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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the frames lost to history

Recently Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released on Blu-ray for its 25th anniversary. Packaged inside are two discs, one Blu-ray Disc and one DVD and you can get it in either the blue case (BD packaging) or black case (DVD packaging). Initial shipments included a DVD with the incorrect aspect ratio, but as of March 15th Amazon.com has started shipping the set with a corrected DVD inside (albeit without the slipcover).

You haven't been able to buy this film in its original theatrical release since the days of VHS and LaserDisc. This is because certain gags/jokes have been made clearer thanks to frame-by-frame technology. Thanks to LaserDisc and 4-head VCRs (2-head VCRs didn't look as good when paused), people noticed things that they might not have otherwise noticed.

The three changes that people notice the most are the scenes with Baby Herman, Betty Boop, and Jessica Rabbit.

The first is when Baby Herman pokes his finger up a womans' dress.

The second is when Betty Boop is fixing her dress, and her chest is briefly exposed.

And the third is when Jessica is thrown out of the cab and you can see she's not wearing panties.

However what I'm most surprised about, that they did keep in and you can see on the BD, are the murders on the train. At the end of the film, as the train goes by in Toontown, each train car features people being murdered in different ways. You can see a hanging, a stabbing, and a shooting among other things.

It's puzzling why Disney would remove certain frames but not others (considering films released under their Touchstone banner were more mature anyway, why not just leave it alone), but it could have something to do with the American culture. It seems in America people have no problem with showing violence, but showing any hint of sexuality is a no-no. The phrase "Make love, not war" has been changed in America to "Make war, not love" – it seems we as a society love killing others so much so that we have no problem having it in every aspect of our lives. Movies, TV shows, video games, billboard advertisement, depictions of violence are everywhere in America.