Is Jessica Rabbit too hot for Disney to handle?
If you've never seen 1988's classic live-action/animation hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit, you might be surprised (or even shocked) by how much risqué content was allowed to be featured in a PG-rated movie. There's kidnapping, voyeurism, drug use, a truly terrifying villain (Christopher Lloyd's Judge Doom), and the rather horrific murder of a cute cartoon shoe that traumatized an entire generation of kids.
Even so, director Robert Zemeckis believes the dangerously curvy femme fatale known as Jessica Rabbit is the main reason we still haven't seen a sequel.
While being interviewed for the Happy Sad Confused Podcast, the filmmaker was asked about a potential Who Framed Roger Rabbit follow-up.
"There's a good script [for a sequel] at Disney, but here's the thing: The current Disney would never make Roger Rabbit today. They can't make a movie with Jessica in it."
Zemeckis added that the script in question, which was penned by original Roger Rabbit writers Peter S. Seamen and Jeffrey Price, simply "isn't ever going see the light of day, as good as it is. I mean, look what they did to Jessica at the theme park. They trussed her up in a trench coat, you know."
Zemeckis went on to explain how he was able to get the first movie greenlit in the first place.
"We were able to make it right at the time when Disney was ready to rebuild itself," he said. "We were there when that new regime came in, and they were full of energy, and they wanted to do it. I kept saying, and I sincerely say this, I do believe this, 'I'm making Roger Rabbit the way I believe Walt Disney would have made it.' The reason I say that is because Walt Disney never made any of his movies for children. He always made them for adults. And that's what I decided to do with Roger Rabbit."
What do you make of Zemeckis' comments? Do you think a sequel has really been held up by the Mouse House's aversion to Jessica Rabbit?
"Down-on-his-luck private eye Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) gets hired by cartoon producer R.K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern) to investigate an adultery scandal involving Jessica Rabbit (Kathleen Turner), the sultry wife of Maroon's biggest star, Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer). But when Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye), Jessica's alleged paramour and the owner of Toontown, is found murdered, the villainous Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) vows to catch and destroy Roger."