Who Performance-Captured Roger Rabbit?

Yesterday, I reported that Robert Zemeckis had announced to MTV News that he was currently working on a Roger Rabbit sequel. Today, MTV posted more of the same interview, in which Zemeckis confirms exactly what I was worried about to begin with: his sudden obsession with amazing “hey-we-look-like-CGI-wooden-dummies” mocap technology will carry over into Roger’s world.

Zemeckis assures fans that Roger and company will remain two dimensional, but says that “all the other characters they would have fun with would be magnificent in performance capture technology.” Sure they would, Robert. It worked so very well for Beowulf.

Don’t get me wrong; motion capture is cool. But it’s not the end-all, be-all of cinema. It’s not where the industry is going. It’s a useful tool, but not something that you should use to make your entire movie. Especially not, you know, four times in a row.

The question is, how – and to what extent – will the motion capture be used? Will human characters become digitally rendered when they’re in ToonTown? Will they be computer-animated all the time, and yet still discriminating against the ‘toons for their own animated state? AICN raises the tantalizing possibility of a new breed of motion-capture ‘toons, and how they interact with the classic ‘toons upon arrival in ToonTown, but somehow I just can’t raise my hopes that high. It’s the director’s quote that worries me. He didn’t say “some” of the characters would look good in mocap. He said “all.” And in the universe of Roger Rabbit, where live-action and animation occupying the same space is, um, kind of the point… well, I just don’t see how it can work.

Oh, but just in case you’re worried that the WFRR sequel will be all about cheap animation gimmicks: let me put your heart at ease. It’ll all be done with that old standby of classic, quality storytelling: 3D glasses.

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