I'm the cab.
Out of my way, pencil neck.
- Hello? Charles.
- Hey. Dan, right?
- I'm Dan.
- Nice to meet you. Come on in.
- Come in. Come in.
- Thanks, man.
Now shake... whose hands do I shake first,
yours or the...
- Shake mine.
- Rubber Roger. Look at that.
I haven't seen that a long time.
- Unbelievable. Please, please come in.
- He was one of the stand-ins.
For actors and animators alike,
a full-sized Roger, weasels, Baby Herman,
and even penguin stand-ins
were used for visual references on set.
So, how did they actually use these things
on set?
The stand-in was there so
the actors or anyone in the crew,
would know exactly where Roger was,
'cause you're dealing with empty space.
So this allowed Hoskins,
for instance, to see...
where Roger was.
"All right. Okay. Got it."
They wouldn't shoot with him in the shot,
right?
No. That was just for rehearsal.
Right. Okay. How did you come up
with the voice for Roger?
You read what's in the script,
then in addition to that,
you see what he looks like.
So, because of his size...
it couldn't be
- a really deep voice.
- Right.
Couldn't be a tiny voice.
And then he had to have
a speech impediment. So, you know...
"Jeepers, I can't believe it."
"It sounds like a rabbit."
- Oh, my God. It sure does.
- "Please."
Please. Please.
- Get out of here.
- Please.
Richard Williams... videotaped me,
"Please," so the animators would know
how to animate it.
Literally based off of you
doing the exact same sound?
- That's what it is.
- That's amazing.
Now, one of the reasons Charles
was cast as the title role...
Was his manic level of energy.
I don't describe him, 'cause the movie's
not out yet. I signed a paper.
So, you're, uh...
Could we have
a little more noise, please? Thank you.
Cue the jet and cue the quake!
Welcome to California.
He was practically
an animated character already.
Speed. Are we rolling?
- Charles?
- Line?
I told you, not till 6:30.
You seem to be Roger in real life.
- You have so much energy and so much...
- Really?
Excitement.
Well, that's because we,
and I say that
in the literary sense of cooperation,
uh, have many things in common.
And the odd thing is,
of all the characters I've ever played
in any... any scenario,
- whether it'd be a movie or a film or a...
- Right.
Production in high school, a slideshow,
no one has been as close
to my core being as Roger.
Why is that?
Because I am a toon.
Why did you ask? Because you understand.
Most voice actors don't work
on set with the actors.
TPA, which is transprojectional acting.
I'm standing here with my own mic
watching what's going on over there,
projecting myself into that space
as though I were there.
It's possible that Charles
was a little too good
at transprojectional acting.
Eddie Valiant, you're under arrest.
Just kidding.
Word is, actor Bob Hoskins
was still seeing cartoon characters
for months after filming was over.
There he was,
in his costume, doing Roger.
And the... My point is,
he might be doing it over there
and I'm doing it here looking here...
but he was there. And he's...
he does it to such a degree,
you can even smell this rabbit.
It's so unusual in... in such a great way.
You have touched me in ways.
- Bump that tow-a-brow!
- Yeah.
The costume that you wore on set,
whatever happened to that?
The actual red suit was destroyed
by agents of an unknown government.
I was able to escape, however,
with the ears and the bowtie.
Really? And are they still
in your possession?
Yeah.
Welcome to 40 Rise.
Hi, I'm Paula Patton.
Here we are. Our next item are the ears
worn by Charlie Fleischer
on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
These are the actual ears
worn by Mr. Fleischer on the set.
Bidding starts right now at 25,000 shmoly.
We got that right there.
And we just got this in from Beverly.
Here's the actual tie that Mr. Fleischer
wore on the set
of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Original film.
- I'll buy that for a dollar.
- A dollar?
We're gonna shut this whole thing down!
Shut it down, Frank!
After spending time
with Charles Fleischer,
I can't imagine anyone better suited
to bring this level of cartoon lunacy
to my favorite Disney character.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit...
At first glance,
it looks like a simple kid's movie...
Hold still, will you?
But nothing in this film is simple.
The cutting-edge blending of live action
and animation holds up
to anything created today.
But don't hold your breath
that characters from different studios
will ever again be in the same movie.
After examining these artifacts...
I'd say the hat fits.
And meeting the people who helped
make this masterpiece...
- That was fun.
- Benny the Cab.
I have a greater appreciation
for how unique it truly is.
This is your Mona Lisa.
As my investigation winds down,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit has left me
with a lot of questions and more leads
than I could ever chase down.
This foam Roger still refuses to talk,
but there will forever be
a gentle voice echoing in my head.
That's lunch. Running half.