| <i>Who Framed Roger Rabbit</i>: The Inside Story Posted: 26 Dec 2013 04:00 AM PST  Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 animated fantasy/comedy/film noire directed by Robert Zemeckis (who directed the live action) and Richard Williams (who was in charge of the animation sequences). The film was a revolutionary mix of live action and animation and was based on the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf. In the novel, cartoon characters interact with real people. Before Zemeckis, Terry Giliam had been offered the directing position, but he declined, saying the job was "too technically challenging."
A common question about the film: Why no question mark in the film's title? The answer is an old Hollywood superstition that a question mark in a film's title is considered bad luck.
The actual lead role in the film is Eddie Valiant, the hard-boiled P.I. who is investigating the death of Marvin Acme. Producer Steven Spielberg's original choice for the role was Harrison Ford, but Ford's asking price was too high. Bill Murray was another early choice, but because he was so hard to locate and contact, Spielberg and Zemeckis decided to pass on him, too (when Murray read this story, he reportedly screamed, as he said he would have happily taken on the "Eddie" role).
Sylvester Stallone, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, and Ed Harris were all considered before character actor Bob Hoskins was finalized for the lead. To get the feel of working with imaginary characters, Hoskins studied his young daughter. After filming, Hoskins reportedly suffered from hallucinations. After he saw the film, Hoskins' young son was furious at him because his father never introduced him to Bugs Bunny!
Christopher Lloyd, who had already worked with Zemeckis in 1985's Back to the Future, took on the lead villain role of "Judge Doom." John Cleese also auditioned for the judge, but Spielberg and Zemeckis both thought no one would take a member of Monty Python seriously as a villain.  Lloyd avoided blinking his eyes on camera in order to perfectly portray the sinister character. Judge Doom's group of weasel henchmen (Smartass, Greasy, Stupid, Wheezy, and Psycho) were a satire of Snow White's seven dwarves.
Perhaps the film's most popular character (at least among men) was Jessica Rabbit, Roger's sexy bombshell wife. Jessica was portrayed by (a strangely uncredited) Kathleen Turner. Her singing voice was provided by Spielberg's then-wife, Amy Irving.
Jessica's sultry character was reportedly based on four film femme fatales. The quadruple amalgam consisted of "Red," the sexy lounge singer made famous in Tex Avery cartoons (Red Hot Riding Hood); Rita Hayworth in Gilda; Veronica Lake with her "peek-a-boo" hairstyle; and, at Zemeckis' insistence, the "look" of Lauren Bacall. 
Because of Jessica's satirically ultra-feminine form, Disney Studio boss Michael Eisner considered the final film too risqué with sexual innuendos. Director Zemeckis, however, had final cut provisions in his contract and refused to make changes, sexual or otherwise, to Jessica or her scenes. Rumors persist to this day (unsubstantiated and undocumented) regarding certain sexual scenes hidden in both the film and the later laserdisc of Jessica Rabbit and her interactions with various male characters in Roger Rabbit.
 The film's title role went to a young standup comedian/actor named Charles Fleischer. Although an animated character in the film, Fleischer insisted on getting dressed as Roger before standing off-camera and feeding his lines to Bob Hoskins (this included suspenders, bow tie, floppy ears and all).
Animation director Williams explained the Roger Rabbit character, much like Jessica, as a blend of several characters. According to Williams, Roger Rabbit had "Tex Avery's cashew nut-shaped head, the swatch of red hair like Droopy's, Goofy's overalls, Porky Pig's bow tie, Mickey Mouse's gloves, and Bugs Bunny's cheeks and ears."
Never before in the rich history of animation have so many cartoon icons been brought together in the same project, be it cartoon short, television show, or motion picture. Altogether, 326 animators worked full-time on the film.
Along with star Roger Rabbit, at one point or another in the film, we see Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Pie, Sylvester the Cat, Felix the Cat, Porky Pig, Wile E. Coyote, the Road Runner, Yosemite Sam, Mighty Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Alice, Snow White, and others -almost too many to keep track of!
Warner Bros. insisted their two top characters, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, get as much screen time as Walt Disney's top pair, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Because of this agreement, we see the Warner Bros. characters being featured in all the same scenes as the Disney characters. Roger Rabbit features the only double appearance in the same scene of the two most popular characters in cartoon history: Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny. Also featured in the film is a memorable piano duet between Donald and Daffy Duck.
In a brilliant touch, the great Mel Blanc was hired to reprise his iconic voice characterizations of Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, Porky, and Sylvester. This was one of the last times Blanc go to voice his immortal characters before he passed away in 1989. Another unforgettable moment has Mae Questel coming back to voice Betty Boop, her legendary cartoon character from the 1920s and '30s.
