Stupid was the dumb one. Out of every four Guests who came through the turnstile / surrounded that 35 cent C ticket, only one was a kid under 10. But again thanks for your patience as well as all your kind words. So a fight between them ensues that evolves to include others. And again my apologies for JHM being off the air for a week or so there. But what about Jack Wrather, the guy that Walt went to back in the Late Winter / Early Spring of 1955 and begged & pleaded for Wrather to build a hotel right next to Disneyland Park? Doom killing him for getting in the way of his goals was as much of a shock as it was to Eddie when he found out the next day. It's 1947 Hollywood and Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), a down-on-his-luck detective is hired to find proof that Marvin Acme, gag factory mogul and owner of Toontown, is playing hanky-panky with. Donations in Marvin's honor may be made to the charity of . Casper (the definitive version). Sad Sack Something that even today in our age of seamless interaction between CG characters & human performers actually holds up beautifully because Bob made the audience believe that Toontown & all of its residents were real. So the Happiest Place on Earth was a learn-as-you-go operation. Storyboards reveal what Marvin Acme's funeral in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" would have looked like. Sorry folks. I hate to interrupt your boid watchin but is this the right boneyard for the Acme funeral? So what spurred Disneylands attendance surge in the Summer of 1959 was Walt pumping $6 million into the place for the construction of new attractions (Matterhorn Bobsleds, Submarine Voyage, & Monorail). Which is a trifle ironic. Its Bob Hoskins performance that I think elevates Who Framed Roger Rabbit from being just this clever movie which is loaded with witty, well-done animation to being a truly great film. More importantly, that theyd also be safe for ladies who were wearing skirts & dressed in heels to use. CHIP 'N DALE. Marvin Acme is the head of the Acme Corporation and owner of Toontown. 5. Inspector Clouseau and Sergeant Deux-Deux The short answer was that Valiant had to wash off a toon pig head that the weasels had painted on him (in a scene animated but cut from the film) after a confrontation with Doom in Jessicas dressing room and that earlier Valiant had put in a very busy and sweaty day including attending the funeral of Marvin Acme. The way I hear it, even with Spielbergs clout, there were just some cartoon characters that the Roger Rabbit production team couldnt acquire the rights to. I think King Features wouldnt let Popeye, and therefore Bluto, be used in the picture. Marvin was born in Montreal on January 25, 1937, to Bella and Moses Zalman. Storyboards reveal what Marvin Acme's funeral in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" would have looked like. Whereas I Ive always pointed to Bob Hoskins performance and said that this was the element that actually made that movie work. Lil Abner and Daisy Mae ( Screen Gems ) Tommy Tortoise and Moe Hare New making-of-this-Broadway-musical book offers a few clues, An Evening with Alan Menken showcased the music of this Academy Award-winning composer, Let It Go gets the LEGO treatment as a whole new Disney Frozen story unfolds across books, TV & digital with Frozen Northern Lights, Yo-kai Watch 2: Bony Spirits and Fleshy Souls coming to America, Disney isnt horsing around when it comes to Sofia the First toys. Especially when Valiant tries to break things off with his Girl Friday (Eddie: Dolores, you need to find yourself a good man. People who own public domain tapes (and closeted Paramount cartoon fans at the time) would have freaked out with excitement if this was in the movie. It is pretty morbid, really, not funny enough. Little Dot Close. Im sorry that this sites content went for days without being updated. He had a high, lilting voice, and giggled a lot. He had stopped work for the day and drinking with friends at a cricket match. He promised the Toons that in the event of his death, they will inherit Toontown, as stated in his will. Because the storyboard artists took what Jeffrey Price & Peter S. Seaman had originally written for this part of their Roger Rabbit screenplay and really expanded on the concept of animated-characters-attend-a-human-funeral idea. Thats the piece of land that the pipe which connects the Jungle Cruise and the Rivers of America runs through. Back then, Walt Disney Studios just had a hit film that was based on Johann David Wyss famous adventure novel of 1812. Interesting side note: Its now an established part of the on-going Disney theme park narrative that Going to the Parks has just gotten to be too expensive and/or complicated, what with the institution of Lightning Lane and then forcing people to use virtual queues if they want to experience newer attractions at the Parks like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot or Mickey & Minnies Runaway Railway out in Anaheim. Valiant cant hear what is being said but by the pantomined actions can see it is on the verge of becoming violent. A deleted scene involving the infamous Toon Pig Head would've featured a brief cameo of Witch Hazel. Dont these storyboard drawings just make you wish that Marvin Acmes funeral had actually made it into the finished version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit ? Many sequences were storyboarded and some even animated for Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) but were then left out of the final feature film for a variety of reasons including cost and time