Tag Archives: Charles Fleischer

1993, Cartoon, Not Recommended

Trail Mix-Up (1993, Barry Cook)

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I think Trail Mix-Up is supposed to be zany, what with the inclusion of an adorable beaver and a cuddly bear in Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman’s trek through the wilderness.

It’s not very good, of course. Besides Droopy’s Jaws-related cameo and Jessica Rabbit showing up for a moment, there’s nothing memorable about it until the end. And, at the end, Roger Rabbit destroys the planet Earth… hopefully so there can be no more of these lame cartoons.

When looking for cartoons to ape, director Cook and his writers somehow miss the multiple outdoor-oriented Disney cartoons they could have referenced. Trail would’ve been much improved with an appearance from Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore.

It does benefit somewhat from Baby Herman actually being cute–he calls the beaver “doggy”–even if Roger’s as unlikable as always in his cartoon outings.

The animation’s competent, but lacks any substantial qualities.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Barry Cook; screenplay by Rob Minkoff, Cook, Mark Kausler and Patrick A. Ventura, based on characters created by Gary K. Wolf; edited by Victor Livingston; music by Bruce Broughton; released by Walt Disney Pictures.

Starring Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit), Kathleen Turner (Jessica Rabbit), April Winchell (Young Baby Herman / Mrs. Herman), Lou Hirsch (Adult Baby Herman), Corey Burton (Droopy Dog) and Frank Welker (Bear / Beaver).

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1990, Cartoon, Not Recommended

Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990, Rob Minkoff and Frank Marshall)

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Roller Coaster Rabbit is exceptionally overproduced. The animation is technically outstanding, just without any gags–Roger Rabbit makes a terrible cartoon protagonist because he’s an unlikable moron–but at the end it takes an odd turn towards the CG. There are some fire effects, there are a lot of spark effects, it’s as though Minkoff gave his traditional animators a break and let the tech guys handle the rest.

The paltry story involves Roger babysitting Baby Herman at a carnival. Baby Herman wants a balloon, which leads to a lot of trouble. Even though the initial gags aren’t funny, they’re more imaginative than the final one involving an endless roller coaster (hence the title). Four credited writers apparently couldn’t come up with a gag to break up the monotony.

Some of Minkoff’s direction is fantastic; while too infrequent, there’re a few outstanding shots.

And Charles Fleischer sounds bored as Roger.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Rob Minkoff and Frank Marshall; screenplay by Bill Kopp, Kevin Harkey, Lynne Naylor and Patrick A. Ventura, based on characters created by Gary K. Wolf; edited by Chuck Williams; music by Bruce Broughton; produced by Donald W. Ernst; released by Touchstone Pictures.

Starring Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit), Kathleen Turner (Jessica Rabbit), April Winchell (Young Baby Herman / Mrs. Herman), Lou Hirsch (Adult Baby Herman), Corey Burton (Droopy Dog) and Frank Welker (Bull).

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1989, Cartoon, Not Recommended

Tummy Trouble (1989, Rob Minkoff and Frank Marshall)

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Tummy Trouble goes out of its way to pay homage to Tex Avery (down to a Droopy cameo) and director Minkoff does a decent job of it. Not to say Tummy‘s successful, however. While Minkoff apes Avery all right, it’s a combination of too obvious and too reverential. Outside being an “original” Roger Rabbit cartoon, there’s no creative impulse behind Tummy.

It’s also way too exquisite in terms of the animation to be a good Avery knock-off. Looking at the frames, it’s clear a lot of time went into illustrating the animations and not enough went into plotting out the gags. It’s just not funny. There’s not a single good gag.

And since Tummy is a Roger Rabbit cartoon, there’s an obligatory live action section at the end. It feels self-congratulatory, which doesn’t many any sense… Tummy Trouble‘s nothing to pat oneself on the back about.

1/3Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Rob Minkoff and Frank Marshall; screenplay by Kevin Harkey, Bill Kopp, Minkoff, Mark Kausler and Patrick A. Ventura, based on characters created by Gary K. Wolf; edited by Donald W. Ernst; music by James Horner; produced by Don Hahn; released by Walt Disney Pictures.

Starring Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit), April Winchell (Young Baby Herman / Mrs. Herman), Lou Hirsch (Adult Baby Herman), Corey Burton (Orderly), Richard Williams (Droopy Dog) and Kathleen Turner (Jessica Rabbit).

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1984, ⓏⒺⓇⓄ, Horror

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, Wes Craven)

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The best thing about A Nightmare on Elm Street is the font in the opening titles. It’s something sans serif and it’s slightly off and it looks good. To be fair to the movie’s reputation, I did jump twice, both times at the end; maybe because it was waking me up. As opposed to encouraging me never to sleep again A Nightmare on Elm Street made me wish I was comatose for its running time.

It’s not hard to pinpoint what’s wrong with the movie. Wes Craven’s script is atrocious and his direction is worse. His actors–with the exception of Johnny Depp–are awful. Ronee Blakley might give one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen. John Saxon’s not as bad as the rest, but he’s bad. Heather Langenkamp is terrible as the lead. She and Blakley are never once believable as mother and daughter.

I’ve seen this one before and I remember it being poorly made. I can’t understand why it has a good reputation. The number of Halloween lifts are few, but visible enough to remind of a far better film.

Craven’s ineptness as a director doesn’t get any help from editor Rick Shaine, who’s unspeakably bad. I think some of the problem might be lack of coverage, which would be Craven’s fault, but come on. People move five yards between cuts.

Charles Bernstein’s music is silly.

It’s a crappy movie and it’s disheartening it launched a franchise. I guess audiences weren’t any better read then either.

0/4ⓏⒺⓇⓄ

CREDITS

Written and directed by Wes Craven; director of photography, Jacques Haitkin; edited by Rick Shaine; music by Charles Bernstein; production designer, Gregg Fonseca; produced by Robert Shaye; released by New Line Cinema.

Starring John Saxon (Lt. Thompson), Ronee Blakley (Marge Thompson), Heather Langenkamp (Nancy Thompson), Amanda Wyss (Tina Gray), Jsu Garcia (Rod Lane), Johnny Depp (Glen Lantz), Charles Fleischer (Dr. King), Joseph Whipp (Sgt. Parker) and Robert Englund (Fred Krueger).

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