Thanks for the review, Todd! I know it's been decades, but since you screened a number of 70mm prints, I was wondering if you might be able to answer a question I've had for a while. The good news is that it appears nothing is missing.Īudio Commentary with Director Robert Zemeckis, Producers Frank Marshall and Steve Starkey, Writers Jeffrey Price and Peter Seaman, and Visual Effects Supervisor Ken Ralston: Kudos to Disney for including the audio commentary track on the UHD disc! Unfortunately, there are no new extras on this release. LFE presence doesn’t see much of an improvement, but I think it is safe to assume that this is a more object-based interpretation of the original 70mm mix. This is still an improvement over the previous 5.1 mixes, allowing for a bit more immersion by including atmospheric and music extensions in the height speakers and rear surrounds. The default Dolby Atmos track allows for a wider front soundstage and better placement of discrete sound effects, but unfortunately, this is still a rather front-heavy mix, something I’ve noticed since originally screening this film in 70mm multiple times during its initial theatrical run back in 1988 (I was a theatre evaluator for Lucasfilm’s Theatre Alignment Program), as well as the stereo surround mix found on the Laserdisc release, and 5.1 mixes on both DVD and Blu-ray.

As an added bonus, the included Blu-ray appears to be remastered, using this new 4K scan as its source. Detail is sharper overall, yet still falls a bit on the soft side (again, due to the limitations of optical printing). Colors also get a much needed boost in vibrancy and gradations, particularly reds, and Jessica Rabbit’s dress in her famous show number at the Ink and Paint Club is even more of a show-stopper than ever before, as her dress not only glows, it shimmers with each sparkle. The use of HDR10 high dynamic range greatly improves the movie’s overall contrast, adding more perceived depth in the image but also allowing for deeper blacks and brighter highlights. While this new 4K scan is not as stunning as one would hope for, mostly due to the generational losses in the optical printing process, is it a noticeable improvement over the previous Blu-ray release. For that reason, the movie has always appeared a bit on the soft side, and was actually rather disappointed in how the 25 th Anniversary Blu-ray release looked. Matt Hough reviewed the 25 th Anniversary Blu-ray release in 2013, and you can read his thoughts on the film here.Īs I noted above, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is from the analog era of visual effects, a movie shot on 35mm film with visual effects composited thru the use of an optical printer, and nearly all of the shots in the completed film have some sort of visual effect. It is all that hard work that makes these interactions believable, and the Oscar for Best Visual effects that the film won was well-deserved. Thirty-three years later, the effects work by Ken Ralston and his team at Industrial Light and Magic still hold up fairly well, even more so if you consider that this was all done back in the analog era of visual effects, having to not only optically composite the animation with the live action without the aid of a computer, but also add lighting effects to the animation as well. That’s pretty heavy stuff for a “family-friendly” film, but director Robert Zemeckis, hot off Back to the Future, manages to lighten the story up some with the zaniness of the Tex Avery-inspired animation (directed by Richard Williams) and interplay with the human characters, especially Bob Hoskins as private detective Eddie Valiant, who should have at the very least been nominated for an Oscar for his performance in the film, which really helps to sell the audience on the premise. Back in 1988, the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a technical marvel and breakthrough in the way it seamlessly blended live action and cel animation while still telling an entertaining and often humorous film noir story of a cartoon character framed for murder.

Who framed roger rabbit rating