Roger and Jessica Shorts Tribute Series

 Isn’t she lovely?

Electric Tiki Design is about to release a limited series of resin figures featuring Jessica and Roger Rabbit from the shorts “Roller Coaster Rabbit” and “Trail Mix-Up”. The concept sketches and the maquette featuring Jessica Rabbit are featured in the following link:

http://www.electrictiki.com/classic%20toons/roger-shorts.html

It is said that the very revealing outfit Jessica’s wearing would be changed for her traditional maroon sequined dress, but I bet she’ll still look awesome in the maquette. I’m still waiting for Roger’s maquette but there’s a concept drawing that shows how would him look.

By the way, thanks to Alexander for the info and the link!! =3

Zemeckis is pulling the rabbit out of the hat?

Oh my God, OH MY GOD!! And I thought I wouldn’t find any exciting news about Roger Rabbit tonight:

AWN - Zemeckis Thinking About Roger Rabbit 2

Yes folks, you read right: Robert Zemeckis (director of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “Back To The Future” trilogy) is giving a very serious thought at “Roger Rabbit 2”!! At first I thought it was one of the usual rumors that we’re very used to, but then I saw the following video on MTV Videos… Zemeckis in person is wondering about how current technical achievements could bring Roger Rabbit back from his retirement, in a brand new story not related to the previous prequel attempts:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

A funny part is when the interviewer begs Zemeckis: “please, do it now”. And I’m very agree with him: p-p-p-p-p-p-p-please Zemeckis, DO IT NOW!!

More from “Almendra”

Tonight I found another video from the peruvian kids show “Almendra”, in which Roger Rabbit and Mickey Mouse are doing serious mischief in the set, although Roger is prominently featured. You don’t need to understand what is happening, since it’s clearly visible that Roger had a lot of fun with that small bucket, soaking everyone that got in his way XD

Undoubtedly, Roger stole the show that day =3

Roger Rabbit Pinata

In Mexico pinatas are a very old and beloved tradition, and they are present in every children’s birthday party. When “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was premiered in Mexico under the name “Quién Engañó a Roger Rabbit”, it was an instant hit and was played in cinemas for at least half year (from July to December 1988). Many products from the movie were sold at that time, mainly stickers, keychains, clothing and novelty items (there were some toys and plush dolls, but they were imported illegally to our country by small contrabandists known as “fayuqueros”). Of course, there were a lot of unofficial products, and one of them were pinatas for children parties; here is a picture that one of my friends sent me some time ago, in which he’s about to smack a Roger Rabbit pinata:

Here’s a closeup, in which you can appreciate it better:

In some way, it’s sad that there were children smacking and destroying those poor Roger Rabbit pinatas in their parties. But when you are a children, you don’t really care about beating your favorite character: you care about the candy inside the pinata XD

Roger looked nice, hope he made a lot of children happy that day =3

Hopes are not dead yet

Lately I’ve written my blog entries in a sad, hopeless mood. You know as well as I how difficult is being a Roger Rabbit fan, when almost no one cares about him. I’ve been thinking about that the entire week, and even I was in a very emotional mood last night, since I felt pretty alone (although I know you’re with me in this, Ayaka-imouto-chan and Alexander) and I have a lot of things to share about the rabbit, but sometimes seems that there is no place for us.

Today, a close friend of mine sold me a new Roger Rabbit doll for my collection. He’s a cutie, but his hair is cut to the half and he doesn’t speaks anymore. I decided to keep Roger with me, holding him in my right arm (just like in my own photographs), and take a stroll with him and my friend.

I really was amazed about how many children recognized him and shouted: “Look, it’s Roger Rabbit!!” And I’m talking about several children from 6 to 9 years old, that knew about Roger Rabbit even when his own movie is 20 years old!!

That experience brought me two things: a very much needed smile, and a great feeling of hope. Not just a small light, but a really huge thing. If those kids know about Roger is because they have enjoyed his movie, laughed with him and fell in love with him. And since the reruns of the movie are constant and persistent, at least in Mexico and Latin America, probably more children will know about “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and its lovable characters.

