Who Delayed Roger Rabbit

Who Delayed Roger Rabbit?

Why there has been no sequel to one of the most popular animated films of the 1980s

By Rich Drees

Spielberg wanted Roller Coaster Rabbit attached to the film Arachnophobia, which Amblin was producing for Disney’s new Hollywood Pictures division. However, Disney had sunk $47 million on Warren Beatty’s troubled comic strip adaptation Dick Tracy. Since many in the Mouse House felt that the $124 million that Honey, I Shrunk The Kids made at the box office was in part due to Tummy Trouble being attached to it, there was hope that Roller Coaster Rabbit would give Dick Tracy a perceived much needed similar push at the box office.

Disney got what it wanted and Roller Coaster Rabbit premiered on June 15, 1990 in front of Dick Tracy. While the movie did not do the box office business that Honey, I Shrunk The Kids did, it still grossed $103.7 million. Arachnophobia, despite being the better reviewed of the two movies, barely broke even. It had cost $31 million but only pulled in $53.1 million. It was felt that if the Roger Rabbit short had been attached to it instead, that Arachnophobia would have performed much better.

Since Spielberg is a man who is used to getting what he wants, he was miffed that Disney went and used Roller Coaster Rabbit to boast the box office on their own film over his production company’s film. He was now motivated to flex his muscles as co-owner of the franchise. Disney had already launched into production on the next short, Hare in My Soup, when Spielberg announced that he didn’t like the story and demanded that production be shut down. Disney had no choice but to comply. The studio then pitched other story ideas to him, but Spielberg shot down every one. By the time Spielberg finally approved a storyline, entitled Trail Mix-Up, two years would pass.

(The film that Hare In My Soup was scheduled to be attached to was the comic book adaptation The Rocketeer. Since that movie only grossed $46.7 million at the box office, many felt that it would have benefited from the boost Hare In My Soup would have generated.)

At the same time that Disney was busy developing a feature length follow up to Who Framed Roger Rabbit entitled Roger Rabbit II: Toon Platoon. The film was set to be a prequel, set in 1940, that detailed Roger’s journey to Hollywood, meeting future wife Jessica and his involvement in World War II. Unfortunately, it was that last storyline that caused Spielberg to scuttle the picture.

With the production of his film Shindler’s List in 1993, Spielberg had gone through a spiritual awakening and an embracing of his Jewish heritage. As such, he decided that Nazis will no longer be used a villains in his movies. Since part of the plot of Toon Platoon involves the unmasking of the manager of the radio station that Jessica works at as a Nazi spy, Disney was forced to go back to the drawing board for another premise (For a review of the script to Roger Rabbit II: Toon Platoon, click here).

New scripters Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver were brought in and they pushed the prequel’s setting back a few more years to the great Depression and shifted the setting to the East Coast, specifically New York City during the Great Depression. The film was now titled Who Discovered Roger Rabbit. Some elements from Mauldin’s script remained- Roger is still looking for his long lost mother while wooing Jessica. However, this time, in an attempt to get closer to Jessica, Roger takes a job as a stagehand at the Broadway show she’s appearing in. One night Roger is trapped on stage when the curtain rises and a star is born.

The script is reported to be a loving send up of period Hollywood musicals, so much so in fact that when Disney composer Alan Menkin read a copy he penned five songs for the project and volunteered to serve as an executive producer.