Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat
Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat
The Making of Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit emerged at a nexus of people, technology, and circumstances that is historically, culturally, and aesthetically momentous. By the 1980s, animation seemed a dying art. Not even the Walt Disney Company, which had already won over thirty Academy Awards, could stop what appeared to be the end of an animation era.
To revitalize popular interest in animation, Disney needed to reach outside its own studio and create the distinctive film that helped usher in a Disney Renaissance. That film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, though expensive and controversial, debuted in theaters to huge success at the box office in 1988. Unique in its conceit of cartoons living in the real world, Who Framed Roger Rabbit magically blended live action and animation, carrying with it a humor that still resonates with audiences.
Upon the film’s release, Disney’s marketing program led the audience to believe that Who Framed Roger Rabbit was made solely by director Bob Zemeckis, director of animation Dick Williams, and the visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic, though many Disney animators contributed to the project. Author Ross Anderson interviewed over 140 artists to tell the story of how they created something truly magical. Anderson describes the ways in which the Roger Rabbit characters have been used in film shorts, commercials, and merchandising, and how they have remained a cultural touchstone today.
Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat makes a significant contribution to the fields of animation history, Disney history, and film history. The research that Anderson conducts is in-depth, original, and all-encompassing. His whole book covers ground that has mostly never been covered before.
Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat is very impressive in its scope and thorough coverage of the making of the Roger Rabbit film, its evolution, and its aftermath in terms of sequels, theme park adaptations and merchandise. For anyone interested in this story, everything he/she could possibly want to know is in this book!
Ross Anderson has done extensive research on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and wrote a feature article for the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration for the Disney-published magazine D23. He is the owner and sole proprietor of consulting and contracted services at Hat Trick Services, where he provides technical writing and field services, and is an engineer working in the environmental field.
