A Roger Story
One of the most important stories in Sports Illustrated's history was written by William Nack, the great writer about horses and boxing. Nack grew up around racetracks, served in Vietnam, and when he returned noticed something new: A lot of horses were breaking down. In earlier years, it was rare for a horse to break a leg during a race. His investigation met a wall of silence, until one vet talked to him off the record, confirming his suspicions: Owners were using cortisone to deaden the pain of horses that should not be racing, and the broken bones were the result.
A Roger Story
When a racehorse breaks a leg on the track, it is invariably put down. Nack's story "Breakdowns" told of the death of one such filly. I heard Nack read it once, at a signing for his book My Turf, and people in the audience were crying. The movie "Dreamer" is based on a true story of the unthinkable: A horse that broke a bone and came back to race again. She was Mariah's Storm, winner of the 1995 Turfway Breeders' Cup.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, and written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, based on Gary K. Wolf's 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?. It stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Stubby Kaye, and Joanna Cassidy, with the voices of Charles Fleischer and Kathleen Turner. Combining live-action and animation, the film is set in an alternate history Hollywood in 1947, where humans and cartoon characters (referred to as "toons") co-exist. It follows Eddie Valiant (Hoskins), a private investigator with a prejudice against toons who must help exonerate Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer), a toon framed for murder.
Walt Disney Pictures purchased the film rights for the story in 1981. Price and Seaman wrote two drafts of the script before Disney brought in executive producer Steven Spielberg and his production company, Amblin Entertainment. Zemeckis was brought on to direct and Canadian animator Richard Williams was hired to supervise the animation sequences. Production was moved from Los Angeles to Elstree Studios in England to accommodate Williams and his group of animators. While filming, the production budget began to rapidly expand, and the shooting schedule ran longer than expected.
The Toon Patrol (Stupid, Smart Ass, Greasy, Wheezy, and Psycho) satirizes the Seven Dwarfs (Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey), who appeared in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Originally seven weasels were to mimic the dwarfs complement, but eventually two of them, Slimey and Sleazy, were written out of the script.[14] Further references included The "Ink and Paint Club" resembling the Harlem Cotton Club, while Zemeckis compared Judge Doom's invention of the Dip to eliminate all the toons as Hitler's Final Solution.[13] Doom was originally the hunter who killed Bambi's mother.[29] Benny the Cab was first conceived to be a Volkswagen Beetle before changed to a taxi cab. Ideas originally conceived for the story also included a sequence set at Marvin Acme's funeral, whose attendees included Eddie, Foghorn Leghorn, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Tom and Jerry, Heckle and Jeckle, Chip n' Dale, Felix the Cat, Herman and Katnip, Mighty Mouse, Superman, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, the Seven Dwarfs, Baby Huey, and Casper the Friendly Ghost in cameo appearances. This scene was cut for pacing reasons at the storyboard stage.[29] Before finally agreeing on Who Framed Roger Rabbit as the film's title, working titles included Murder in Toontown, Toons, Dead Toons Don't Pay Bills, The Toontown Trial, Trouble in Toontown, and Eddie Goes to Toontown.[30]
Who Framed Roger Rabbit received near-universal acclaim from critics, making Business Insider's "best comedy movies of all time, according to critics" list.[53] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 97% based on 66 reviews, and an average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit is an innovative and entertaining film that features a groundbreaking mix of live action and animation, with a touching and original story to boot."[54] Aggregator Metacritic has calculated a weighted average score of 83 out of 100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[55] Who Framed Roger Rabbit was placed on 43 critics' top ten lists, third to only The Thin Blue Line and Bull Durham in 1988.[56] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[57]
Richard Corliss, a writer for Time said, "The opening scene upstages the movie that emerges from it," he said. Corliss was mainly annoyed by the homages to the Golden Age of American animation.[69] Chuck Jones made a rather scathing attack on the film in his book Chuck Jones Conversations. Among his complaints, Jones accused Zemeckis of robbing Richard Williams of any creative input and ruining the piano duel that both Williams and he storyboarded.[70]
In December 2007, Marshall stated that he was still "open" to the idea,[107] and in April 2009, Zemeckis revealed he was still interested.[108] According to a 2009 MTV News story, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman were writing a new script for the project, and the animated characters would be in traditional two-dimensional, while the rest would be in motion capture.[109] In 2010, Bob Hoskins had agreed to sign on for a sequel, but expressed scepticism about the use of "performance capture" in the film.[110] Zemeckis said that the sequel would remain hand-drawn animated and live-action sequences will be filmed, just like in the original film, but the lighting effects on the cartoon characters and some of the props that the toons handle will be done digitally.[111] Also in 2010, Hahn, who was the film's original associate producer, confirmed the sequel's development in an interview with Empire. He stated, "Yeah, I couldn't possibly comment. I deny completely, but yeah... if you're a fan, pretty soon you're going to be very, very, very happy."[112] Hoskins retired from acting in 2012 after a Parkinson's disease diagnosis a year earlier, and died from pneumonia in 2014.[113] Marshall confirmed that the film would be a prequel, similar to earlier drafts, and that the writing was almost complete.[114] During an interview at the premiere of Flight, Zemeckis stated that the sequel was still possible, despite Hoskins' absence, and the script for the sequel was sent to Disney for approval from studio executives.[115]
In February 2013, Gary K. Wolf, writer of the original novel, said Erik Von Wodtke and he were working on a development proposal for an animated Disney buddy comedy starring Mickey Mouse and Roger Rabbit called The Stooge, based on the 1952 film of the same name. The proposed film is set in a prequel, taking place five years before Who Framed Roger Rabbit and part of the story is about how Roger met Jessica. Wolf has stated the film is currently wending its way through Disney.[116]
In November 2016, while promoting his film Allied in England, Zemeckis stated that the sequel "moves the story of Roger and Jessica Rabbit into the next few years of period film, moving on from film noir to the world of the 1950s". He also stated that the sequel would feature a "digital Bob Hoskins", as Eddie Valiant would return in "ghost form". While the director went on to state that the script is "terrific" and the film would still use hand-drawn animation, Zemeckis thinks that the chances of Disney green-lighting the sequel are "slim". As he explained more in detail, "The current corporate Disney culture has no interest in Roger, and they certainly don't like Jessica at all".[117] In December 2018, while promoting Welcome to Marwen, his latest film, and given the 30th anniversary of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Zemeckis reiterated in an interview with Yahoo! Movies that though the sequel's script is "wonderful", Disney is still unlikely to ever produce it, and he does not see the possibility of producing it as an original film for the streaming service Disney+, as he feels that it does not make any sense as there is no "Princess" in it.[118]
Roger recounts Chapter 48 of his autobiography to R2-D2. In that story, Roger accidentally obtains a 30 weight oil canister containing stolen Imperial codes that K-2SO and Cassian Andor were meant to pick up for the Rebel Alliance. K-2S0 rescues Roger from Imperial stormtroopers. Later, Roger learns about the identity of his rebel rescuers from R2-D2.
