So, it's full of cartoons, is it really noir? In what ways is it nori? In what ways does it deviate from the noir conventions? Be sure to challenge each other's assumptions on this as appropriate and back up your opinions. Give an air tight, bullet proof argument (yes, I know that's a mixed metaphor).
In general, what did you think of this film? What was good? What not so much? Why? How did knowing so much about noir change your experience watching it?
Did this film give you any ideas you'll apply when writing your own noir? If so, please elaborate.
I noticed that the writers of this film put a lot of work into giving the perfect introduction to each character. The visuals, lines, and circumstances surrounding each characters' introduction are carefully planned to help us understand what each character is about as quickly as possible and tell us what we should think about each character. There is much to learn as writers from this aspect of this film. Did anyone else notice this? Feel free to write about specific things the writers did to introduce specific characters and what that teaches us about screenwriting.
Without further ado ... write away right away:
I haven't seen this movie in 8 years and the only part I remembered was the fight scene at the end. But after hearing Josh yesterday I thought it was funny that they ditched the idea of being all noir with one-punch knock outs and went all action with this scene. I feel they did this because kids of that generation to even now want violence, also to have the good guy look like a big super hero.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right. I think they were appealing to a younger and modern audience with that extended fight scene. Also, keeping in mind that this is genre-blending (they are blending noir with Looney Toons style cartoons), that fight scene can be seen as part of the movie that is not noir at all but is inspired by the other genre that is part of the blend.
Deletei agree with the both of you. I don't know I kinda felt like it was a bold move trying to blend to different kinds of genres together. In that time the audience probably would have gotten bored if you made them watch sunset Blvd. Its just not what they wanted.
DeleteI would have never guessed it was under film noir.
It's funny that I watched this movie a wee ago. Before we watched it in class. Everythimr they said what the weird death slime was called I could never understand it. But nonetheless I loved the movie. 5/5. I liked that it isn't pure drama and it is full of humor as well. It makes it more appealing to younger audiences.
ReplyDeleteThe acid was a blend of Turpentine, Acetone, and Benzene. These chemicals are all found in paint thinners. So if you think of it a painted cartoon, would melt. The creators of the story really did their homework. And the thing is that most people don't even know that these chemicals are real or in things we use in life.
Deletewow that is actually way cool i love little things like this.
Deletei cant stop staring at the fact that you put "Everytimr" omg hahahahah
DeleteNooooo! There should be a spell check, or some sort of edit button.
DeleteThe fact that 'dip' is made of paint thinners is pretty clever! I didn't know that up until now.
DeleteThanks for that fun fact about the paint thinner. I was wondering if those chemicals were significant as we were watching the movie.
DeleteReally, really ballsy by the creators to make this film.
ReplyDeleteWho would've thunk a genre as serious as noir would be meshed with something like the wackyness of looney toons cartoons?
Definite respect points.
As for watching this film with my new found noir knowledge, it was pretty fun seeing how they twisted certain noir stereotypes in a way I wouldn't even think of. (Double-Cross twist is that the dude is actually a cartoon character? Ya, Word.)
Anyways, I've always loved this movie, but with my new appreciation for noir I love it even more.
woah you and I think a lot a like. haha
DeleteFun fact: Warner Bros. demanded that their characters (Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck) be in the same scenes and speak the same amount of dialogue as the Disney characters. (Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck)
DeleteI love the genre-blending in this movie! Cute animated characters that we all know and love mixed with serious noir drama. Cool stuff bro.
ReplyDeleteThis movie actually used to scare me when I was little. Mainly because of the ending when the bad guy turns out to be a toon. Although now I actually do enjoy and appreciate this movie!
When we first talked about this possibly being a neo-noir in class, I couldn't see how. I do however now see a lot of film noir elements in this movie. For example: Eddie Valiant's as a private investigator. His brother is murdered and the killer is never caught. That alone is a situation that could be in a stereotypical film noir.
I definitely do see this as a film-noir now.
I didn't think of the movie that way either, and then suddenly it all made sense! After we learned about noir, when thinking of Rodger Rabbit, its like, how could it NOT be a noir? It just makes the contrast between the vibrant animated world and the gritty real world so much more satisfying.
DeleteSomething I didn't notice about this movie that I really enjoyed this time around was the all the visual conflict. It had such a good contrast between this almost horrifically vibrant animated reality and the dark, dank, and gritty "real" reality. It reflected the inner conflict Eddie Valiant had, how he wanted to do what was right and his prejudice regarding the cartoons.
DeleteSo I have watched this movie once before when i was really young and I've got to say i never noticed how much innuendo there was. the movie over all was great and had a lot of qualities of classic nori such as the way that it wasn't clear which side Jessica rabbit was on was a big one for me. it did deviate from the classic definition of nori especially considering that it wasn't what one would call a dark film its themes other than murder were fairly up beat. so in conclusion I would say that it is a great movie but its sort of a soft-core nori.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the innuendos and the fact that it didnt have a super dark feel to it. It deffinetly scrame 'Neo Noir' because of that. But after learning about film noir and watching certain movies. it really starts to help my notice the style and art of film noir and neo noir
DeleteYou never quite catch innuendo when you're young. I thought it was rather funny how many there were in this movie. Especially since it's in the chidren/family section of Netflix!
DeleteJacob: I really like the term "soft-core noir" in connection with this film. And I too was a bit surprised by all the innuendo. Never noticed it as a kid.
