Who Showed Roger Rabbit
The city of my birth, Newport Beach, CA, has been hosting an annual film festival. Or maybe there's more than one per year. For somebody who allegedly likes movies as much as I do, you'd think I'd be paying more attention to this stuff.
Anyway, a Disney newsletter pointed out that Who Framed Roger Rabbit was playing today at a NB theatre, with a panel of Special Guest Stars following. I thought, ah, well, there are Special Guest Stars, so I'll grab my DVD copy and see if I can't get autographs or something.
This morning I struggled with figuring out MSN's new web Outlook in order to print my ticket. Finally got it printed and went to fetch the DVD. I keep all my movies alphabetized by title... and found no "Who" movies of any kind. Soooo I had to add a trip to Best Buy on top of the comic book store visit and hope for the best. Hoorah on BB for having a Bluray/DVD combo. I celebrated by buying two seasons of Supernatural and one of Futurama. That'll teach them.
Now back on the road to the cinema, I realized that, after struggling with printing the ticket receipt, I had left it at home. My memory is not that great these days. My guess is a combo of an appallingly chronic lack of sleep and too much aspartame.
The cinema crew was about 15 minutes behind schedule. I heard at least two volunteers say something about a piano and piano tuner, and imagined that we'd be watching a reenactment of Donald and Daffy Duck's piano duel at the Ink & Paint Club. Which we did not. I have no idea what caused the delay, nor what involvement a piano had.
So first, the movie, which was supposed to be all super high-definition and such, but to me it was still "movie theatre." Much better than a VHS copy, though. Remember that it was a southern California crowd watching, so any lines about L.A.'s Red Cars and Judge Doom's big speech about freeways got the biggest laughs. "Traffic jams will be a thing of the past." My personal favorite: "My God. It'll be beautiful." A side note is that this led to a theory amongst myself and like-minded (nerdy) friends that, in our world, Judge Doom won and destroyed Toontown. Come now; we have freeways and no Red Cars.
But enough about that. The panel consisted of Don Hahn, Charles Fleischer, Joanna Cassidy and two animators whose names escape me because I suck. The panel lasted about 30 minutes - lots of reminiscing. Joanna described Bob Hoskins as a "mob guy." I haven't read much about him, so that was a bit surprising to learn that he had had no acting training when he first started. And nailed an American accent in spite of being full-blown Cockney. Charles Fleischer didn't "do" a Rabbit voice except for a second or two, to show how he does the b-b-b stutter, but he did other silly things, like answering a question in fake Russian, and taking pictures of anyone taking pictures of them,
We were then kicked out. I hung around the lobby, where Don Hahn said that they'd be signing stuff. I shook Charles' hand and let him walk right by, because I thought they'd all be gathered somewhere. I go to conventions, not festivals. At cons, people have tables. Here, it was "GRAB THEM!!" which I did not know. Also, I had a terrible pen with me instead of a Sharpie. Fortunately Charles had the proper writing implement. See, I got a second chance when people smarter than I am had stopped him a few steps ahead. I got a scribble. Then we were all yelled at to leave the lobby. Outside was Joanna Cassidy. Another auto-hound allowed the use of his Sharpie for her to sign my DVD. Thanks, anonymous fan!
I saw another familiar face, went to my "memory junk drawer" and pulled out Bill Farmer, current voice of Goofy and a one-line wonder for this movie ("Or a dog!"). I yelled "Bill! Bill Farmer!" We shook hands, then he sort of hurried away, but stopped where folks were getting pictures taken in front of those big walkway walls plastered with the film festival name and sponsors. Joanna was done with the likes of me, so I went to him and said, "I don't expect you to recognize me. I see you at conventions and such." He claimed to recall me to that extent. Shitty pen in hand, I thought of asking for his auto, too, but he and the Missus took off tout de suite.
Final fellow was one of the animators whose-name-escapes-me-because-I-suck. His wife took a pic of him with Joanna Cassidy. Then I asked if he'd honor me with an auto, and talked him into using the big white space on the inside of the DVD cover. It was by necessity, really; my shitty pen only worked there because it was less glossy. He set to work drawing Roger Rabbit while I chatted with his wife. Then he finished his lovely doodle of Roger, and I reminded him that I'd be showing folks the two autos in front, then pulling it from the sleeve for the real treat. Alas, he is now in between work thanks to Disney shutting down their 2D animation. I should have asked him about The Princess and the Frog. He must have worked on that!
