Roger Rabbit Effect: Difference between revisions

A special effect intended to show live-action, flesh-and-blood performers interacting with animated characters within the context of a work of fiction. If the story is a [[Comedy Tropes|comedy]], and it usually is, the characters tend to be [[Genre Savvy]] and recognize each other as belonging to either category. This is one of the oldest special effects in Hollywood (the 1914 animated film, ''[[Gertie the Dinosaur]]'', actually had creator [[Winsor McCay]] interacting with animated Gertie in real time ''on a vaudeville stage''), and has been done several times with varying degrees of realism, though it was probably perfected by the 1988 Disney / Amblin film, ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]''.

 

 

Another subtrope is to have human characters be live-acted and other animals be animated.

 

{{examples}}

== [[Advertising]] ==

* While most [[Orangina]] commercials feature all CGI characters, though they have some that include live-action humans, like this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nV5vx0yqEo one].

 

== Literature ==

** Interestingly, unlike the movie, the book presents the Toons as comic-strip characters (talking via speech balloons, for instance) rather than animated cartoons. If memory serves, one scene has Eddie attempting to reattach Roger's nose first with tape and then glue.

* The [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novel ''The Crooked World'' implies this—the [[Planetville]] ''du jour'' is inhabited by cartoon characters. However, none of the protagonists seem to notice that the people they're interacting with are strangely coloured, although they do notice they're generally odd-looking and don't seem to work according to the normal laws of reality, biology, and so on, and the ([[Contemptible Cover|ridiculous-looking]]) cover features a cartoon of the Doctor, so it's not clear exactly what is going on.

** This was only one of many invocations, as the animations were often required to link together the live action sketches.

* ''[[Pumuckl]]'': The kobold protagonist of a German children's TV series. Everything else is live action; Pumuckl is animated.

* ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' once appeared "live" at the MTV Music Awards via this technique.

* The Argentinian soap ''Mi familia es un dibujo'' tells the misadventures of a family in which a pregnant woman has cartoon cravings in the last months of her pregnancy and then gives birth to a readheaded, freckled and hyperactive cartoon boy (!). It even spawned three ''movies''! More information in [http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi_familia_es_un_dibujo the other wiki] (in Spanish).

* [[Gorillaz]] occasionally interact with live-action performers; during a concert, their computerised selves performed alongside Madonna. Within the canon, it varies as to whether they ''know'' they're cartoon characters; 2D once said he's pleased to be a cartoon character because "Paternity suits don't stick 'cos I don't have any DNA." (Apparently they ''do'' stick when the mother is another cartoon character, as shown by the existence of 2D's numerous illegitimate children.) Murdoc also shrugged off a potential murder charge after {{spoiler|the ''El Manana'' [[The Plan]] in which he used the crashing windmill to kill off a stalker of his}}, on the grounds that "I don't even have fingerprints."

** Murdoc claims Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, the actual band creators, are their producer and photographer/video producer, respectively (although, as he further stated, "it's all bull because Damon mostly sits around playing his banjo or looking up 'ethnic instruments' on Google, and Jamie's mainly designing his beard"). Then there's [http://i35.tinypic.com/m9vz7o.jpg this], to prove the point visually. There was also the interview with [[Franz Ferdinand]] that had a "photoshoot" with both band's members.

* [[Vocaloid|Hatsune Miku]] did this during her during her "live-action" concert in Los Angeles. Each time a member of her band was introduced, she would turn to them, smile, and wave. In fact, the entire concert was an example of this. A virtual diva in the real world? Sweet!

* The French pianist [[Richard Clayderman]] has a clip, "Smiling Joey", where for some reason he's at his piano in a boat floating down a river while various animated woodland critters are playing the parts of the orchestra.

== Web Originals ==

* [[The Gaming Pixie]] does this when she travels inside the games she reviews.

* AniMae from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' is a "living anime" [[Action Girl]] superhero who possesses all the usual [[Magic Girl]] / [[Action Girl]] abilities, with the added benefit of being really hard to injure permanently because she's a cartoon.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=en&client=mv-google&v=HjGrHBpfqCo&nomobile=1 Law-Abiding Engineer] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-T2I6sEsrY&feature=channel&list=UL The Demo Knight] are the trailers for ''[[Law Abiding Citizen]]'' and ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', but with the ''Team Fortress 2'' characters superimposed into them.

* The Disney series ''[[Bonkers]]'' is similar to ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'', treating cartoon characters as actors. The titular bobcat is a washed-up cartoon star working as a cop in the "real world". If you're wondering how they pulled that off in pure animation, "Real" things and people were [[Real Is Brown|painted in a shade darker]] than "Toon" people and objects, as well as having a much more subdued range of motion and especially reaction. Humans were also drawn with [[Four-Fingered Hands|five fingers]], which becomes a plot point in one episode.

** The characters seemed to be [[Genre Savvy|aware]] that different physics applied to 'toon characters, and even referred to them like an ethnic minority.

* [[Max and Dave Fleischer]]'s ''[[Out of the Inkwell]]'' shorts. This and the ''[[Alice Comedies]]'' are especially notable for being one of the first attempts at playing around with animation / live action blending.

* Briefly in the opening of ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]''.

[[Category:The Renaissance Age of Animation]]

[[Category:The Golden Age of Animation]]