So, fellas, hopes are not dead yet. Sorry for making you feel sad about Roger Rabbit; he surely want us to smile, and for that reason, from this right moment I’ll be smiling :)

Un lindo día

I found this video today at Youtube. It seems that it’s from a peruvian vintage kids show named “Almendra” (after its hostess, Almendra Gomelsky), and probably was broadcasted between 1994-1996. She’s singing what appears to be the opening song from the show, and while she sings Roger Rabbit and Mickey Mouse costumed characters dance and jump along with her. Just look at Roger, he’s all cheerful and bouncing with joy from side to side!!

There are a lot of Roger close-ups, so I strongly recommend you to watch this video (even if you don’t speak spanish); hope this remind us the time when Roger Rabbit was as great as Mickey Mouse… Times that are sadly gone forever.

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.

Honey Bunny

Honey Bunny - Custom by ~bunnyfriend on deviantART

P-p-p-p-please, take a look to my most recent work of restoration!! It involves a very beaten Roger Rabbit doll, some skills… And a lot of love and kisses (literally) X3

Just click on the image or the link below the image =D

Walking Bimbo Bear

Today I bought a very, very rare walking Bimbo bear. As you might remember from a former entry, Bimbo (the most known brand of bakeries in Latin America) gave several years ago a lot of cute plush bears as purchase gifts, and past January I got a plush bear in excellent condition.

This time, I got one of the holy grails in mexican collecting circles: the most sought of all Bimbo bears, the walking one. Unfortunately I couldn’t get him walking (I replaced the batteries and his mechanism still works, but maybe some piece is broken and he can’t walk or swing his hands), but still he has all his tags and despite the lack of his bread loaf under his arm, this bear is complete and in pristine condition.

Incredibly I got him for just $5 pesos!! (less than 40 dollar cents) Now that’s what I call a great deal =D

Look at his size, compared to my another Bimbo bear:

P.S. Yup: that’s my PC monitor in the background, displaying Roger Rabbit =3

IMMA BACK GUISE

Well… I decided to came back and rescue “Toontown Antics” from oblivion, and I must say: that feels soooooooooooo good =3

Maybe this little journal is not the most read of the whole internets. Maybe there aren’t enough Roger Rabbit fans out there. Maybe I collect stuff or talk about things you don’t have interest on. But I’ll try to do my best for improving this blog and giving you the best from me. After all, all of us need a place for laughs, and “Toontown Antics” is that place for me.

P-p-p-p-p-p-please, tell me what do you want to read in this blog, and I’ll hear your requests; after all, I have very long and floppy ears =D

An old friend’s comeback

Once upon a time, I bought online a very worn out Roger Rabbit plush doll. He looked OK in the pictures, so I purchased it. When I got him one month after (since the seller sent him to me thru regular mail, instead of using a fast delivery service), he wasn’t so good looking at all. Roger was a little damaged and perhaps some child played lots with him, but what really caught my attention about him was his smile. His beautiful, cheery smile. I fell in love of him immediately.

Half year ago, I was very annoyed since I had some argument with one of my co-workers, and when I arrived home the first thing I saw was that smiling Roger doll. I couldn’t stand his sweet smile, so I threw him to the floor, stepped hard on him several times, kicked him and finally I torn him apart in several pieces. When I realized what have I done, it was too late: he was “dead”. I picked up all the pieces and threw them inside a plastic bag, for discarding that poor plushie doll later. But I never did. I kept all the pieces.