Unfortunately, we do miss seeing Popeye, Tom & Jerry, Little Lulu, Caspar the Friendly Ghost, and the Terrytoon characters (except for Mighty Mouse). Sadly, legal agreements and rights to these characters were not obtained by Spielberg in time for them to be featured in the final film.
The first test audience screening of Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a complete disaster. Shown to a crowd consisting mainly of 18- to 19-year-olds, the audience hated the film and reportedly many of them actually walked out on it. The studio got cold feet and wanted to make edits, but director Zemeckis, having final cut approval, refused to change one single scene or shot.
Roger Rabbit started out with a budget of $29.9 million, at the time the most expensive budget ever for an animated film. The budget ballooned to $70 million (as the production went way over schedule) and Disney almost pulled the plug on the project more than once. Fortunately, this never happened and Who Framed Roger Rabbit premiered on June 22, 1988, to almost unanimously rave reviews. It went on to gross $330 million worldwide.
To date, Who Framed Roger RabbitRoger Rabbit remains the only animated film to garner three Academy Awards: Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound. Richard Williams also won a special achievement award for "animation direction and creation of the cartoon characters."
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a unique, wonderful, and timeless movie classic. It remains a "must see" for anyone who loves the great cartoons from the Golden Age of Animation. And who doesn't?
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| The Best Cosplay of 2013 Posted: 26 Dec 2013 02:00 AM PST 
From clever to spooky to just plain spectacular, 2013 has been a great year for great cosplay. With all the end of the year round ups going around these days, it can be hard to keep track of them all, but this io9 gallery of great cosplay is something you simply shouldn't miss. 
We included some of these in our Comic Con and Wonder Con cosplay articles and some of these we've already featured because they are simply so fantastic, but plenty of the costumes are still new to us. 
If you like cosplay, you certainly won't want to miss this fantastic roundup of all these great costumes from the span of the last year. |
| Solomon and the Sudocreme Posted: 26 Dec 2013 12:00 AM PST  (YouTube link)
Dad walks in to see that his toddler son Solomon found the diaper rash cream and had fun putting it on everything. I guess every kid does something like this at least once, but a few take the damage to greater heights. Turn on the closed captioning when you watch this video, because the dialogue is in Dutch. -via Daily Picks and Flicks |
| Say Hello to The Game of Thrones Slug Posted: 25 Dec 2013 10:00 PM PST 
Daenerys Targaryen is pretty much my favorite female character from the last decade. She's tough, she's beautiful, she's kind and she's smart. And now, she has a sea slug named after her. The decision was made by Federal University of Ceará Tropical Marine master's student Felipe de Vasconcelos Silva, who discovered the slug and thought that it looks like her beautiful braids. The scientific name of the slug is Tritonia khaleesi after Daenarys' title in the series, but I think we should give it the nickname Daenarys Slugaryen. Sure, it might be pretty, but can it raise an army and serve as mother to dragons? Because those are critical pieces of what makes Daenerys so fantastic. Via Geekologie |
| Jake Carter's Natural Pokémon Posted: 25 Dec 2013 08:00 PM PST 
Jake Carter created images of various Pokémon (Pikachu, Charmander, Ivysaur, Psyduck, Diglett, and Exeggutor) made from leaves, rocks, and sticks in a series called Natural Pokémon. He captured their essence as well as any illustrator! See more of Carter's art at Instagram. -via Laughing Squid |
| Artists Create Snowmen Without Using Snow Posted: 25 Dec 2013 06:00 PM PST 
Snowmen are generally made out of snow, hence their name, but there's more to a snowman than just snow, there are key features that make up an iconic snowman- carrot nose, coal eyes, branch arms and a body made out of three different sized spheres. Artists Tony Tasset, Kristina Solomoukha, Gary Hume and Todd Hebert decided to try their hand at making a few all weather snowmen out of various materials like resin, glass, acrylic paint on canvas, metal and even a trio of shiny disco balls. They're round, Frosty-esque and destined to make all other snowmen jealous with their permanence. Via Beautiful/Decay |
| The Amazing Glass Barn of the Netherlands Posted: 25 Dec 2013 04:00 PM PST 
No, that's not some odd Photoshop of an imaginary building. It's a real picture of a real place in Schijndel, Netherlands. The reason it looks so strange is because it is actually a glass building with a barn printed on the glass. Certain areas are more or less transparent than others, which means you can see right through some of the building, while other parts are mostly opaque. 
The exterior is a composite design of local barns from throughout the area, blown up to be 1.6 the size of an average barn so adults standing outside often feel a sense of nostalgia like they are little kids visiting a neighbor's barn for the first time. You can learn more about the Glass Barn over at Homes and Hues and if you like this, you may also enjoy the warped window in London, the grass-covered home of Austria and the totally public glass bathroom in Japan. |
| Two Body Interactions: A Longitudinal Study Posted: 25 Dec 2013 02:00 PM PST The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research. 
by Brendan McMonigal, Sydney Institute for Astronomy, The University of Sydney
Abstract
A two body interaction is studied over an extended period of time in a variety of locations, and with a multitude of additional bodies. Additional tests are conducted in the later period of the study, and a summary of the studies results are presented. Finally, the prospect of continued study is evaluated.
