Back in 1988 Touchstone Pictures released a film which featured cartoon characters and real people living in the same world. Set in 1947, Who Framed Roger Rabbit features the voice of Charles Fleischer as Roger Rabbit, a cartoon rabbit who's been framed for murder, and stars Bob Hoskins as Eddie Valiant, the private eye that's going to help him clear his name. Originally released in a bare bones edition, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is now available in a two-disc Vista Series edition.
Available from Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Who Framed Roger Rabbit features the fullscreen version of the film on disc one and the widescreen version of the film on disc two. It also comes with an english 5.1 DTS Surround audio track, an english 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround audio track, a french 2 channel Dolby Digital audio track and a spanish 2 channel Dolby Digital audio track. The english 5.1 DTS Surround audio track however is only available on the widescreen version of the film. English subtitles have also been included.
The special features are available on both discs. The first disc features the family friendly bonus material while the second disc features the enthusiast bonus material.
The options on the first disc might be a little confusing since they don't include the standard Play Movie, Scene Selection, Set Up and Special Features names like on every other disc, so I'll help you out here and tell you what your main menu options are and what they do. Your choices are Movie Theatre(play movie and scene selection), Valiant's Office(set up), Acme Warehouse(special features) and Ink & Paint Club(trailers). There's also Maroon Cartoon Studios but when you click on it it tells you to insert disc two to gain access to it.
The special features that are included on this disc are three Roger Rabbit shorts, a Who Made Roger Rabbit featurette, a set top game entitled Trouble In Toontown, two video trailers and the film's theatrical trailer.
The three Roger Rabbit shorts, Tummy Trouble(7:44), Rollercoaster Rabbit(7:50) and Trail Mix-Up(8:51) were made after the success of the film and were shown prior to select films.
The Who Made Roger Rabbit featurette(10:53), hosted by the voice of Roger Rabbit himself Charles Fleischer, is an interesting look at how the animated characters were incorporated into the film.
Rounding off the special features on this disc are a set top game, video trailers for Schoolhouse Rock and Ultimate X and the theatrical trailer for Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The theatrical trailer is actually hidden in the main menu. To access it highlight the words Movie Theatre, this should already be highlighted when you're first brought to the main menu, and press the down arrow button on your remote four times to highlight the speedometer, now press enter.
Moving on to the second disc we have an audio commentary track, a deleted scene, Valiant Files, a Before And After featurette, a Toons Stand-Ins featurette, a Behind The Ears documentary, an On Set! featurette and Toontown Confidential.
The audio commentary track by director Robert Zemeckis, producer Frank Marshall, associate producer Steve Starkey, screenwriters Jeff Price and Peter Seaman and visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston is a very interesting and informative look at the making of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The filmmakers discuss everything from the creation of Roger Rabbit to incorporating the animated characters into the real world and more. It's essentially a more detailed version of the Who Made Roger Rabbit featurette, but it gets a bit annoying because the commentators introduce themselves almost every time before they speak. For serious film and animation fans however it's a must.
The Valiant Files brings you to Eddie Valiant's office where you'll be able to access several still galleries by looking around with a magnifying glass. If you don't feel like snooping through his office however you can simply highlight the sheet of paper in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen and press enter. This will give you a cheat sheet which allows you to access all the still galleries from here instead.
The Before And After featurette(3:08) is a split screen look at the scene when Eddie Valiant first arrives in Toontown. The upper screen features the completed scene as it appears in the film while the lower screen features Bob Hoskins working in front of a blue screen.
The Toon Stand-Ins featurette(3:15) is somewhat like the Before And After featurette because it shows us what a scene looked like before the animation was added in. The scene in question is the "Two Bits" scene that takes place in the bar, but instead of working in front of a blue, the actors, Bob Hoskins and Christoper Lloyd, work with dummies. This featurette also contains some audio commentary by some of the filmmakers.
The last featurette on this disc is entitled On Set!(4:50) and it's probably going to appeal more to completists than to the casual viewer. As the title suggests this featurette contains some on set footage, but unfortunately for the casual viewer the footage that's included mainly features the prepping of a scene as opposed to the shooting of a scene, which is why it'll appeal more to film buffs and/or completists.
Behind The Ears:The True Story Of Roger Rabbit(36:33) is the film's making of documentary. As far as making of's go this is one of the best that I've seen. While most making of's rely heavily on cast and crew interviews that have little or nothing to do with the making of the film Behind The Ears actually features the cast and crew discussing, in great detail, every aspect that went into creating this film.
And finally we have Toontown Confidential, which is a subtitled trivia track that pops up throught the film. This trivia track is filled with information on the making of the film and animation history, but unfortunately the information on the making of the film has already been revealed in the other special features on this disc.
Overall however the Vista Series edition of Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a great improvement over the bare bones edition and it would make a nice addition to anyone's DVD collection.