Jessica Rabbit
Jessica Rabbit | |
---|---|
Who Censored Roger Rabbit? and Who Framed Roger Rabbit character | |
First appearance | Who Censored Roger Rabbit? (1981) |
Created by | Gary K. Wolf |
Adapted by | |
Voiced by |
|
Performance model | Betsy Brantley[5] |
In-universe information | |
Alias | Jessica Krupnick |
Species | Toon human[citation needed] |
Occupation | Actress and performer at The Ink and Paint Club |
Spouse | Roger Rabbit (husband) |
Jessica Rabbit is a fictional character in the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? and its film adaptation, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. She is depicted as the human toon wife of Roger Rabbit in various Roger Rabbit media. Jessica is renowned as one of the best-known sex symbols in animation.[6] She is remembered for the line: "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way."
Development
Novel
Author Gary K. Wolf based Jessica primarily on the cartoon character Red from Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood, he also based her attitude on Tinker Bell and her design on Marilyn Monroe.[7][8]
Movie
The film version of the character was inspired by various actresses. Richard Williams explained, "I tried to make her like Rita Hayworth; we took her hair from Veronica Lake, and Robert Zemeckis kept saying, 'What about the look Lauren Bacall had?'" He described that combination as an "ultimate male fantasy, drawn by a cartoonist."[9] Before Zemeckis was brought on board as director, Jessica had a different design, and was to be voiced by Russi Taylor. Taylor would go on to provide the voice in test footage from 1981.[10] When Zemeckis was hired, he brought along Kathleen Turner to voice Jessica, whom he had worked with in Romancing the Stone. In a 2017 interview, Turner, who went uncredited, stated that she accepted the role because she was pregnant and "just had to show up and do her voice."[11]
Character synopsis
Novel
Jessica was an immoral, up-and-coming star, and former comic character with whom her estranged husband (comic strip star Roger Rabbit) became obsessed.
Roger’s wife Jessica is dramatically different between adaptations, too. Interestingly, she has far more depth and dimension as a character in the movie than the novel at that. In the novel, she’s a shameless golddigger that uses her looks and charisma to seduce men into giving her what she wants or pitting key political figures against each other. Once one figure is out of the picture, she monkey-branches to someone else in order to gain their wealth, power, or whatever other effect. Behind her charismatic glamour, she’s a petty and hard-to-please diva.
Movie
She is re-imagined in the film as a sultry, but moral and kind-hearted, cartoon singer at a Los Angeles
Even though she is a human Toon, she is shown to have a few of the comedic cartoon antics typical of other Toons. One such example was her cleavage having a
Shorts
After the film, Jessica also appeared in the Roger Rabbit/
Cameos
Though Jessica did not physically appear in the Disney film
Prequel novel
In May 2022, Gary K. Wolf, the original creator of Roger Rabbit, published Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business, which explores Jessica's origin story.[13]
Legacy
With the success of the film and upon the opening of
Her line "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way" became one of the most popular quotes from the film, and was nominated as one of the 400 greatest movie quotes by
Kathleen Turner, the original speaking voice of Jessica Rabbit, stated in a 2017 interview that she is asked more often to sign photos of Jessica Rabbit than herself.[11]
Reception
Jessica Rabbit has received positive reviews and is described as a
Nudity and impact on LaserDisc release
With the LaserDisc release of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Variety reported in March 1994 that Jessica was depicted nude for a few frames of animation, undetectable when played at the usual rate of 24 film frames per second, but visible when advancing through the film frame-by-frame;[20][21] Snopes examined it, and reported that although a scene does exist where Jessica's dress is hiked up and her underwear disappears for a few frames, it could be either intentional or a coloration error.[22] The scene drove sales of the LaserDisc release: many retailers reported that due to reports on the nudity from media including CNN and newspapers, their entire inventories of the LaserDisc release sold out in minutes.[23] Sources from Disney told Variety that the company was unlikely to do anything about the frames, and that the film is not intended for children regardless.[20]
References
- ^ "Voice of Jessica Rabbit in Hare Raising Havoc". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
- ^ "Voice(s) of Jessica Rabbit in Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
- ^ "Voice of Jessica Rabbit in Robot Chicken". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
- ^ "Never Forget". IMDb. Archived from the original on 2019-10-18. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
- ^ Listed in the end of movie credits
- ^ THE LAST MOVIE STAR Archived 2014-12-05 at the Wayback Machine from Entertainment Weekly.
- ^ "Q & A with Gary Wolf". JimDavies.org. Archived from the original on 2015-09-09. Retrieved 2015-08-29.
- ^ Corliss, Richard (August 8, 1994). "CINEMA: Like the Mask?". Time. Archived from the original on August 12, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
- ^ Weinraub, Bernard (August 1, 1988). "An Animator Breaks Old Rules And New Ground in 'Roger Rabbit'". New York Times. Archived from the original on January 17, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
- ^ "'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' Test Footage Released 30 Years Later". MovieWeb. 5 September 2014. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ a b "Roger Rabbit turns 30: Kathleen Turner talks voicing Jessica Rabbit". marcandrew.ca. Archived from the original on 2020-07-11. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
- ^ "Trivia for Who Framed Roger Rabbit". IMDb. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
- ^ Wolf, Gary. "Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business". Gary Wolf official website. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
- ^ "WDW Opening Dates". Archived from the original on 2008-07-04. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes nomination" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 July 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ "50 Greatest Animated Characters". Archived from the original on 2020-06-30. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
- ^ "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters: Jessica Rabbit". Empire. December 5, 2006. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
- ^ "The 50 Best Animated Movie Characters: Jessica Rabbit". Empire. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- Internet Movie Database. Archivedfrom the original on 2015-04-05. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ a b "No Underwear Under There". Chicago Tribune. March 22, 1994. Archived from the original on November 14, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2013.
- ^ Michael Fleming (March 14, 1994). "Jessica Rabbit revealed". Variety. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved November 4, 2008.
- ^ Mikkelson, David (August 6, 1996). "Who Stripped Jessica Rabbit". Snopes. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
- ^ Adam Sandler (March 16, 1994). "Rabbit frames feed flap". Variety. Archived from the original on May 19, 2011. Retrieved November 4, 2008.