issues, pacing and the fact that while they might have been clever or fun but were not really necessary to tell the story. To find out what other sorts of gags the Roger Rabbit production team dreamed up for Marvin Acmes funeral. Theres this great scene about 20 minutes into this motion pictures where Valiant as he sits alone in his office, drinking is looking through some photographs and is suddenly undone when Eddie comes across an image of himself, his brother Teddy and Valiants then-girlfriend / secretary Delores cavorting at Catalina. Clint Clobber ( Terrytoons ) If the Jungle Cruise was being drained for months so that the Imagineers could then install the Sacred Elephant Bathing Pool sequence in that Adventureland attraction, that meant the Rivers of America had to be drained as well. What I remember is that for Ruby-Spears, they licensed the girls (hopefully they didnt tamper their designs much unlike a certain studio that owns them right now) and most bizarrely, Herman & Katnip (Im not sure this was a smart idea). There were many variations in the actual funeral proceedings but here is probably the most likely version that I have patched together from Mel Blancs vocal script, the storyboard done by Amblin artist Marty Kline offered for sale on eBay in 2014, talking with some of the people who worked on the film and other sources: R.K. Maroons Packard roars up amidst all the black limos and hearse parked along the roadway near the site of Acmes funeral. It actually meant a lot to Nancy & myself that people had noticed that the site had gone dark for a few days and were concerned enough to send along e-mails and/or make phone calls just to make sure that we were both okay. And Walt now wants to turn that attendance deficit around. Notably left out of the mix were Popeye characters, Tom and Jerry, and Casper the Friendly Ghost. Review. In spite of his cheating with Roger's wife, Jessica, he was a humorous fellow who genuinely loved toons enough to have them own their own town in accordance to his will. Which produced home premieres like those TinkerBell movies) began actively looking into ways to expand this lucrative franchise? After Roger Rabbit discovers that Marvin is playing Patty Cake with his wife Jessica, Acme is found murdered the following morning in his factory warehouse. 200 people up in the tree at any one time. Im Just Saying If Theyre Actually In The Film If They Had Their Own Cartoons by Famous Studios ! Anyway Now what made this redo / expansion of the Jungle River Cruise complicated is that this Adventureland attraction shared a water system with the Rivers of America (Guests who were headed to Disneylands old Chicken Plantation Restaurant for lunch or dinner used to have to walk over a bridge in Frontierland. 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Who now that Acmes funeral has wrapped up this famous foursome is heading off to play some golf. 15. Thats gotta go inside of the actual Jungle Cruise. So at Walts insistence the Trapped Safari then became the tag gag for the African Veldt section of that Adventureland attraction. (in the unproduced scene of Marvin Acme's funeral) MGM Cartoons. In fact, Walt so loved this gag that after the Africa Veldt section first opened at Disneyland Park in June of 1964 he actually made the Imagineers go back in this portion of that Adventureland attraction and restage it. What fascinates me about the parallels here is that When Walt began to see the same thing bubble up in press coverage for his new family fun park (i.e., All of those Summer-of-1955 stories in newspapers & magazines about how expensive it was to visit Disneyland. Which meant that the Magic Kingdom Golf Course at the Disneyland Hotel could operate from 10 a.m. in the morning til 10 p.m. a night seven days a week. All of which came in handy during those Mondays & Tuesdays during the Winter Months when people were staying at the Disneyland Hotel and had nowhere to go on those days when the Happiest Place on Earth was closed. Tom Terrific From that point on, there are several different variations of what happens to Acmes coffin so that there were multiple options depending upon what character rights could be obtained. 14. How whenever a Guest visited this place they were constantly being forced to repeatedly open their wallet), his immediate reaction was We need to fix this now. 4. 1959 was Disneylands greatest year attendance-wise. And we were genuinely terrified for Eddie when he did battle with Judge Doom in the Acme Warehouse and then discovered that SPOILER ALERT Doom was the toon with those burning red eyes, and that high, squeaky voice who did in Teddy. But as soon as Casper says Will you be my friend? , in a faithful recreation of that old cartoon cliche, both the toons & the humans at graveside scream A G-G-G-G-G-G-GHOST ! 