Bob Hoskins says goodbye to acting – Farewell, Eddie Valiant

Well, I…

I didn’t see this coming.

Bob Hoskins, our Eddie Valiant in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” is retiring from acting duties. Sadly he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease last autumn, and as time passes and his disease keeps developing, he won’t be able to deliver any more of his quality performances on movies, TV or theater.

Parkinson’s Disease has also gotten other well-known celebrities like Michael J. Fox and Muhammad Ali. Hoskins will spend more time with his family, out of the spotlights, in a more private and less-demanding lifestyle.

Frankly I don’t have enough words to tell you how devastated I feel for these news. We were expecting him to reprise his role in the in-works sequel of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, but sadly this won’t be happening. But I fully understand why he took this painful decision, and I really wish him the best. In fact, I’m very thankful for all the great moments I’ve had with every one of his roles on movies (as Smee in “Hook”, the villainous Bart in “Unleashed”, Mr. Fezziwig in “A Christmas’ Carol” and even as Mario in the infamous “Super Mario Bros.”,  among others).

Farewell Eddie Valiant, our grumpy old friend. Toontown will never be the same without you. You’ll live forever in our hearts.

News source: comingsoon.net

Hare In My Soup

Thanks to our fellow friend Jarrod (webmaster of I’mNotBad.com) we’ve got those amazing pictures from the cells of the ill-fated, never released short “Hare In My Soup” and let me say they look quite great!

The character designs and backgrounds look really superb and quite similar to the preceding shorts which were released before (Tummy Trouble, Rollercoaster Rabbit and Trail Mix-Up). It’s a shame the constant feud between Steven Spielberg (from Amblin) and Michael Eisner (then CEO of Disney) ruined this short, since it seemed very promising (Spielberg demanded several changes to the story until he decided to shut this project down, as a revenge for not having any Roger Rabbit short to open his own movies like Arachnophobia).

One just can wonder about what could have happened if only Spielberg approved this short feature… What a bummer.

Thanks again, Jarrod! =3

Feelin’ sad for Roger

Today I was searching for some new info related to Roger Rabbit, and then I stumbled upon this blog, with some scans from the ticket of the world premiere of “Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin” (the wacky, spinning attraction based on Roger’s movie) on Mickey’s Toontown.

Then I read a comment that got my nerves:

Did Disney really think Roger Rabbit was going to be the next Mickey Mouse? The movie was good, but, something about it seemed uninspired to me. I think that uninspired feeling translated right into Toontown and Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.

WHAT’S THE FRIGGIN’ DEAL WITH THIS GUY??

I mean, Roger was in fact BIGGER than Mickey Mouse in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He was prominently featured in Mickey’s 60th anniversary TV special, even he had a huge role in Walt Disney’s World 20th. anniversary. People had to watch movies like “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”, “Dick Tracy” and “A Far-Off Place” just for having the privilege of enjoy the latest Roger Rabbit animated shorts. HE WAS EVERYWHERE, and Disney knew it.

What happened with Roger, then? The story is well known: Steven Spielberg (Amblin) and Michael Eisner (Disney) got issues about the choice of the movies that would need the boost of a Roger Rabbit animated short (ultimately, Disney won) and Spielberg wasn’t agree with some stuff about merchandising, royalties and usage of the characters from the movie. At that point, Roger was losing momentum and, instead of settling down all those issues, Spielberg and Eisner abandoned Roger and forgot about him. There were several attempts for bringing Roger back, but they were also too expensive for making a quick profit (fortunately, we didn’t have to suffer a lame Roger Rabbit “cheapquel”, I mean, a cheap straight-to-video release). Add to the mix the lawsuit between Disney and Gary Wolf (the real creator of Roger Rabbit, his friends and the Toontown concept) for unpaid royalties and the final result is one of the biggest messes in Hollywood’s history. For short: as of today, Roger Rabbit is lost in legal limbo.

How do I feel about this, being a big Roger Rabbit fan? Well… Most of the time I think how things would be if Roger had enough support for surviving the 90’s. I mean: Bonkers’ cartoon was supposed to be Roger Rabbit’s debut on saturday morning shows, and there was a great script for filming a prequel of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” that was discarded in favor of a softer, more “Broadway-themed” script (that also was discarded as well). Big plans for launching a zany, sweet and lovable rabbit to the stars and beyond, that got ruined by corporate issues.

I’m sad about this. Sad and disappointed. All we can get of Roger Rabbit and his pals today are those uninspired pins, some shirts with Jessica Rabbit on them, those incredibly expensive resin figures, and the occasional re-runs of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” on TV. That’s not enough for me and for many of us that love the rabbit. He deserves more than this. He deserves a second chance. Even some little kids know about Roger and love him, despite the fact they can’t have dolls in the shape of the rabbit for playing with him.

Maybe the world don’t need Roger Rabbit anymore.