Anyway, a good time had by all.
Anyway, a Disney newsletter pointed out that Who Framed Roger Rabbit was playing today at a NB theatre, with a panel of Special Guest Stars following. I thought, ah, well, there are Special Guest Stars, so I'll grab my DVD copy and see if I can't get autographs or something.
This morning I struggled with figuring out MSN's new web Outlook in order to print my ticket. Finally got it printed and went to fetch the DVD. I keep all my movies alphabetized by title... and found no "Who" movies of any kind. Soooo I had to add a trip to Best Buy on top of the comic book store visit and hope for the best. Hoorah on BB for having a Bluray/DVD combo. I celebrated by buying two seasons of Supernatural and one of Futurama. That'll teach them.
Now back on the road to the cinema, I realized that, after struggling with printing the ticket receipt, I had left it at home. My memory is not that great these days. My guess is a combo of an appallingly chronic lack of sleep and too much aspartame.
The cinema crew was about 15 minutes behind schedule. I heard at least two volunteers say something about a piano and piano tuner, and imagined that we'd be watching a reenactment of Donald and Daffy Duck's piano duel at the Ink & Paint Club. Which we did not. I have no idea what caused the delay, nor what involvement a piano had.
So first, the movie, which was supposed to be all super high-definition and such, but to me it was still "movie theatre." Much better than a VHS copy, though. Remember that it was a southern California crowd watching, so any lines about L.A.'s Red Cars and Judge Doom's big speech about freeways got the biggest laughs. "Traffic jams will be a thing of the past." My personal favorite: "My God. It'll be beautiful." A side note is that this led to a theory amongst myself and like-minded (nerdy) friends that, in our world, Judge Doom won and destroyed Toontown. Come now; we have freeways and no Red Cars.
But enough about that. The panel consisted of Don Hahn, Charles Fleischer, Joanna Cassidy and two animators whose names escape me because I suck. The panel lasted about 30 minutes - lots of reminiscing. Joanna described Bob Hoskins as a "mob guy." I haven't read much about him, so that was a bit surprising to learn that he had had no acting training when he first started. And nailed an American accent in spite of being full-blown Cockney. Charles Fleischer didn't "do" a Rabbit voice except for a second or two, to show how he does the b-b-b stutter, but he did other silly things, like answering a question in fake Russian, and taking pictures of anyone taking pictures of them,
We were then kicked out. I hung around the lobby, where Don Hahn said that they'd be signing stuff. I shook Charles' hand and let him walk right by, because I thought they'd all be gathered somewhere. I go to conventions, not festivals. At cons, people have tables. Here, it was "GRAB THEM!!" which I did not know. Also, I had a terrible pen with me instead of a Sharpie. Fortunately Charles had the proper writing implement. See, I got a second chance when people smarter than I am had stopped him a few steps ahead. I got a scribble. Then we were all yelled at to leave the lobby. Outside was Joanna Cassidy. Another auto-hound allowed the use of his Sharpie for her to sign my DVD. Thanks, anonymous fan!
I saw another familiar face, went to my "memory junk drawer" and pulled out Bill Farmer, current voice of Goofy and a one-line wonder for this movie ("Or a dog!"). I yelled "Bill! Bill Farmer!" We shook hands, then he sort of hurried away, but stopped where folks were getting pictures taken in front of those big walkway walls plastered with the film festival name and sponsors. Joanna was done with the likes of me, so I went to him and said, "I don't expect you to recognize me. I see you at conventions and such." He claimed to recall me to that extent. Shitty pen in hand, I thought of asking for his auto, too, but he and the Missus took off tout de suite.
Final fellow was one of the animators whose-name-escapes-me-because-I-suck. His wife took a pic of him with Joanna Cassidy. Then I asked if he'd honor me with an auto, and talked him into using the big white space on the inside of the DVD cover. It was by necessity, really; my shitty pen only worked there because it was less glossy. He set to work drawing Roger Rabbit while I chatted with his wife. Then he finished his lovely doodle of Roger, and I reminded him that I'd be showing folks the two autos in front, then pulling it from the sleeve for the real treat. Alas, he is now in between work thanks to Disney shutting down their 2D animation. I should have asked him about The Princess and the Frog. He must have worked on that!
Anyway, a good time had by all.