One of the tricky aspects of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was that the animators had to develop in Roger and Jessica Rabbit a pair of characters who could stand up to the well-known Disney and Warner Bros. characters dropping anvils in the background. This early pencil test shows a proto-form of the Rabbits, with Roger voiced by Paul Reubens, better known as Pee-wee Herman.
Jessica Rabbit seems a bit less cool and collected in this test, although that could be in part because she doesn’t have the cascades of hair, or that knock-out dress. Roger comes off as more neurotic and sad-sacky in his test, which is a surprise since Reubens’ usual hyperactivity would have been a nice match for the ultimately manic Roger Rabbit. Perhaps, though, the familiarity of his Pee-wee Herman voice would have been too distracting for audiences in 1988.
[Screen Crush via GeekTyrant]