Yesterday I decided it was time to bring back my old, severed friend from “death”. With my poor sewing skills (and lots of glue, by the way) I gave him another chance to live:

I hadn’t the heart for taking pictures of him before the process. But he was really torn apart: his head, his ears, his arms, his legs and torso, and his clothes were absolutely destroyed. But he was still smiling. Maybe that was the reason that lead me to reconstruct him. I made a little comparative about how he looked before the incident, and how does he look now:

Of course, I am not proud of what I’ve done in the past. In fact, I had a lot of regrets for destroying this little smiling doll. But I hope this help to heal all those wounds and leaving the past where it belongs. Because, after all, Roger still has that sweet smile I love =3

Whiskers

If you have had (or maybe you still have) a Roger Rabbit plush doll, you can notice that probably he lacks two important features: his long whiskers, and his trademark front tooth. Since I had some spare time this past weekend, I decided to work on my own Roger Rabbit plush doll (better said, my favorite one) for giving him those facial features, and this is the final result:

How does Roger look now? I’d like to know what do you think! =3

Huge collection update

Maybe it’s the last time I upload an update of my collection. I’m always showing off my newest finds, but I never really thought if you will be interested in them, since many of you probably have neater things than mine. Anyway, those are my latest finds:

Roger Rabbit PVC figurine with handcuffs

Thumper Wind Up Plush (if you wind up him, he will play a sweet lullaby while moving his head softly from side to side)

Large Talking Horton Plush (he’s really huge!)

Little Thumper Plush, with a suction cup hanging from his head (he’s into my car right now)

Brer Rabbit Beanie

So there are my new babies. Finding them ain’t easy (specially Roger Rabbit collectibles) but you can imagine how glad I feel when I bring those little friends into my house =3

About my absence

In the last two weeks I was a little absent of this blog… Sadly, just a couple of persons know about its existence, and nobody else cares about it. Maybe it’s because Toontown Antics is a rather new journal… Maybe it’s because I focus too much in my personal collection, since there aren’t enough news about Roger Rabbit out there… Maybe it’s because no one is interested in a 20-years-old movie, or because traditional animation with classic characters isn’t as appealing compared with all those neat 3-D animated features and new characters voiced by movie superstars and pop singers.

Still don’t know if I wish to go ahead with Toontown Antics, since no one seems to be interested in Roger Rabbit.

Anyway, I’ll give this journal another chance. If I can’t raise enough interest on it, maybe I’ll shut it down, or just leave it alone. I still have my old blog (http://www.anim-arte.com/comunidad/blogs/roger-rabbit/) but I’ll rather keep it focused to my personal life and issues (sorry, my former blog will be updated only in spanish).

Roger Rabbit never gave up, I know. But I’m NOT Roger Rabbit.

More new bunnies

Today I got this Roger Rabbit lot, which includes:

A vinyl figurine

 A little plush with suction cups (his eyes are yellowed by Sun exposition, but the rest is OK and the suction cups still work)

 
And a mint Roger Rabbit plush doll, just like the one I got severely damaged some time ago; his fur is still soft and puffy =3

And so, my rabbit family keeps growing <3

…And the rumors are floating again

Recently, DreamWorks SKG has signed an arrangement with Disney for the distribution of their movies; they will be released under the "Touchstone Pictures” label and the deal is expected to last 5 years, releasing a minimum of 5 or 6 pictures every year.

Since DreamWorks SKG is still managed by movie guru Steven Spielberg, the obvious question comes again:

Finally we’ll be able to get a sequel or prequel from our beloved movie: “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”?

More than a year ago, Frank Marshall (one of the original producers of the movie) told to MTV Movies Blog that he was willing to film another Roger Rabbit movie, but some issues got to be solved before getting the rabbit out of the hat. And since Jeffrey Katzenberg (former executive at Walt Disney, now in control of DreamWorks Animation SKG –that runs independently, under the Viacom conglomerate) got some interesting deals with Disney about the broadcasting of some special animated features on ABC, and Robert Zemeckis is working for the mouse in some projects involving MoCap (Motion Capture, as in The Polar Express or Beowulf), you can’t help thinking about the filming of the so-much-promised-yet-so-much-delayed Roger Rabbit prequel, now that Spielberg works closely with the Mouse House.

The only thing I can say is: don’t expect too much from these rumors.

Year after year, people involved in the original Roger Rabbit movie comments about bringing back the bunny under the spotlights, but nothing serious has been done yet. Even they were some rumors about a totally new script, written by Roger Rabbit’s creator Gary K. Wolf. Even if rumors were true, maybe they’re working on the shadows for avoiding public and press pressure.

