35 years ago, a movie came along that put people on film with cartoons. It wasn’t the first, but it may have been the last great film of its kind. But with the new technologies we have, is there a chance it could get a sequel?
There are so many reasons why Hollywood should be looking into this proposition, but it doesn’t seem like they are. So where are we, and how did we get here?
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
In 1988, the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was released by Disney and Amblin Entertainment. It was revolutionary for many reasons, but mainly because it was the first time multiple animation studios lent their characters to one property.
In one film, there were characters from Disney, Warner Bros, and other lesser-known studios whose characters were nonetheless recognizable.
The story follows private detective Eddie Valiant. He’s a hard-nosed guy played by Bob Hoskins. The film is set in 1950s LA, where cartoons live among humans. Valiant was once the top detective in ‘Toon Town, but after his brother’s tragic death, he no longer associates with them.
After Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye), the famous head of the Acme corporation, is murdered, all signs point to Roger Rabbit, the equivalent of Mickey Mouse for the fictional Maroon Cartoons. But when his femme fatale wife, the shapely Jessica Rabbit, arrives to ask Valiant to investigate the case, he is pulled into a web of deceit, corruption, and cartoon violence.
The Illegitimate Children of Roger
Since 1989, the film industry has made a few attempts at recreating the magic of Roger Rabbit with middling success.
The most well-known was Space Jam. Released in 1996, it brought Michael Jordan into the world of the Looney Toons. The differences were that it didn’t include other properties and was set largely in the Looney Toons world. That meant Michael Jordan acting on a green screen rather than the toons being incorporated into the real world.
A more recent example was 2022’s Chip N Dale: Rescue Rangers, which featured characters and references from across the animation universe. It also utilized as many types of animation as possible, even taking time to go to “The Valley,” where all the uncanny valley animations live.
The jokes are plentiful, and many of the characters are, much like Roger Rabbit, shown to be involved in entertainment in some way or another. Often, they have been stars of bygone shows and are attempting to reenergize their careers. It has a similar feel to Roger Rabbit and even features Roger at one point. But although it may be a spiritual successor, it is not a true sequel.
Where Is the Sequel?
The question is why the film never got a sequel, to begin with. It not only had the buzz, but it hit box office gold by earning over $350 million off of a $50 million budget. It won three Academy Awards and is even in the Library of Congress because they have deemed it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” So what happened? Why would a film like this be left on its own in a world where sequels and remakes are not just the norm but are often required when a film does well?
It may be due to a variety of factors. One of these may actually be related to the aforementioned Space Jam. Warner Bros. and Disney are huge corporations with their own wants and needs. In fact, for Disney to use the Warner Bros. characters in Roger Rabbit, they were required to have equal screen time. That meant Mickey and Bugs Bunny needed just as many lines in order for the studios to come to an agreement.
Now, Warner Bros. has seen that they can attempt films with their own characters without having to rely on Disney. They did it with Space Jam, and they tried it with 2021’s Space Jam: A New Legacy. However, the second did not do half as well, and rather than being much of a sequel, it was a simple retread of the first that swapped out Michael Jordan for LeBron James.
So it seems that a sequel would require a bevy of lawyers, a host of caveats, and a mess that neither studio wants to take ownership of or give to the other, not to mention the fact that Bob Hoskins passed away. We don’t need a CGI version of him or a sequel where Shia Lebouf plays his long-lost son.
Should There Be a Sequel?
The fact that there hasn’t been a sequel may be a win for Hollywood. They made a one-of-a-kind movie that brought together the top studios at the time, and it worked. It was a film that has yet to be topped in its very niche category, and although there are a few scripts that have bounced around Hollywood, they have been sub-par and undesirable.
So no, there shouldn’t be a sequel. After 35 years and an acknowledgment from the Library of Congress, it is probably time for people to simply take the film they love and show it to their children. It has no real timestamp on it, as it takes place in a bygone era, to begin with. So grab Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, watch it, and teach your kids how cartoons can be fun, scary, and weird all at the same time.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