Roger reads Chapter 129 of his autobiography to Admiral Ackbar during a space battle. While the Freemakers were servicing Ben Quadinaros' podracer at Mos Espa on Tatooine, Roger is kidnapped by a clan of Jawas. Roger manages to escape their sandcrawler by stuffing the vehicle's engines with scrap metal. After landing in a village of Tusken Raiders, Roger escapes back to Mos Espa. Returning to the present, Ackbar borrows a left from Roger's story and thanks his crew.
Sharon A. Roger Hepburn's Crossing the Border tells the story of Buxton's settlers, united in their determination to live free from slavery and legal repression. Hepburn's study traces the establishment of educational, commercial, and political structures in Buxton and details how blacks formed tightly knit social and family units in protecting themselves from white hostility. It is the most comprehensive study to address life in a black community in Canada and adds to our understanding of black Canadians, free blacks beyond the South, and of blacks in planned communities established by emancipationists and abolitionists during the antebellum period. About the AuthorAbout the AuthorSharon A. Roger Hepburn is a professor and chair of the department of history at Radford University in Radford, Virginia. ReviewsReviews"The book is a treasure trove of information. . . . Crossing the Border is recommended for students at both the high school and college levels, and the general reading public."--Multicultural Review"Recommended."--Choice"Hepburn's book joins the ranks of the very best accounts of how thirty thousand runaway slaves fled Southern U.S. plantations in search of new lives in Canada, and once there, built viable settlements despite overwhelming odds against them. We are immensely grateful for this well-researched and well-written account."--H-Canada"Crossing the Border is a thorough study that features a highly readable narrative drawn from primary sources including Canadian census returns, Elgin Association records, church histories, family papers, newspaper articles, and personal correspondence."--Michigan Historical Review"Crossing the Border is essential reading for all serious students of African American history."--Journal of American HistoryBlurbs"Neither a fairy tale of living happily ever after nor a litany of disappointments, Crossing the Border tells of real people who changed their lives and made new ones under the North Star."--David I. Macleod, professor of history, Central Michigan University"Sharon Hepburn's community study of Buxton, Canada, significantly adds to our understanding of the diverse conditions confronting free blacks throughout the entire area north of Dixie. Crossing the Border shows that Canadian government policies were more accepting of blacks than those in the adjacent Old Northwest, and that Buxton afforded greater economic opportunities, more favorable race relations, and better educational access than in virtually all other areas. Hepburn's work will introduce scholars to the different character of opportunities afforded free blacks not just in Buxton and Canada West but throughout the entire trans-Appalachian West."--Stephen A. Vincent, author of Southern Seed, Northern Soil: African-American Farm Communities in the Midwest, 1765-1900AwardsAwardsAlbert B. Corey Prize, the American Historical Association and the Canadian Historical Association, 2008 Book Details Pages: 272 pages Dimensions: 6.125 x 9.25 in Illustrations: 11 black & white photographs, 7 tables African American StudiesHistory, Am.: 19th C. Related Titles google.books.load();function initialize() var viewer = new google.books.DefaultViewer(document.getElementById('viewerCanvas')); var canvas = document.querySelector('.viewer-bg'); var previewBtn = document.getElementById('preview-button') previewBtn.addEventListener('click', ()=> canvas.classList.add('active') //alert(res); //viewer.load('ISBN:'+res, alertNotFound); //var viewer = new google.books.DefaultViewer(document.getElementById('viewerCanvas')); var a = Array('ISBN:9780252031830'); viewer.load(a, alertNotFound); ) var closeBtn = document.querySelector('.close-viewer'); closeBtn.addEventListener('click', ()=> canvas.classList.remove('active') )function alertNotFound() var canvas = document.querySelector('.viewer-bg'); var error = document.createElement('h2'); error.innerText = 'No Preview Available For This Title.'; error.style.color = 'white'; error.style.textAlign = 'center'; canvas.appendChild(error)google.books.setOnLoadCallback(initialize); X function OptanonWrapper() Stay Connected Join Our Mailing List Copyright 2023 041b061a72