Eddie says that once Angelo has finished laughing he’ll rat Roger out in a cold minute but Roger says that making people laugh is the only weapon a toon has. No one seems to know for sure if the theory is complete bunk, or if it absolutely happened or if it happened but not the way everyone says it did and frankly I’m not ready to investigate another conspiracy theory so soon after my last brush with the Secret Lizard Kings so let’s just file it under “maybe”.ĭolores and Eddie arrive back at the bar to find that Roger has interpreted their instructions to stay quiet and hidden rather loosely putting on a full song and dance show for the patrons set to The Merry Go Round Broke Down. Furious, Eddie drags Roger into the backroom and asks him “What the hell brah?” and Roger explains that the patrons needed to laugh. Honestly, I don’t know what to think about that. This is actually a reference to the General Motors Steetcar Conspiracy, which claims that GM bought up public transportation companies and then scuttled them to ensure that everyone would have to buy a car. Once she’s calmed down she tells Eddie that it’s not RK Maroon that wants to get his hands on Toon Town, it’s Clover Leaf, the mysterious company that’s been buying up public transport in LA and then shutting it down. By making Doom such an obvious villain, we’re blindsided by the reveal of his true nature.ĭolores shows up and is none too happy to find Jessica draped all over Eddie. But as well as the performance, Doom works because this is a damn clever script. Lloyd channels all 1.21 giggawatts of his incredible charismatic energy into investing Doom with a sinister, crackling malevolence that bubbles right under the surface until finally bursting forth in all its horror. Firstly, of course, is Christopher Lloyd, giving one of the all time great portrayals of big screen villainy. However, the character does work, and like gangbusters at that, for a few reasons. All we’re missing is the massive flashing neon sign saying “VILLAIN! VILLAIN! SMILING DAM’NED VILLAIN!”. So first we’re presented with a murder and then this guy called “Doom” shows up dressed all in black, wearing shades and accompanied by one of the most sinister musical themes since Bruce the Shark. After all, first rule of a good film noir mystery is that there should be, y’know, a mystery. On one level, Doom should be too ridiculous to work and really should derail the whole movie. Having watched it again…yeah, if you’ re looking for it, it does sound a lot like that’s what h e’s saying but the line is actually “doggone stubborn little…” This sc ene is also somewhat notorious because of the urban legend that Donald calls Daffy the N-word at one point. That’s actually legendary MYTHICAL voice actor Mel Blanc as Daffy and the animation captures him perfectly (although, if he seems weirdly off-model it’s because this is forties “screwball Daffy”, the character underwent a pretty major design overhaul in the early fifties to become the more familiar Daffy we all know and love). It’s a pheno menal sequence and it’s really awesome to see these two charact ers acting off each other as they’re a surprisingly good fit (I’ve always felt Donald was one of the few Disney characters with enough of an anarchic edge to hold his own against the ‘Tunes). Onstage, Donald and Daffy Duck pe rform a piano duet which ends with Daffy locking Donald in his piano and th en Donald blowing Daffy up with a cannon and both ducks getting yanked offstage. Large packs of feral dogs roam the landscape, and cannabalism is rife. The vast bulk of animation is now on television, rushed, cheaply produced, schilling for the toy industry and stifled by increasingly conser vative broadcast standards for whom anything hard er than the Smurfs is pushing the envelope. Di sney feature animation is in a creative rut, and only Ralp h Bakshi and a few others, working furtively from a secret rebel base, keep the full length animated film alive as an artform. Theatrical shorts have gone the way of the horse-drawn carriage and the wireless-polisher. Firstly, let’s take a look at the state of American animation in the late eighties. Chances are, if not for this movie a whole load of the films I’ve reviewed here would never have happened. But it’s as an a nimated movies that Roger Rabbit has its real significance. It’s a central text in what was something of a golden age of the big summer tentpole picture ( Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future). Fittingly,given its dual nature, Who Framed Roger Rabbit occ upies a special place in both the history of mainstream Hollywood blockbusters and American animation.
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