Several urban legends surround Disney's animated feature films and television shows. Perhaps you've heard some of them on the playground when you were a kid. Back then, any juicy rumor was spread like wildfire, true or not. And the Disney stuff was as good as it got. Tales of images of sex and foul language secretly hidden in wholesome Disney films—poisoning the minds of our youth—still persist to this day.
The movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit is famous for many reasons: it was a film that memorably combined flesh-and-blood actors with hand-drawn cartoon characters; it featured Disney icons alongside their Warner Bros. counterparts.
But Roger Rabbit is perhaps equally as infamous for the racy urban legends surrounding the film.
When Jessica is riding a taxi through Toon Town with Bob Hoskins, the taxi crashes into a lamppost, sending both of them flying out of the car. Jessica lands spinning and her dress begins hiking up her body. Hidden in just a few frames—in other words, unnoticeable while playing the movie in its normal speed—Jessica's underwear seems to disappear, briefly leaving her exposed.
Was this an error in the coloring process, or was this a gag perpetrated by an animator working on the film? No one can say for sure, kids. This one stays a mystery.
Another rumor surrounding Roger Rabbit that has yet to be substantiated concerns Disney CEO Michael Eisner.
In the scene where Bob Hoskins goes into a bathroom in Toon Town, graffiti on the wall reads: "For a good time, call Allyson Wonderland ... "The Best Is Yet to Be." The second phrase was supposedly replaced with Eisner's phone number in a single frame. But this did not show up in the laser-disc version of the film, and may have only been hidden in the theatrical version.
The only "urban legend" in Roger Rabbit that can actually be validated is a scene in which Baby Herman walks off of the set and sticks a finger in the air just before going underneath a woman's dress. Herman then emerges with a spot of drool on his upper lip. Hmm ... What could he have been doing?
Be sure to check back on Animated Buzz for the the final installment to The Buzz Cut's Disney's urban legends series.
