Yes, I loved the original Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which I saw in the theaters when I was still in my single digits.
It was pretty ground-breaking, effects-wise, for the time, with the interaction between live action and animation, and it featured a scandalously racy character in the form of Jessica Rabbit. If I remember correctly, I was even a little scared by Christopher Lloyd’s performance as a toon disguised as a man.
But to be honest, I haven’t really thought about it since then. Has anyone else?
Well, Robert Zemeckis, the director, has, and according to this article, he’s gearing up for another installment. What’s more, the original writers are even on board to pen the new script. Call the drummer and break out the bus — the band’s getting back together.
Obviously, animation has come an incredibly long way since the original came out in 1988, so it’ll be interesting to see it for that purpose, at least.
But why wait so long for a sequel? Have they been working diligently for 21 years to come up with the perfect plot? Or is it that, well, no one was really clamoring for Roger Rabbit 2?
Sequels to seemingly-dead properties are not unheard of. In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger strapped on the leather to once again play the robot with a heart of gold in Terminator 3, twelve years after the previous incarnation. (And oh, has that universe gotten complicated since then.)
Everyone thought that Wes Craven’s New Nightmare was the final film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series, until Freddy popped up again nine years later in 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason, and next year will once again be resurrected on the silver screen.
Christopher Reeve’s put on the red and blue for the last time in 1987 in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, before the torch was picked up nineteen years later by Brandon Routh in Superman Returns.
It will be eight years between The Return of the King, the last of the Lord of the Rings films, and the Hobbit. For rabid fans of the series, that’s an eternity to wait before the trip back to Middle Earth. (And unfortunately, John Rhys-Davies won’t be accompanying us.)
And then there’s the long-rumored sequel to Dark Crystal, which, ahem, some of us are still eagerly waiting for, though we’re given precious little to go on.
So, who knows? Maybe this sequel will have been worth the wait. Maybe the production team will do an incredible job, and the world will be as impressed as we were the first time around. We’ll just have to wait and see.
In the meantime, anyone want to place bets to see if Jessica Rabbit has aged well?
