![]() ![]() Like in 1990’s Prince and the Pauper theatrical short.Īs well as Bonkers, House of Mouse and possibly other stuff I don’t care to grab images for. The Weasels, on the other hand, continued appearing in Disney cartoons, usually in nameless, one-off goon roles. Following that, Roger and Jessica only appeared in a trio of short cartoons and an occasional TV special, but that’s really about it in terms of animated appearances. The design appeared again in 1952’s Goofy short “How to be a Detective”Īnd then again in 1983’s Mickey’s Christmas Carol.Įverything you’ve seen above is from before Who Framed Roger Rabbit ever hit cineplexes. The weasels design is inspired by the thuggish Weasels who originally debuted in The Wind and the Willows portion of 1949’s The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. As it turns out, there’s a bit of tradition there. Originally designed as a semi-parody of The Seven Dwarves, the The Weasels go entirely unnamed in the film. What you might not know it that they’re technically pre-existing characters who were born a helluva lot close to to every other Disney character who makes a cameo in the film.ĭeleted Weasels. All you’d get is Roger, Jessica, Benny, Herman, and if you were lucky, maybe the Toon Patrol Weasels. I remember being bummed out that the likes of Mickey and Bugs never appeared in any Roger Rabbit merchandise. ![]() The Weasels Got More Acting Work Than Roger and Jessica It’s also the first time Russi Taylor voiced Donald’s nephews and the only time Alan Young didn’t voice Scrooge from 1974 up until his recent passing.īut given both Roger Rabbit and Soccermania’s lengthy development time, the productions shared numerous animators, so a pre-Zemeckis Roger Rabbit made his official, fully-animated “debut in a brief cameo as a background character, during Soccermania in 1987.ħ. Soccermania is far more interesting as a bit of DuckTales trivia, since it was the first 1980s animated collaboration of Scrooge McDuck and Huey, Dewey & Louie well before the premiere of their beloved Disney Afternoon TV show. ( Learn more about the bizarre odyssey of DuckTales, Soccer Mania and *shudder* Sports Goofy in our candid interview with Disney Afternoon creator Tad Stone!) Years in the making, the “special” was dumped onto NBC in May of 1987, never aired again, and has never been released on any home video format in the United States. Yes, Goofy is literally referred to “Sports Goofy” throughout. For example, the rightfully-obscure “Sports Goofy in Soccermania,” an insipid cartoon from Disney’s branding department, made to shill a European line of Goofy-themed sports wear. Disney films tend to take a lot of time in the oven, and not every project emerges as successfully as Roger Rabbit. If you’ve read the entry above, you’re well aware of how long Who Framed Roger Rabbit was in gestation before coming to theaters in 1988. Roger Rabbit Made His Semi-Official Debut in 1987 Scrub to 6:23 in the video below to finally hear Pee-Wee Herman as the lost voice of Roger Rabbit! (Fear not, PW would eventually voice a character in an amazing 1986 Disney film!)Ħ. ![]() I wrote about my years-long quest to find this mythic footage extensively here, but to make that long story short: The Disney Channel, desperate to fill its airwaves during its debut year as a Pay TV channel, aired a behind-the-scenes look at a vastly different Who Framed Roger Rabbit back in 1983.Īs I put it in this piece, “the Venn Diagram of people who owned VCRs, subscribed to The Disney Channel, and cared enough about Roger Rabbit all the way back in 1983 refused to overlap into that very special someone capable of encoding a video for YouTube.” Thankfully the mystery was finally laid to rest in 2014 when the once-lost footage miraculously resurfaced. Roger Rabbit’s original casting is a well-known bit of Roger Rabbit trivia, however, what’s more fascinating is how hard it was to actually see his performance for over thirty years. Obviously, a lot of changes can take place in six years, one of which was Roger’s original voice actor, a relatively unknown Paul Reubens, several years before his famous Pee-Wee Herman character received his own TV show and movie trilogy. Not only did he provide the voice of Roger and Benny the Cab, he was on the set of the film the whole time (just out of frame), reacting to Bob Hoskins’ Eddie Valiant while dressed in a rabbit suit recording his dialog live, making for one of the first vocal “mo-cap” performances in the days long before Peter Jackson was gluing balls to actors faces.įleisher on the set of Who Farmed Roger Rabbitīut Who Framed Roger Rabbit’s production at Disney began as far back as 1982. I can’t imagine anyone in the role of Roger Rabbit other than the wonderfully manic Charles Fleisher. Pee-Wee Herman Was the Original Voice of Roger Rabbit ![]()
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