On an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to promote his new film, Here, Zemeckis was asked about the long-rumored sequel to Roger Rabbit, and he admitted that there was a "good script" sitting at Disney. However, he stated that the current regime would not make a Roger Rabbit film, primarily due to the inclusion of the sultry Jessica Rabbit (voiced by Kathleen Turner). He cited the change to the character in Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin ride at the Disneyland resort, in which they covered her animatronic with a trench coat. Here's what Zemeckis had to say:
There is a good script sitting at Disney but here’s the thing. Here’s what you have to know. The current Disney would never make Roger Rabbit today. They can’t make a movie with Jessica in it. So there is a [Peter] Seaman and [Jeffrey] Price sequel script. Is it ever going to see the light of day, as good as it is? I mean look at what they did with Jessica at the theme park, they trussed her up in a trench coat.”
What Zemeckis' Statement Means For A Sequel
It Would Not Get The Same Rating
Based on the 1981 novel, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a film noir-inspired mystery set in 1947 Hollywood where humans and cartoon characters co-exist. The plot follows Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), a private investigator with a grudge against toons, who must help exonerate Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer), a cartoon framed for murder. The film was a smash hit, receiving nearly universal praise from critics, and earning $351.5 million on a $50.6 million budget. Helping the success of the film was its PG rating, which it would likely not receive today.
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The plot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit borrows heavily from Roman Polanski's 1974 classic film Chinatown, and while that would have gone over the heads of the children in the audience, seeing cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny on the screen would have delighted them. Despite the usage of so many kid-friendly cartoon characters, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is overtly sexual, and fairly dark at times, most notably the scene in which a toon is tortured and murdered by Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd). A sequel today would have to tone that down considerably to earn a PG rating.
That's not to say Disney as a company is opposed to adult-focused entertainment. Its acquisition of 20th Century Fox has opened them up to Fox's entire film catalog, and Disney proved this past summer that they are willing to go all in on R-rated content. Deadpool and Wolverine is the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever made, pulling in over $1.3 billion. Obviously, a Roger Rabbit sequel wouldn't be R-rated, but if they wanted to keep the same tone as the original, it would likely get a PG-13 rating.
Our Take On a Roger Rabbit Sequel
It Would Be a Very Disney-Focused Film
If Disney decided to go ahead with a sequel, it would likely be missing the cartoon stars from the other studios. Spielberg convinced studios like Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Universal Pictures to lend their characters, like Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, and Droopy Dog, to appear in the film, which was, and still is, unheard of. The chances of a studio allowing their characters to appear in a Disney film today are incredibly slim. A Roger Rabbit sequel, would instead likely pull from the intellectual property owned by Disney, like Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars, for its cameos.
Source: Happy Sad Confused
Who Framed Roger Rabbit combines live-action and animation to create a world where humans and cartoon characters coexist. Set in 1940s Hollywood, the film follows a private investigator who is contracted to work on the case of a cartoon framed for murder, despite his dislike of cartoons. Bob Hoskins, Charles Fleischer, Christopher Lloyd, and Kathleen Turner all star.
Director Robert Zemeckis
Release Date June 22, 1988
Studio(s) Warner Bros. Pictures
Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures
Writers Peter S. Seaman , Jeffrey Price
Runtime 104 minutes
Budget $70 million
English (US) ·