Roger Rabbit

Roger Rabbit is the main protagonist in Disney's (Touchstone's) 1988 hit Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Roger is the titular anthropomorphic rabbit of the film, a frantic over-anxious type who often stutters while screaming.

Personality
In the film, the voice of Roger is performed by comedian Charles Fleischer, who was known for electing to wear an actual rabbit costume on the set to get into the role. One of his famous traits is his voice, "P-b-b-b-b-bleeeease!". He is a white clownish rabbit with a gap between his front teeth, a voice that resonates of Huntz Hall in "The Bowery Boys", a blue Porky Pig-like bowtie with yellow polka dots, a red-haired Bugs Bunny-like head with blue eyes, a pink nose and round-tipped ears, red Goofy-like pants with a green patch behind and yellow Mickey Mouse-like gloves.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit
In the film version, he is re-envisioned as a 1940's character in animated cartoons and a resident of the fictional Los Angeles enclave Toontown. He is framed for a murder and seeks out Eddie to help clear his name.

Mickey's 60th Birthday
Roger notably played a significant role in the 1988 NBC special Mickey's 60th Birthday. At the beginning of the special, during the taping of Mickey's birthday show, he is told to bring Mickey's cake to him, but in the process, he mistakes a stick of dynamite for a candle and puts it on the cake. Upon noticing his mistake, he attempts to snuff out the dynamite, but fails. Due to the resulting explosion, Mickey uses Yen Sid's magic to fix the place up and then shows off some more magic to his audience, only to disappear and have the sorcerer cast his spell on him.

At the end of the special, after the curse is lifted, Roger Rabbit finds Mickey right outside Disneyland, and is hailed as a hero for finding him.

Roger Rabbit's Toontown
Roger also starred in a comic book series from April 1990 to September 1991 and a spin-off series called Roger Rabbit's Toontown, published from June to October 1991, which featured Roger in the first story and supporting characters like Jessica Rabbit (Roger's voluptuous humanoid wife), Baby Herman (his co-star in Maroon Cartoons), Benny the Cab (Roger's taxicab friend), and The Weasels (Roger's enemies).

Disney Parks
Roger Rabbit is a popular character at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, both of which contain identical versions of the Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin attraction, which opened in 1994 in a new Toon Town section of the park, inspired by the Who Framed Roger Rabbit film and included shops, character houses, and rides. As part of the ride queue, passengers walk through the dark streets of Toon Town and see the shadows of Jessica and the Weasels walk by windows and hear their plot to kidnap her. On this entirely dark-light ride, you board Lenny the Cab, Benny’s cousin, and race through streets, back alleys, and buildings.

Roger still appears at Tokyo Disneyland as a meetable character as well. However, he's hardly heard of at Walt Disney World, Disneyland Resort Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland.

Legacy
Roger Rabbit made his footprints and handprints with his signature phrase "P-p-p-p-lease" in front of the Chinese theatre at Disney's Hollywood Studios on its opening day along with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, and Goofy.

Roger is also the inspiration for a popular dance move in the early 1990s, called "the Roger Rabbit" due to the floppy movements of the character.

Disney and Amblin Entertainment attempted to resurrect Roger for a sequel. However, a preliminary budget was deemed too large and the film never got past the script stage. Several 3D CGI tests and a 3D CGI rendering of Roger were completed, however, despite the fact that no actual footage was actually shot or completed. However, Frank Marshall, the producer of the first film, told MTV in late 2007 that he would be open to any plans to bring the Roger sequel back in the works.

Trivia

 * The character first appeared in the book, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf, which was adapted into the 1988 Academy-Award winning film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Mixing both live action and animation to create a believable "tooniverse", Disney studios set up an animation studio in Camden Town, London, whilst the live action was shot at Elstree film studios. Both the animation and live-action were then composited by ILM fx studios in LA. In the book, Roger is a sidekick in a popular comic strip called "Baby Herman", his murder is being investigated by a detective named Eddie Valiant and a slowly evaporating stunt doppelganger of himself that he created hours before being shot.