Toontown

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This article is about a fictional town from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. For the Disney theme parks see Mickey's Toontown. For the Internet video game, see Toontown Online.

Toontown is a fictional city near Los Angeles where animated characters live.

Contents

[edit] Origins

Toontown is a fictional, cartoon city created by author Gary K. Wolf. It was present in his 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, but only in brief mentions. Toontown served as the central setting and reached a wider audience in the novel's loose 1988 Disney film adaptation Who Framed Roger Rabbit,[1] in which Judge Doom intended to destroy it for commercial development along a planned freeway. The film won four Academy Awards,[2] and Roger Rabbit was featured in three subsequent animated shorts, 1989's Tummy Trouble, 1990's Roller Coaster Rabbit and 1993's Trail Mix-Up.[3]

[edit] Description

In the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the whole city of Toontown is cartoonish, except for anything originally foreign to the city such as people and objects from outside of Toontown. Not only does the city appear illustrated (drawn and painted) and animated, but the whole environment has an imaginary, almost dreamlike, atmosphere. Not only do cartoon characters live in Toontown, but even the buildings, cars, plants, and such are all animated with their own personalities, speech patterns, stylistic movement, and other anthropomorphic traits not possible in reality.

[edit] Other uses

Toontown served as the setting for the 1993-1995 television series Bonkers. Toontown has been reproduced in Disney theme parks as Mickey's Toontown.

Disney's game Toontown Online, the first MMORPG for children[citation needed], takes place in a cartoon world populated with classic Disney characters such Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.[4] The game, introduced in 2003, was said to bring the Roger Rabbit franchise online,[5] though it did not include characters introduced in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Wolf and Disney were engaged in a lawsuit over royalty payments at the time.[1]

[edit] Residents of Toontown

  • