The original title of Who Framed Roger Rabbit might seem a bit prophetic. The animation-live action masterwork is based on Gary Wolf's Who Censored Roger Rabbit — and the idea of "censoring" isn't far from the truth.
There were countless alterations in the movie. Significant sequences were dropped (though apparently none of them have been restored for the film's video release this month).
"It's amazing how many changes this movie's script went through before we shot any film," special FX supervisor Ken Ralston reveals. "I've never seen so many different scripts in my life with totally different endings. The villain changed from script to script."
Although director Robert Zemeckis trimmed a number of scenes throughout the film and while Who Framed Roger Rabbit was coming together in post-production, perhaps the most obvious deletion was the pig head sequence. It was one of the earliest scenes finished by the animators and involved some unusual effects for both the live-action and post-production crews.
"The pig head sequence was one of the first sequences that we completed," affirms animator Andreas Dejas. "But when Zemeckis started toning up and sharpening the film in final edit," animator David Spafford continues, "certain sections around that sequence were cut, which meant that the scene wasn't going to make any sense. They tried to keep it."
Pig Head Farewells
In the story, when Valiant learns about Marvin Acme's will, he sneaks back into Jessica's dressing room at the Ink and Paint Club to search for it. He's discovered by Bongo the gorilla bouncer, Jessica, the weasels and Judge Doom. Doom instructs the weasels to take Valiant to Toontown. It is there that the weasels paint a large Toon pig head on Valiant. The film's theatrical trailer offers a glimpse of the scene with Valiant back in his office staring at his pig head face in the mirror and screaming, "I'm a pig!" The ever-helpful Roger answers, "I'm a Toon." Valiant steps into the shower and manages to wash off the painted head. All that remains in the finished film is the shot of Valiant in his shorts drying off as Jessica arrives.
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