Yes I know: Katzenberg and Spielberg getting deals with Disney, Zemeckis working with them, a pretty bland celebration of Who Framed Roger Rabbit’s 20th. Anniversary with the usual handful of pins and some expensive collector items… All of that leads to think there’s somethin’s cookin’ (pun intended). But, at least for a while, hold your horses. Disney and DreamWorks have a truckload of pending projects, so don’t expect anything related to Roger Rabbit soon.

P.S. Also remind that Roger Rabbit belongs to Disney AND Amblin Entertainment, so DreamWorks has little or nothing to do in this mess.

Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toontown

Youtube user Turnmills2000 just uploaded the whole documentary about the making of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but not the downsized one included in the movie DVD: actually is the original “making of” broadcasted worldwide more than 20 years ago, when the movie was premiered!!

Here it is: Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toontown (hosted by Joanna Cassidy, who played Dolores in the movie).

  

Thanks, Turnmills2000, for uploading this documentary and sharing it with everyone! =3

Hamtaro

Hamtaro is a cute, little hamster that lives every day as a new adventure along with his owner: the cute Hiroko Haruna (Laura Haruna in the U.S. version of the story) and his hamster friends, known as the “Ham-Hams”. It was a hit some years ago in several countries, including United States, Mexico and Latin America, and Japan of course. Sadly, people (specially children) forgot about him quickly.

I watched the animated version of the story (based on a japanese series of children books) and it’s really cute and heartwarming. It had some small changes for making it more suitable to american audiences, but retained the core adventures and everyday life of Hamtaro and the Ham-Hams.

Today I got a very cute Hamtaro plush doll for less than two dollars:

It is brand new without tags, and looks very huggable <3

2 years living with Roger Rabbit

2 years have passed since I got my first Roger Rabbit doll, which is featured above. I brought him to home in January 25th, 2007: exactly two years ago. Remember how much I played with him that day, and took a lot of pictures of me holding him, like this one:

Since that day, Roger became my little partner. I take him out every saturday (carrying him in my case), and I just love how people comes to me and ask me several questions about how I got him, and where they can find their own Roger Rabbit dolls. But what I like the most is when little kids come to me and hold Roger’s hands or nose, while smiling. He also became one of my close confidents, since he knows several secrets about me and my personal life. Maybe he can’t speak (at least, not like my talking Roger Rabbit dolls), but sure he can hear me while I talk with him for hours and hours. I’ve had some issues with him (most of them because my erratic behaviour) but Roger has a heart of gold and he’s always smiling at me, even in the worst situations. He’s a great listener, a great forgiver, but also a great friend and partner. I prefer to let aside those hard moments I had with him, and stay with all the nice experiences we had together.

Maybe you could think I’m a little insane for treating him as a real being, which is kinda true. But even when he’s really a stuffed doll in the shape of a famous rabbit cartoon, I enjoy having him close to me since he represents many of the things I want to achieve in my life, and he’s also one of my biggest inspirations. I really love Roger Rabbit, and hope I can stay with him for a very long time.

Aren’t you agree with me, little partner? =3

Con el cariño de siempre…

He’s the Osito Bimbo (Bimbo Bear) and he’s the corporate mascot of  Bimbo: one of the largest food companies around the world, founded in Mexico 64 years ago.

Some time ago, it was customary for them to give little plush bears in the shape of their mascot, in exchange for some Bimbo bread wrappings plus a small amount of money. This one has at least 10 years old, maybe 15 (I don’t recall exactly). They still have neat promos but nothing like giving little plush Bimbo bears like they used to. If you are lucky enough to find one of those old bears, they are in pretty bad condition for being played with several times, or they lack some pieces like the little bread loaf, the apron or the hat.

This little bear is in excellent condition, which is amazing considering the age. The last time I saw one of those for sale, he went up to $50 dollars, and this one costed me just a dollar and half!! Pretty neat, huh?