The Film

The smash of 1988 took some of the hardest work ever done in Hollywood, and it shows. An undisputable classic

The Sight & Sound

It’s long enough ago for us to see the difference in film quality nowadays, but if there was any degradation, it’s been lovingly restored to former glory.

The Extras

You’d need a whole book to list them (and thankfully there is one), but if you loved the film, you’ll think all your Christmases have come at once at with the galleries and making-of docos.

You’ll hang on every word of the commentary by director Bob Zemeckis, the screenwriters and a few co-producers as they give up the sort of secrets you were desperate to know watching the video years ago.

The extras give you an incredible sense of the amount of work involved — it’s been estimated a million drawings were done in the course of production (all by hand in the pre-computer age of the late 80’s), and as several crew members point out, it was a full length animation feature, a 1940s film noir detective story in the spirit of Chinatown, and was laden with (live action) special effects.

The Worth

Predating CG by at least five years, Roger Rabbit was the culmination of a century of filmmaking technology and technique, and reliving it while you learn the magician’s best tricks is what the DVD medium was made for.

5/5

This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2003 at 12:00 am and is filed under DVD Reviews, Film, Filmink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.