Last week I got two movies for Blu-Ray for the first time and watched them back to back. They were the defining movies of my childhood and along with the TV series "Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures" and "DuckTales" were the stories that made me want to become a cartoonist. I only include DuckTales on that list because it got me into Disney Comics which was the fifth influence and soon surpassed it.
What were these two movies?
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Wizards".
Both movies were rights of passage for the boys at my school. Forget Transformers: The Movie, the only TRULY edgy cartoons for pre-teens that had me and my friends talking were Roger Rabbit and Wizards. I still love them both even if only Roger Rabbit is a great movie.
Roger Rabbit is a bonafide film classic, just as fun and eye-popping as the day it was released. It looks better than ever on Blu-Ray and my jaw dropped during every second. The film's score, despite not being as famous as other blockbusters of the era is still fantastic and bowls me over.
Wizards on the other hand is definitely dated. Even though it looks great on Blu-Ray the sexism, gore, and raunchy humor make me blush. That said, I remembered instantly why I fell in love with it. It was the first cartoon I EVER saw that blended different animation styles all throughout it and uses the animation medium to it's fullest in spite of (and some would say BECAUSE of) its small budget. I still can't think of another movie that does that. It also has wickedly funny jokes including an ending SO inappropriate and antithetical to the movie's preachings that if you aren't really aware that it was SUPPOSED to be subversive you might think it ruined the whole movie. It didn't. It's hilarious.
Below I'm going to repost my earlier reviews of both films. I've added some stuff after rewatching them so these aren't the exact same reviews.
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