DeleteI've seen this movie a ton of times when I was younger; and I never really thought about the idea of it being film noir. I had enjoyed the animation and the mood and it's qualities, and I remember watching things like Blade Runner and The Maltese Falcon later in life and thinking, "Wow that has a lot of similar qualities to Who Framed Rodger Rabbit" I understand now, after learning about film noir and neo-noir, why it was the way it was. The music, the premise, the characters... It all made sense, and it was satasfying to understand the homage. It was like this giant inside joke, though exicuted very well.
ReplyDeleteI understand how you feel. When I was younger I could feel that this movie was different, with the style of clothing, how they talked, and acted. I could just never put two and two together.
DeleteI personally loved this movie. I find it easier to sit through and watch neo noir films rather then basic film noirs. This movie was fun and cute and more entertaining, in my perseptive, then the older black and white noirs. This had an easier noir feel to it, it had the detectives, mysteries, suprises, and drama and laughs that older noirs do. I found when doing research that in film noirs it was a bit about woman wanting to rebel and being their own strong roll in film noirs and i didnt feel like Jessica Rabbit had the strong, rebellious, "I do what i want and no one can stop me" kind of feel to her, nut maybe just because its more neo noir. Other then that. amazing movie ((:
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way about Jessica. I wish she had a more rebellious role like she did party cake and lied about and and used Rodgers love to make him believe her, something like that.
DeleteI actully found this movie hard to sit though, although i did notice the Noir Characteristics i found it very cheesy and i wish there was more noir characteristics and more low lighting.Having not seen this movie when i was younger i was unprepared to go from dramatic noir to a silly noir.i didnt like that there was a happy endning i wish they made it more dramtic. but i suppose that would make it creepy.
ReplyDeleteWell i think that's why its more of a "soft-core Noir" compared to most noir films, it had a lot less drama then most do.
DeleteSo, basically. The entire class as a unit agrees that this movie is brilliant. Awesome. Just some Fun Facts for you all: 1.Terry Gilliam was first offered the role of director but he turned it down. Later admitting that he regrets it. 2. Bill Murray was first considered for the role of Eddy Valiant but it was given to Bob Hoskins because they couldn't reach Bill. (Of course because everything in the '80's was offered to Bill Murray first. Bill Murray got really angry years later when he was finally told that he was considered). 3. Tim Curry auditioned for the role of Judge Doom but was rejected because his performance was too scary. 4. In an earlier version of the script. Judge Doom reveals that he was the one who shot Bambi's mother. 5. Paul Rubens (Pee-Wee herman) auditioned for the role of Roger Rabbit. 6.Charles Fleicher (Roger Rabbit) Gave all of his lines off camera in a Roger Rabbit costume, 7. Jessica Rabbit is based on Terry Avery's character Red. 8.Jessica Rabbit's voice was done by Cathleen Turner but her singing was done by Amy Irving. (Because she was married o Spielberg.) 9. The woman who did Betty Boop's voice in the '30's, Mae Questal, did the voice again for the film 10. Tom and Jerry were supposed to be in the film but Spielberg couldn't get the rights. Same with Popeye. 11. In the car crash scene, the animators purposefully removed Jessica Rabbits underwear, this was changed for the DVD release. Micky Mouse, Daffy Duck, Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny were only allowed to be in the film if they had the same amount of lines an screen time down to the frame. 12. To make Judge Doom extra creepy. Christopher Lloyd was not allowed to blink on screen. 13. In an early version of the film. Roger dies in the crossfire of the fight at the end. 14. Sting wrote the song "Lazarus' Heart" to be played in the end credits of the version where roger dies. When this was changed, the song was deleted and put on his album "Nothing like the Sun" instead.
ReplyDeleteTim Curry would've been a brilliant choice! Scary, but awesome! I think they made a good decision with Christopher Lloyd though, a little more Doc Brown and a little less Doc Franknfurter.
Deletethis is one of my favorite movies, ive watched it many times. it brings comedy and noir characteristics. i will for sure be watching this again soon.
ReplyDeleteWhat noir characteristics did you notice?
DeleteI know I wasn't here to watch this with you guys but I'm going to post about it anyway, cause.. I love this movie so much, it's one of my favorite movies. I just love how they combine the real world with the cartoon world and made it make in an interesting way. I really wish I could live there, I've always dreamed of the reality world combining with the animation world. I first watched this when I was so young and it never gets old. The really brought out a dark side to the cartoons in it, I mean cartoons in general indeed are pretty dark, but it was brought out more and more noticeable since thy combine it with real people and of course a film noir. The scene where the detective is falling in toon town, Mickey and Bugs, how they reacted to his falling is totally cartoon and if it was with another cartoon we'd all just laugh and be totally fine with that, but when I first watched it, it scared me so bad, even to this day I have a weird twist in my gut when I watch that part, since it's with a real person and we know that'd animated physics obviously don't apply to us in real life, I don't know how to explain it, it just really plays with my head.
ReplyDeleteThat was a long rant sorry, anyways, yeah I love this movie and I think they did an excellent job considering the world they were trying to create.
I liked the fact that this movie tried to mix together different genre's. It gave it a zesty twist that some movies lack, also i noticed quite a few noir characteristics such as a tragic backstory that most main characters have in film noirs.
ReplyDeleteI like how they mixed cartoons with reality and the charactors were so casual about it. It felt like they were more than a race than animation.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDallas, before I give you points for this, can you tell us more. Give us some examples of moments from the film that illustrate the point. Also, talk with us about how this film as a film noir. How is it a typical film noir? How is it not?
Delete