Live data from Hacker News

Disney Lost Roger Rabbit

pluralistic.net

241–250 of 260 posts

Re: Disney Lost Roger Rabbit

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think perhaps there is a sample bias because old actors who retire and don't have dementia don't get written about?

By the time the actors I mentioned were written about as having dementia, many film fans had already assumed they were dealing with dementia precisely because they were no longer being written about or seen in the media much. Such speculation about Jack Nicholson, for example, was rife on film forums well before those paparazzi images appeared.

Right, but that’s probably because they read stories that go back to people who knew the actors. There’s a well-oiled gossip machine.

Lots of old actors who don’t have dementia retire, there just aren’t stories about how they don’t have dementia.

Re: Disney Lost Roger Rabbit

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your car (or other real/chattel property) is capital which can be used directly for gain (e.g., commuting to work, driven for hire), loaned, used as collateral in loans, have its likeness or image used, amongst other potential financially-beneficial actions, all without sale or transfer of title.

What kind of collateral does not involve putting the title as the collateral?

Point, though so long as the terms of the loan are met, possession does not transfer.

The broader point of my comment remains: a vehicle is a useful asset even without transferability.

Re: Disney Lost Roger Rabbit

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> should never be possible for someone to sign away their rights. If you can sign them away, you can be swindled of them. So, if I sell you my house or car I can't sign away my rights on it? - Sure, there is a difference between material and intellectual property ... Against swindling there needs to be protection from fraud, but that exists in most legislative systems.

You answer your own question. Yes, intellectual property rights should be different than physical property rights.

Intellectual property rights are already different than other intangible personal property rights which are different than tangible personal property rights which are different than real property rights.

Re: Disney Lost Roger Rabbit

#246

Sorta related since Disney held a share in it previously but Dick Tracy exclusive rights are still held by Warren Beatty who produced and starred in the role back in 1990. He had to fight off a challenge from Tribune Media in court decades ago but stipulation was he had to produce new Dick Tracy stuff every few years. It’s lead to a series of increasingly surreal late night specials on TCM where he appears in charact…

Surreal is precisely the term. I had no idea about this. It's sad.

Re: Disney Lost Roger Rabbit

#247
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the "fantastic 1981 novel", too, and you know what? It wasn't very good. It had a lot of really interesting world-building and some cool ideas, but the characters were flat and the central mystery was terrible. Despite common wisdom, the book is not always better than the movie. I mean, given that Disney wasn't doing anything new with Roger Rabbit, I'm glad he got the rights back. But I think part of the reaso…

> the characters were flat Yeah, isn't that the central gag of the movie though?

Ba dum dum tssss

Re: Disney Lost Roger Rabbit

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the Roger Rabbit is a miracle where multiple major studios came together and allowed their IP to be in the same work. Disney, Warner Bros, Fleischer Studios, Harvey Comics, King Features Syndicate, Felix the Cat Productions, Turner Entertainment, and Universal Pictures/Walter Lantz Productions all agreed to share their characters. One of Steven Spielbergs great accomplishments was negotiating this. With how prot…

Roger Rabbit was voiced by Charles Fleischer. (Paul Reubens was under consideration in an earlier version, and you can find his voice tests out on YouTube, which might be what you're remembering.)

The test can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDKfLZNMtmU

Paul Reubens wasn't great. With the right direction he could easily have been as good as Fleischer, but I'm sure he was (incorrectly in this case) trying to show he could be less over the top than Pee Wee Herman, who was a known quantity in LA at that time.

What fascinated me is how I reacted to the Jessica Rabbit pencil test, where she snuggles up to the live actor. Even in that low resolution, lousy video transfer, I had a visceral reaction to her character. Those animators were all kinds of good even for a minor demo.

Re: Disney Lost Roger Rabbit

#249
So now Roger Rabbit's creator has the rights back, which is awesome. There will never again be a movie version with as outrageous a cast as the original movie. Somehow they managed to get rights to the biggest characters from competing IP owners. It was a stunning, very much unheralded achievement. These days it would be roughly akin to DC getting to use Darth Vader, Captain Kirk, Spock, Iron Man, and the Hulk in one of their movies.

Re: Disney Lost Roger Rabbit

#250
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of fine, even higher quality and credibility, publishers out there. In fact even a mediocre university press likely has higher standards, in just about every conceivable quality aspect, than even the best imprints of the big 5.

Yes but do the books make more money and get more distribution? Quality is not the critical factor here

Good or bad seems like its about quality?
Post reply on HN