Introduction
It is widely acknowledged that in general, two body interactions are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate one particular set of two body interactions over an extended period of time. In section 2, the findings of the study are summarized, and in section 3, the prospect for future study is evaluated.
Overview of Results
Reaching a semi-bound state
The study began on the 23rd of March, 2005, outside a SciSoc BBQ at the Eastern Avenue building, when the subject spontaneously appeared in a red coat and grey `Paddington bear’ hat and was similarly spontaneously introduced by a local social node. This meeting was under optimal conditions, as it happened to be the rainiest day of the year, and as it was later discovered, hydrometeors excite both subjects. This meeting would have been a fleeting interaction as so many two body interactions are, but a high level of compatibility coupled with a high rate of interaction due to similar timetables resulted in a local resonance, and eventually a semi-bound state on the 23rd of May, 2005.
Spatial independence and the effects of additional bodies 
The second phase of the study involved moving into a multi-body state, with between 3 and 5 additional principle bodies and their co-bodies. This state lasted for the majority of the rest of the study, and was shown to be consistent across a range of interactions and locations. The principle bodies were taken from a pool of 12 which ranged from purely independent, to frequently oscillating between different co-bodies. These longer term interactions were supplemented by a range of short term interactions with further additional bodies. Over the course of this phase of the study, the locational dependence of the results was tested across two main long term locations as well as a multitude of short term locations local, interstate, and international.
This phase also tested the effects of stress and tension on the two body interaction, applied first to one subject, and then to the other, in successive honours years. Additional tests conducted on a consistent annual basis during this phase included a two week separation (NMSS) and a surprise (Project Valentine). In the second half of this phase, additional tests included the effects of martial arts training for both subjects, and the effects of a consistent weekly multi-body interaction facilitated by homemade food.
The third phase of the study involved isolating the two body interaction in a new long term location, while continuing the above mentioned additional tests. This phase of the study is ongoing.
Conclusions
The summary of the findings of the study are presented in Figure 1, and show that the projected happiness is upward with high confidence. Taking these results into account, the author proposes to Christie Nelan, the indefinite continuation of the study. The subjects response to this proposal should be indicated below:
Acknowledgements
The author thanks the McMonigal family and the Nelan family, without which this research could not have been conducted. Additionally, the author thanks the University of Sydney for facilitating the initial period of this research.
[Ed. note: This story was a viral hit earlier this year.]
_____________________  This article is republished with permission from the March-April 2013 of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can purchase back issues of the magazine or subscribe to receive future issues, in printed or in ebook form. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift! Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
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| Celebrate Christmas With Oswald The Lucky Rabbit Posted: 25 Dec 2013 12:00 PM PST 
(Video Link) Disney Japan decided to celebrate Christmas 2013 with an old friend who’s suddenly coming back into the limelight thanks to merchandise and the Epic Mickey video game franchise. He’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and he was lighting up the silver screen way before a mouse threw on a pair of shoes, shorts and gloves and started whistling Steamboat Willie. Oswald looks as fresh as ever, and he’s not resentful about being overshadowed by Mickey because he’s got his best girl Ortensia by his side. Enjoy this animated short from Disney Japan and help Oswald get back to the top where he belongs. Via Cartoon Brew |
| Elk Gets in the Christmas Spirit Posted: 25 Dec 2013 10:00 AM PST  (Photo: Parks Canada/Dan Rafla)
He’s an elk, not a reindeer, but this bull elk in Banff, Alberta may be trying out for Santa’s sleigh team. His antlers caught a 4-meter string of Christmas lights and several candy canes. Wildlife officials with Parks Canada, concerned that the decorations might injure him, tranquilized the elk and cut his antlers off. That may seem like an extreme solution, but a spokesman said that it’s a healthy choice because now he’s not carrying around 25-30 pounds of extra weight on his head. Elk grow antlers every year, so he’ll sport a fresh set soon enough. Until then, he'll be the laughingstock of neighborhood elks. -via Popped Culture |
| Maymo and Penny Celebrate Christmas Posted: 25 Dec 2013 09:00 AM PST 
(Video Link) Dashing through the snow in a one dog open sleigh, over the fields they go, barking all the way. After that, the two discover they can get in even more fun Christmasy adventures, digging through stockings, smashing decorations, ripping open the presents -and that's just the start of the mayhem. Well, if they're going to get in this much trouble, at least they look cute while doing it -especially with those reindeer antlers. Just imagine the police lineup they would end up in. Via Cute Overload |
| Solve This Pzzlr: Santa's Reindeer Posted: 25 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST 
Neatorama presents our collaboration with Pzzlr, a site where you can always find a riddle to exercise your brain. Can you solve this one?
