Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Though it was a massive success that perpetuated the imposing history of Disney technical breakthroughs by seamlessly fusing animation with live action to an unprecedented degree,Roger Rabbitnever achieved the franchise status so many expected from it. One suspects the film's spectacular collision of the Disney and Warner animation universes would be a tough act for the respective empires' burgeoning licensing and copyright departments to repeat. That fusion, along with its '40s historical roots (believe it or not, it's based on a true story: the corporate collusion to eliminate Los Angeles's once-expansive commuter rail system in favor of buses), also gave the composer a whole slate of daunting challenges. He's required to variously concoct the musical ethos for a fictional cartoon studio and Roger, its mascot (the "Maroon" themes, "The Merry Go Round Broke Down"); recall the swing and smoky jazz of post-war L.A. (Jessica Rabbit's/Amy Irving's sultry "Why Don't You Do Right," "Jessica's Theme"); and evoke the madcap genius of veteran Disney/Warner animation composerCarl Stalling("Hungarian Rhapsody (Dueling Pianos)," "Toontown")--but don't make ittooobvious, please. To his credit, Silvestri delivers one of the great contemporary animated scores, a dizzy, back-to-the-future soundtrack that bounds across both genre and studio boundaries with surprising grace and subtlety.--Jerry McCulley