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Who Delayed Roger Rabbit?
Why there has been no sequel to one of the most popular animated films of
the 1980s
By Rich Drees
Realizing
that the script had tremendous crossover audience appeal, Katzenberg and
Eisner were anxious to put the project into active pre-production. The only
hitch is what had stalled the project when Miller was working on it, getting
other studios to agree to loan out their classic 1940s era `toon characters.
Eisner had an ace up his sleeve that
Miller didn’t have- a friendship with filmmaker in Steven Spielberg. The
two had first met in 1980 when Eisner was head of production at Paramount
Pictures. Spielberg and George Lucas were looking for a home for their pet
project about an adventuring archaeologist named Indiana Jones. While every
studio in Hollywood wanted to produce the film, only Eisner wasn’t hesitant
about the film’s large proposed budget and the steep financial terms that
Lucas and Spielberg were asking.
Eisner was now anxious to see if Spielberg would return the favor and help
get his dream project into theatres. Spielberg remembered having been
offered the Roger Rabbit script a few years earlier and though
enthused by the idea of the film, he knew that mixing live action and
animation in a convincing way would be expensive and time consuming. Eisner
countered with a proposal that Disney and Spielberg’s production company
Amblin produce the picture together. Disney would be able to supply the
animation expertise needed while Spielberg would be able to get Lucas’s
Industrial Light and Magic special effects house to handle the rest of the
visual effects. Eisner was also banking that Spielberg would be able to use
his considerable cache to persuade other studios to allow their classic
cartoon characters to appear in the film.
Spielberg agreed, but with one caveat- Amblin and Disney would share the
copyright on any characters that were created for the film. While that means
that the two studios would split the profits from the film and all it’s
ancillary merchandise like toys, t-shirts and the like, they would also have
to completely agree on any project featuring the characters before it could
move forward.
And with Eisner quickly agreeing to these terms, the seeds were sown for a
rather tumultuous relationship.
Spielberg’s assistance on the production was invaluable. He was able to
secure the rights for all the non-Disney characters from the various studios
for an unbelievably low licensing fee of $5,000.00 per character. Needless to
say, Warners did put a stipulation on the use of Bugs Bunny, demanding that
the character could only appear in scenes opposite of Mickey Mouse and that
the characters must have the same number of words of dialogue.
Production on Who Framed Roger Rabbit sprang into high gear, but the
complexity of the project soon caused the film’s budget to creep upwards
from its initially projected $30 million to $50.6 million. Things also fell
behind schedule so much so that in the early weeks of 1988 it was beginning
to look that it wouldn’t make it’s announced June 24th opening
date. Since Disney had several multi-million dollar cross-promotional deals
with the likes of Coca-Cola and McDonalds depending on the film opening on
time, Katzenberg was feeling pressure from Eisner to meet the looming
deadline. With Katzenberg driving the production crew, the film just barely
made it into theatres on time.
The film was an immediate hit and with the receipts from ticket sales and
ancillary merchandise climbing higher by the day, Disney and Spielberg were
anxious to give the public what they wanted- more Roger Rabbit. With
Spielberg’s approval Disney began production on the short Tummy Trouble.
The studio also started plans to add some Roger themed attractions to the
still under construction Disney/MGM Studio theme park. When Tummy Trouble
appeared in the summer of 1989 attached to the front of Disney’s Honey, I
Shrunk The Kids, audiences once again crowded theatres. To all involved,
it appeared that Roger Rabbit definitely had “legs” and a series of short
cartoons could become a perennial treat for filmgoers.
Disney and Spielberg quickly fixed a deal for a feature length Roger Rabbit
follow up and announced that the series of shorts would continue with an
installment entitled Roller Coaster Rabbit that would be produced at
the Disney/MGM animation studio in Florida.
And that’s when the problems that were seeded in the Amblin/Disney
partnership began to show fruit.
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