While going through his many box office hits, on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Robert Zemeckis confirmed that a sequel script for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” another of his blockbusters from the 1980s, exists. However, per Zemeckis, it’s unlikely to get made is because Jessica Rabbit is too hot for the current Disney regime. Instead, Zemeckis explained that this unfortunate truth persists even though the sequel script is good. “I mean look what they did to Jessica at the theme park. They dressed her up in a trench coat.”
Apparently, the Disneyland attraction “Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin” went through changes in 2021 as part of a larger clean by the Disney parks to address racially insensitive and other offensive material from attractions. The name of this ride reminds us of one of the most paused moments in film history.
As explained by Snopes:
“An incident that occurs during the scene in which Jessica Rabbit is riding through Toon Town with Bob Hoskins in an animated cab. As the taxi runs into a lamp post, Jessica and Hoskins are both thrown from the car. Jessica lands spinning, which causes her red dress to start hiking up her body. For a few frames of Jessica’s second spin her underwear supposedly disappears, revealing Jessica’s unclothed nether regions…In these frames Jessica’s pubic region is colored darker than the surrounding flesh-colored areas. Whether this coloration was intended to suggest nudity or was the result of a paint error is unknown. The intention might have been to paint the darker regions a color representative of underwear, but an error in the color markup chart produced some ambiguous images.”
For “Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin,” Jessica, dressed in film accurate attire, was removed from the trunk of a car and later replaced by a detective version of the character wearing a trench coach.
At the time, the folks on MiceChat questioned the switch suggesting that it’s not believable that Jessica would trade her fabled acting career for a gig as a private detective. According to MiceChat.
“For Disney, the change has two real goals — covering up Jessica’s large chest with a trenchcoat and removing her from the trunk of a car.”
Directed by Zemeckis from a screenplay by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman (who returned to pen the sequel that never got made), “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was the second highest-grossing film of 1988 with $351 million at the worldwide box office.
As to how the original film was greenlit by Disney, Zemeckis said, “We were there when a new regime came in and they were full of energy.”
Zemeckis then proceeded to make the film as he believed Walt Disney himself would have made it, explaining that Disney never made any of his movie for children, but instead for adults.
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was nominated for six Academy Awards and took home the prizes for film editing, sound and visual effects. Richard Williams was also awarded a special achievement Oscar for his animation.
Zemeckis’ current film, “Here,” is now playing in theaters nationwide.