7. Carlos Lopez Estrada had been signed to helm this film. Marvin Acme (played by the adorable, irrepressible and talented Stubby Kaye) is the head of the Acme Corporation and owner of Toontown. Nearby, Marvin Acne's funeral is inprogress. I wonder..who could doPopeyesvoice for that sceneMr.Marvin Acmes(Stubbys)funeral scene..that was cut from the film? You can see Disney proudly showing off the elaborate water wheel system at the heart of this Adventureland attraction, which send 200 gallons of water high up into that faux tree. Which was published on December 14th of that year. This whole scene is being shown from the point of view of Valiant who is in the distance leaning against a palm tree. We say goodbye to a man who was more generous than a homely widow with Sunday supper. But as soon as Walt saw Marcs art for the Trapped Safari, he basically said Thats too good a gag to waste on the people who are riding Disneylands train. Gerald McBoing-Boing So this change in the way that Disneyland Park operated during the off-season made things easier for Walt and Disneys book-keepers back in Burbank. With Pingo, Pingg, Pongi and Pengy ( Pingus other friends ) and Pingi ( Pingus girlfriend ) frowning with misery ! Whereas Teddy He never made it). If the funeral scene had been included in the film, no doubt the same stipulation would have been made for the bit with Bugs, Mickey, Humphrey and Clark in the convertible. Just last year, I attended this amazing panel at Comic-Con where animation veterans like Don Hahn, Dave Bossert, Nik Ranieri, James Baxter, Tom Sito & Andreas Deja talked about all the mistakes that were made over the course of production of this motion picture. The September 1979 issue, to be exact) to the screen. Largely because the amount of money that the Mouse was making off of the sales of Cars -related merchandise was To be blunt here, mind boggling. Which explains this line in the 1958 version of Walt Disney Productions annual report. The Noveltoons jack-in-the-box mascot wouldve appeared popping out voiced by Frank Welker of Scooby-Doo fame saying Duh, I Didnt Know A Toon Had Murdered The Mayor of Toontown !. It was too morbid for the film and didnt really move the story forward. I Wish Pingu Appeared In Who Framed Roger Rabbit ! Take for example what happened last week when Bob Hoskins died. TOM AND JERRY. Guests were supposed to see it alongside the side of the tracks as they rode the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad from Main Street Station over to Frontierland. Whats more, what initially drove him to seek out and then purchase this amazing animation artifact was my August 2011 story about scenes that had been cut out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.. Also many iconic Harvey characters didnt even appear until after 1947, when RRs set: And then the two of them made multiple trips up & down the stairs that had already been installed in & around Disneylands Swiss Family Treehouse. 16. Lets jump ahead to the 1959 version of Walt Disney Productions annual report. Stumbo the Giant Theres a famous story about the origin of the Matterhorn-at-Disneyland project. With New Cameos Like: Only this time around, itll be $7 million worth of new attractions. Which again I remind you was published on December 23rd of that year: This current year, we are operating the park during the winter months on a five-day schedule with resulting savings in operating costs and in the hope that a full weeks business can be compressed within the five days. That being said, I want to publicly state that Mark has helped me many, many times in the past. But there was another aspect of Who Framed Roger Rabbit that for legal reasons as well as its difficulty-to-animate aspect that wound up getting cut from this Amblin production. Bluto thinks that Popeyes comment is disrespectful. CHIP 'N DALE. John Howell who was the art director on Swiss Family Robinson was out scouting locations for this movie in 1958. How Come Their Cameos Got Deleted ? Things get built at the Disney Theme Parks but not always for the reasons that you might think. Mark Kauslers account of the Acme funeral is accurate. I just love how in the above shot Felix the Cat is fighting back tears as he helps to carry Acmes casket. This was what led Walt to bring Marc Davis over to WED from Feature Animation in October of 1960 and effectively say Help me make Disneyland better. Dolores: But I already have a good man). but sorta makes you MISS the appearance[s] of Tom & J, Popeye, Casper, Herman & K , Baby H, Little A, etc. Disneyland spent $254,900 on the construction of that theme parks version of Swiss Family Treehouse. They chit-chatted with Valiant for a few moment before heading off to the links and . The Mighty Heroes ( Terrytoons ) WowPopeye, Herman, Felix, and Avery Wolf. And in the middle of a work week that featured some pretty amazing professional opportunities (i.e., being allowed to cover this years Actors Fund Gala, which celebrated the 20th anniversary of Disney on Broadway. He Wouldve Been In The Marvin Acmes Funeral Scene Sadly Playing The Violin as the Coffin goes down into the grave ! This is where I want you guys to build Disneylands version of the Swiss Family Treehouse., The Imagineers explained But Walt. Roger is made the prime suspect and hires human detective Eddie Valiant to clear him of the charges. So things that are now closely associated with a visit to Disneyland back in the day (EX: Having to purchase a book of tickets before you entered that theme park. He promised the Toons that in the event of his death, they will inherit Toontown, as stated in his will. Dont believe me? His Gravestone wouldve had a picture of a falling anvil and wouldve read Long Live His Big Slapstick Toon-ness !. Thereby creating the oldI say old neighborhood we know as Toontown.. People arent going to like doing all of that climbing., Imagineers continued An attraction like thats only going to appeal to kids. Bob Z. and the writers came up with the scene. At least when it came to how popular an attraction would be with Guests (The Mickey Mouse Club Circus fiasco of the holiday season of 1955 being the exception, of course). Pete Pelican ( Screen Gems ) While this work was being done along the shore of the Rivers of America, over towards the entrance of Adventureland, the Imagineers were reconfiguring that restaurant that faced out towards Disneylands Hub.