Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Exclusive Jessica Rabbit Creator Interview - Gary Wolf



For Walt Disney, it all started with a mouse. For Gary Wolf, it all started with a blue cow. In grade school, Gary K. Wolf was already thinking outside the box by coloring a cow bright blue. Even though his teacher criticized it as "silly," his parents embraced his creativity when he told them the cow was all alone and therefore colored it blue.

They encouraged him to read - and he did. Comic books were his passion, but as he got older he branched out to noir mysteries and science fiction. Gary Wolf went on to become an author, screenwriter, lecturer and entertainment consultant. He is well know for being the creator of Roger and Jessica Rabbit. The premise to his story, Who Censored Roger Rabbit, came to him while watching Saturday morning cartoons. His story of zany characters living side-by-side with humans was hard to sell, but after many rejections, a small publishing company bought the idea. The film adaptation, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, went on to become a multi-million dollar success, earning Gary a Hugo Award for screen writing, and introduced some of the most unique characters to the Disney library. What followed in its wake was a new golden age of traditionally animated Disney films, and influenced the creation of new Disney parks.

I had the honor of interviewing Gary Wolf to bring you some exclusive information found only on this site. Where did he get inspiration to create Jessica Rabbit? Who called him to discuss making his book into a movie? Did Disney ever have Jessica make a live appearance? Find out!




ImNotBad.com:
What was your first published work?

Gary Wolf:
A short story in Worlds of Tomorrow called Love Story.


INB:
What inspired you to write Who Censored Roger Rabbit ?

Gary:
I had written and published a number of short stories and novels. I was always trying to push the envelope. Write things that were completely unique, things which nobody had ever thought of before. One Saturday morning I was watching cartoons on TV. (For research, I told my wife!) I wasn’t that enchanted with the cartoons themselves, but suddenly I really started to notice the commercials. You had the Trix Rabbit, Cap’n Crunch, Snap, Crackle and Pop. Cartoon characters, talking to real kids, and nobody seemed to think that was odd. That gave me my first inspiration. What if you had a world where cartoon characters were real? What kind of world would that be?



INB:
How did you approach writing such a detailed story?

Gary:
I spent years researching comic books, comic strips, and animated cartoons looking for what made cartoon characters “cartoony.” For instance, can a Toon drink liquor? Is there a Toon liquor? If a Toon drinks human liquor, what happens? Conversely, what happens to a human who drinks Toon liquor? Where do Toons live? How do Toons interact with one another when they’re not performing? It went on and on. My ultimate goal was to make sure that everything was consistent in the world I was creating. If there was one single thing that made readers question the premise, the whole thing would swiftly fall apart.




INB:
How did you get the idea for creating Jessica Rabbit?

Gary:
I wanted Roger to have a drop dead gorgeous wife who was humanoid so humans would lust after her, too. Her look came from Tex Avery’s famous Red Hot Riding Hood character which I myself lusted after as a boy. Her attitude was Tinker Bell all grown up and funky. And of course I mixed in quite a bit of Marilyn Monroe.




INB:
Did you come up with the name "toons"?

Gary:
I did. That one just came to me one day, like the best ideas usually do. I wanted some form of shorthand I could use for cartoon characters. I looked at the word “cartoon.” Since cars was already taken, I went with Toons.



INB:
How did Disney approach you about doing a movie of Roger Rabbit?

Gary:
I got a call directly from Roy Disney. Somebody at St. Martin’s Press, the book’s publisher, had photocopied the manuscript and sent it to Disney. I never found out who did it even though I tried mightily so I could kiss him or her full on the lips. Roy introduced himself and told me that Disney was interested in making a movie based on my book. I hung up on him. I had a friend who played a lot of practical jokes on me, and I thought this was one. Luckily, it wasn’t. Roy immediately called me back. A few weeks later we did the deal.



INB:
By many accounts, it seems the movie was almost cancelled various times due to the increasing budget and difficulty of creating such a project - what elements (or people) do you think really convinced Disney to keep the project going?

Gary:
There were so very many wonderful people involved in its early stages, all of whom believed in it and kept the project alive. The list is too long to enumerate. I give special shout outs to Michael Eisner who re-energized the project when he took over, and to Jeff Katzenberg who kept it going despite the ever-increasing budget and the uncertainty as to whether there was actually a market for this film.



INB:
Jessica is a bit different in your book than the movie (as were many things), were these elements changed to be more "Disney friendly?"

Gary:
All of the changes from book to movie were done to support the movie story which, by necessity, was different from the book story. A book is a book and a movie is a movie. As an author, I accept that. Disney did keep the main characters and the premise which I believe was my main contribution to the process. We were out to make a great movie, not a great Disney movie. Disney-fying it never really entered the equation.



INB:
What were some ideas for Jessica that never made it to the final film?

Gary:
I don’t recall any major changes in Jessica’s look or character. They wanted her waist very narrow so there would be no doubt that she was drawn and not Rotoscoped. The animators had a hard time with her. They were used to drawing ducks and rabbits and elephants. Drawing a woman, and not just any woman but the absolute essence of woman, gave them some problems. They eventually got it right and succeeded in capturing her nature and her look magnificently.



INB:
Where there any other actresses in mind to voice Jessica?

Gary:
Never. Bob Zemeckis had worked with Kathleen before. She was the only actress considered.



INB:
Do you know why Kathleen Turner went uncredited for her voice work on the film?

Gary:
Nobody knew if this movie would be a huge success or Howard the Duck. So Kathleen decided to do what James Earl Jones did when he voiced Darth Vader in the first Star Wars movie. She did it without film credit. If it was a success, she would be the mystery woman who did the voice uncredited. When people found out it was her, she’d get press. If it was a failure, she could disavow any knowledge.



INB:
I've heard a rumor that a song by singer Sting called "The Lazarus Heart" was supposed to be the original ending song to the WFRR movie. Was that true?

Gary:
Never hear that.



INB:
What was your reaction to the movie?

Gary:
I loved everything about it. [Robert] Zemeckis and [Steven] Spielberg propelled my characters and my premise to a higher level. They took my novel, which plays to a reader’s imagination, and visualized it. That was no simple task.



INB:
Disney seemed to be cautions when merchandising Jessica in the very beginning. Was there any Jessica merchandise that got shot down due to her sexy look?

Gary:
Probably. I didn’t see every piece of merchandise proposed, but I’m sure that modern commerce being what it is, somebody came up with something sleazy.



INB:
Jessica Rabbit had her own store in Pleasure Island for a very short time. Were you at all involved in it's creation, or did you ever visit?

Gary:
I visited there many times. In fact, they brought me in as a special guest when it opened. When it closed, I offered to buy the big Jessica sign. I thought it would look great on the roof of my house. As far as I know it’s still in storage someplace. Maybe all of us Jessica fans can get together and make Disney an offer they can’t refuse!




INB:
Were you involved in the creation of the Roger Rabbit themed area in MGM Studios, and the Car-Toon Spin ride in Disneyland?

Gary:
Not really. That’s way outside my area of expertise. I did see the preliminary sketches, but that’s as far as it went.



INB:
Did Disney ever have plans to have a Jessica Rabbit costumed character walking around the parks?

Gary:
Never. Jessica was a character in the Disney On Ice Show. As I recall it, Jessica was perched atop a moving float. She vamped but did not skate.



INB:
You wrote a sequel book titled Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit, which has Jessica explain the first book to be a dream. Was this your idea, or did Disney request it to continue the series?

Gary:
It was my idea. The sequel novel was a conceptual problem for me since probably a billion people saw the movie and maybe half a dozen read the book. So most peoples’ concept of my characters was what they had seen on screen. There were concepts in the book which I liked very much, and which my readers also liked. The word balloons for instance. I wanted to keep them in a book. Plus, in the original book, Roger’s character was slightly different. I had to have a way to explain that change in the sequel. So I used the dream concept. Which I saw used on the TV series Dallas. If they could do it on national television, I figured it would work for me.



INB:
What inspired you to create Jessica's twin sister, Joellyn, and her unusual appearance.

Gary:
I wanted more Jessica in the book. I also wanted a romantic partner for Eddie. The idea of somebody who looks like Jessica but is only six inches tall was too good to resist. I loved the idea of Eddie carrying his girlfriend around in his breast pocket.



INB:
Disney Pin Collecting became a huge craze in 2000. In 2003, Jessica started to show up and soon became a very popular character to collect. Do you have any idea on how/why Disney started to use Jessica for their pins?

Gary:
I’m as amazed by that as everybody else. And very pleased. Although those Jessica pins are really, really, really hard for me to autograph at collectible shows.



INB:
Do you think Jessica Rabbit influenced the sexy female cartoon characters and female character related merchandise we see today?

Gary:
No question about it. I’ve seen surveys which rank Jessica Rabbit as one of the hottest movie actresses of all time. Quite an accomplishment for a Toon. I’ve seen Heidi Klum, Katy Perry, Megan Fox, and Rachel Ray all dressed as Jessica. Some as recently as two months ago. So Jessica is still with us in spirit and in form. Hopefully, she’ll be with us for a whole lot longer.



INB:
There has been recent rumor for a few years that Robert Zemeckis wants to do a sequel finally - yet there has been no news for a while. Is there anything you could share with us?

Gary:
Nope. Sorry.



INB:
The last we heard from your sequel book, Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit, Jessica reveals that she is pregnant. Did you have any ideas about Roger and Jessica's children - and what The Rabbit's might be up to today?

Gary:
Haven't given any thought to Roger and Jessica's offspring. Maybe I'll have to take a trip to Toontown someday soon and see how they're doing.



Gary Wolf Official Website

Jessica Rabbit Artist Interviews