Every year Santa changes the order in which his single line of nine reindeer will pull his sleigh (to avoid jealousy among the reindeer, obviously). This year the elves responsible for harnessing the team have been given the following instructions: Comet behind Rudolph, Prancer and Cupid. Blitzen behind Cupid and in front of Donder, Vixen and Dancer. Cupid in front of Comet, Blitzen and Vixen. Donder behind Vixen, Dasher and Prancer. Rudolph behind Prancer and in front of Donder, Dancer and Dasher. Vixen in front of Dancer and Comet. Dancer behind Donder, Rudolph and Blitzen. Prancer in front of Cupid, Donder and Blitzen. Dasher behind Prancer and in front of Vixen, Dancer and Blitzen. Donder behind Comet and Cupid. Cupid in front of Rudolph and Dancer. Vixen behind Rudolph, Prancer and Dasher. What is the order of the reindeer? Think you know the answer? See the solution at Pzzlr!
Look for a new puzzle here at Neatorama every Wednesday, and check out Pzzlr for a puzzle anytime! (Image credit: Flickr user m.prinke) |
| Ice Palace Ice Tray Posted: 25 Dec 2013 06:00 AM PST 
Ice Palace Ice Tray Create your own frozen ice castle with the Ice Palace Ice Tray from the NeatoShop. This magical ice tray makes ice shaped like turrets and other castle parts. The ice tray is made from food-safe silicone. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Ice Trays. Link |
| 13 Great Geeky Ugly Christmas Sweaters Posted: 25 Dec 2013 06:00 AM PST 
We've seen our share of great ugly sweaters, but it's not every day you see an ugly Christmas sweater that's totally geeky at the same time. That's the great thing about this article on Geekosystem, we here at Neatorama wish we could wear these great sweaters for ourselves -whether they're ugly or not. Of course, many of these are one-of-a-kind, so if you're looking for an ugly geek sweater to call your own, don't miss our sweater-inspired tees over at the NeatoShop for some comfy, easy-to-order goodies. |
| Awesome Christmas Video Greetings 2013 Posted: 25 Dec 2013 05:00 AM PST This happens every year. We get a wonderful batch of video Christmas greeting sent to us right before the holiday. But 1. there's not enough hours left in the day to post them one at a time for your Christmas enjoyment, a 2. some people are suffering from Christmas overload already. So here we have our mega-list of the nicest, funniest, and cleverest video greetings from all over in one list! See them all if you've got the Christmas spirit, or save for later if you are too busy right now. You might find the perfect video to send out to your friends and relatives for a last-minute Christmas card! A Slow Motion Christmas
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Did you make gingerbread men this year? Be aware that when no one is looking, they can be total menaces! FinalCutKing made this slow motion video as a Christmas greeting. -Thanks, Zach King!
Goats Singing Merry Christmas
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These goats are singing their Christmas greetings to you, through the magic of editing! Eleven seconds of silliness -and the rest of the video is an ad. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Decor Amore
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A Christmas greeting from Bruton Stroube, which I believe does photography and videos. In a world where Christmas decorations come to live while no one is watching, a Nutcracker falls for an angel. A Krampus Christmas
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Screen Novelties sent this stop-motion animation they made in which Krampus shows his usefulness in punishing naughty boys and girls! -Thanks, Mark!
Paul's Home Alone Christmas Card
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Paul Little made a Christmas greeting by performing Home Alone, the entire movie, by himself. I never noticed that he never took a bite of the macaroni and cheese, but apparently that is a sticking point for everyone who was a child when they first saw the movie. -via Viral Viral Videos
Christmas Medley Parody 2013
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Screen team put together this medley of song parodies rewritten with a Christmas theme. The highlight is their takeoff on "Royals" about halfway through. -Thanks, Elijah Johnson!
A Synthesizer for Christmas
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Ambar Navarro created this stop-motion animation for the song "A Synthesizer for Christmas" by Hyperbubble. -via Laughing Squid Cats Help Wrap Gifts
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Cats are totally enthusiastic about wrapping gifts, even if they aren't in the room! -via Tastefully Offensive A Merry Christmas in Dominoes
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Hevesh5 set up dominos for his Christmas greeting. Sweet! -via Viral Viral Videos
Teddy Bear's Christmas Treat
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Teddy Bear the porcupine found a whole box of corn on the cob under the Christmas tree! He's busy enjoying his Christmas corn as fast as he can, be he still has a few words today about it. Those words are apparently, "Keep your paws off my corn!" -Thanks, Zooniversity! Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone! |
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