First draft drawings of “Roger Rabbit”

Sometimes I wander into eBay just for looking all the neat stuff related to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” that’s on sale or auction. Usually I find the very same stuff that we know already (plush dolls, exclusive figurines and statues, pins, posters and rare collectibles) but once in a while I find something that really gets my interest. The above drawings are one of those things.

As you already know, movie rights for “Who Censored Roger Rabbit” were bought by Disney back in 1981 and there were plans to film a blockbuster feature based in the novel, until the project lost some steam and was shelved –only to be rescued in 1985, fully revamped and backed up by Steven Spielberg and Michael Eisner. The drawings on the following eBay auction are supposedly some of the first drafts of the main characters from the still heavily-based-on-novel project:

1988 (sic) Original First Draft Drawings of Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Although they’re actually photocopies and the seller is wrong on the year they were probably sketched, those drawings are actually great and help us to get the whole idea of how several of the characters we know did look back in the early stages of pre-production.

If you plan to get them, better hurry! =)

Roger Rabbit back in 1983 –Yes, 1983!!

Yup. They are Eddie Valiant and Roger Rabbit.

As you probably know, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was canned for a while since Disney bought the rights to Gary Wolf’s novel “Who Censored Roger Rabbit?” and the Mouse House’s executives were trying to pull a movie out of that bizarre yet funny novel, until they gave up because they didn’t have the budget for a project like this one.

Well… 2719 Hyperion bring us this pic from the 1983 Disney’s Annual Report, in which a Roger Rabbit movie is mentioned as being near to its theatrical release (little did they know that the movie would be actually premiered in 1988, with a very different look and feel). This photograph shows Mike Gabriel (a Disney animator, storyboard artist and character designer) dressed as Eddie Valiant, along with Roger Rabbit in his first incarnation, mainly inspired in Tex Avery’s cartoons as the design suggests.

You can read more about this in 2719 Hyperion’s entry about Roger Rabbit, 1983-style =3

Early Roger Rabbit pencil test

This rare pencil test, uploaded by Youtube user LindaBlair2000 features a short test with a preeliminary Jessica Rabbit design, walking around a mock Eddie Valiant actor, and even flirting and yelling at him. Later, we can see a totally nude Roger Rabbit (better said: the first version of the character which looked more like Screwball Squirrel, voiced by Paul Reubens who’s better known as Pee-Wee Herman) complaining at Eddie Valiant who is voiced off-screen. Finally, we can catch a very short glimpse of Roger Rabbit dressed in his corduroy pants, walking on a real street, in front of the corner of some building.

This can give you a very slight idea of what was originally intended for Roger Rabbit’s movie; in fact, it looks to me that the original plans were to stick to Gary Wolf’s novel as much as possible.

Thanks, LindaBlair2000!!