"Let’s Hear it for 2D Animation"
Thus began a "Roger Rabbit" reunion at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills on Thursday night in front of an animator-heavy, waiting-list-only, people-trying-to-buy-tickets-outside crowd.
“Wreck-It Ralph” director Rich Moore (above, with "Rabbit" associate producer Don Hahn; top photo, with Zemekis) opened the Academy’s 25th Anniversary screening of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” by reading an excerpt from Roger Ebert’s review.
“What you feel when you see a movie like this is more than appreciation. It's gratitude,” Ebert wrote.
In his June 22, 1988 review, Ebert went on to say “They made this a labor of love.” “Rabbit” director Robert Zemeckis echoed the thought after screening a new digital restoration at the Goldwyn Theater.
“No sane person would do this,” Zemeckis said after watching it on the big screen for the first time since its premiere. “We did this for the love of the art form.
Left: Leslie Zemeckis, Robert's wife, also showed a love for the art form, coming dressed as Jessica Rabbit.
“All classic cartoon characters need a speech impediment, and the good ones were already taken.” said Charles Fleischer, the man who voiced Roger Rabbit. “You don’t want to impede on someone’s impediment.”
Because screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman started drafts in 1981, and Steven Spielberg got the momentum behind the film going again once Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg got to Disney. Not everyone’s arithmetic aligned. “We’ve been on it for 30 years,” the writers joked.
Above: Amy Smart and a giant grizzly bear of a dog, Archie, at the signing at Anthropologie on Beverly Drive that doubled as a pet adoption (and had a killer pet-gift bag.)
‘Good’ Company
"The Company You Keep's" actor/director/producer Robert Redford and Sony Pictures Classics Co-President Tom Bernard (at left) arrive at the Avion Espresso sponsored premiere at MoMA in New York this week. At the after-party, Sony Pictures Classics Co-President Michael Barker joined Shia LeBeouf, who had his left leg in a boot. Brit Marling and Zosia Mamet also made for “good company.”
A Rare Clinton Family Quorum
Below: President Bill Clinton, now former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton bookend honoree/lobbyist Liz Robbins and Robin Robbins at a gala for Paul Newman’s Seriousfun Children’s Network on Thursday night.
The fundraiser supported the network of camps that Newman founded for kids with serious illnesses.
Above: The once and future saviors of NBC: Jerry Seinfeld performed and caught up with new “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon at Pier Sixty in New York on Thursday night.
