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Animation is sizzling hot today with Disney/Pixar’s INSIDE OUT 2, but in the 1980’s Walt Disney Feature Animation was on its last legs — until WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT saved the day.

The 1988 live-action & animated fantasy comedy, directed by Robert Zemeckis, was written by Jeffrey Price & Peter S. Seaman and loosely based on Gary K. Wolf’s 1981 novel “Who Censored Roger Rabbit?” Produced by Frank Marshall & Robert Watts, its stars included Bob Hoskins & Christopher Lloyd with Charles Fleischer voicing Roger & Kathleen Turner’s uncredited voicing of Jessica Rabbit.

ROGER is set in an alternate 1947 Hollywood world where humans & cartoon characters — or “toons” — somehow co-exist. Disney acquired the  film rights in 1981, after which Price &  Seaman wrote two screenplay drafts. Then Disney brought in Steven Spielberg to executive produce (with Kathleen Kennedy) and his production company, Amblin Entertainment.

Zemeckis wasn’t Disney’s first choice to direct. He’d tried to get that deal in 1982, but wasn’t hired since in Hollywood you’re only as good as your last movie and his last two — I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND (1978) & USED CARS (1980) — were boxoffice duds.

Terry Gilliam (TIME BANDITS) was offered to direct ROGER, but passed because it seemed so technically challenging. He later called that, “Pure laziness on my part,” adding, “I completely regret that decision.”

In 1985, however, Disney said yes to Zemeckis, who by then had made the hits ROMANCING THE STONE (1984) & BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985). Richard Williams, who’d been the lead animator on THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (1976), was hired to supervise ROGER’s animation.

Williams wasn’t a fan of what he called “the Disney bureaucracy” and wouldn’t work in L.A., so Disney established a new animation facility for him to use in Camden Town, London. ROGER’s live-action production was then relocated to Elstree Studios, just outside of London.

Spielberg’s first choice for the role that later went to Hoskins was Harrison Ford, who was too expensive. Chevy Chase, the second choice, passed. Bill Murray was a real possibility, but apparently didn’t know they wanted him.

When Disney CEO Michael Eisner & vice chairman Roy E. Disney finally saw ROGER, they agreed it was way too adult to be a Walt Disney Pictures release. Zemeckis, who had final cut, wasn’t making any changes. But Roy Disney, who also headed Feature Animation, and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg both felt ROGER would be fine to release through Disney’s adult label, Touchstone Pictures.

It all paid off. ROGER, which reportedly cost $70M to produce, opened June 22, 1988 and grossed $329.8M worldwide, which was a major blockbuster at the time.