There are great movies, and then there’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This one-of-a-kind masterpiece seamlessly blends film noir with animated cartoons, earning its place as a timeless classic that redefined animation techniques still influential today. But the road to its creation was anything but smooth. The production sparked a rift between two powerhouse studios, sent the budget into a freefall, and left several key figures blacklisted in Hollywood amid escalating tensions.

00:00 - Introduction
00:28 - Beginnings During a Crisis at Disney
02:13 - The First, Never-Made Version of Roger Rabbit
05:27 - The Film’s Revival with Steven Spielberg
08:28 - Disney Hires Hollywood’s Most Difficult Animator
10:11 - A New Script and Animation Challenges
12:09 - The Animation Test That Saved the Film
13:40 - The Casting Process
15:32 - A Shoot Like No Other
17:35 - The Animation Process Was Absolute Chaos
19:46 - The Early Test Screenings Were a Disaster
21:09 - A Successful Premiere Led to Even More Problems
22:39 - The Troubled Legacy of Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf. The film stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Stubby Kaye, and Joanna Cassidy, along with the voices of Charles Fleischer and an uncredited Kathleen Turner. Combining live-action and animation, the film is set in an alternate history Hollywood in 1947, where humans and cartoon characters (referred to as "toons") co-exist. Its plot follows Eddie Valiant, a private investigator with a grudge against toons, who must help exonerate Roger Rabbit, a toon framed for murder.

Walt Disney Pictures purchased the film rights for the story in 1981. Price and Seaman wrote two drafts of the script before Disney brought in executive producer Steven Spielberg and his production company, Amblin Entertainment. Zemeckis was brought on to direct, and Canadian animator Richard Williams was hired to supervise the animation sequences. Production was moved from Los Angeles to Elstree Studios in England to accommodate Williams and his group of animators. While filming, the production budget rapidly expanded, and the shooting schedule ran longer than expected.