The selection of commercials (below) created at Richard Williams Animation shows the wide range of styles of which the studio was capable. Of particular note in reference to Who framed Roger Rabbit is the Long Life Beer ‘9 Lives’ commercial. It was the zaniness of this commercial that impressed Spielberg and Zemeckis …
Roy Naisbitt’s specialty was technical animation. He worked on ‘2001: A Space Odyssey‘ (1968). Richard Williams Animation was doing the title sequence for ‘Charge of the Light Brigade‘ at the time and he needed somebody to animate a paddle-wheel ship engine. His cameraman, Ted Gerald, was a water polo colleague of …
Many people passed through the Roger Rabbit universe. Warwick Davis was at Elstree Studios, in the Traffic Department, for his school ‘gap year’ work term. Davis was 11-years-old when his grandmother heard a radio appeal for people under four-feet tall. It was a casting call for ewoks for ‘Return of the Jedi.’ Davis’ …
Richard Williams Animation was located at 13 Soho Square. Williams built a powerful reputation in British animation, using the proceeds of television and movie theater commercials and animated film titles to fund his personal animation projects. He was on a journey of mastery and invited animation luminaries such as Art Babbitt …
A second portion of the proof-of-concept test involved Jessica. It utilized the technique of tonal and shadow mattes that had been developed by Chris Knott for commercials at Richard Williams Animation. The test-of-concept with Roger Rabbit was presented on the 2003 2-disc Vista Series DVD release of ‘Who framed Roger …
Both Bob Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg had been aware of Disney’s Roger Rabbit project in its early stages, but the first formal meeting between Disney and Amblin was in October 1985. The Amblin team of Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, and Steven Spielberg were Executive Producers. Robert Watts was chosen …
Bob Hoskins died on April 29, 2014, due to complications from pneumonia after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 71-years-young at the time. In an October 12, 1989, interview in the Philadelphia Inquirer he said in a Monty Pythonish nasal upper-class-twit British accent, “You’ve heard those actors who …
I have missed the 50th anniversary milestone of the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey by exactly one week. I am only off by less than 0.04%, but that degree of error would cause a capsule re-entering the atmosphere to skip off to parts unknown… maybe off to Jupiter, like the …
A former powerhouse/factory was set dressed to act as the Acme Warehouse. It is located in the White City/Shepherd’s Bush area of central London, near the White City underground station on the Central line and the Wood Lane underground station on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines. The building …
Principal live-action filming was done at Elstree Studio in Borehamwood, near London. It was a 20-minute trip by rail from St. Pancras Station. The producers initially budgeted for one puppeteer to be on set for several days. Instead, a core crew of seven puppeteers were on set for the whole …
