Who Framed Roger Rabbit
In 1998, the Academy actually gave the Best Picture award to the biggest blockbuster of the year: Rain Man. Too bad Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the year’s box office runner-up by nearly $6 million ($349,200,000) – and perhaps the superior achievement – didn’t even get nominated.
The film, which followed a hard-nosed detective (Bob Hoskins) living in a cartoon world, found deserving success at the Oscars, mechanically speaking – it took home three awards: one for Film Editing, another for Sound Effects, and the last one most deservingly for Visual Effects. I mean, we see Donald Duck partake in a musical duel with Daffy Duck, we see real men shoot guns with animated bullets, and we meet a strangely beautiful “toon” who isn’t bad but’s just drawn that way.
Technically speaking, Roger Rabbit is a marvel. Not only do we see classic Bugs Bunny and Disney characters unite, but this was the FIRST time animators combined the cartoon world with the real world, and got it right. As deserving as those three Oscars were though, there’s no doubt that Roger Rabbit deserved a lot more.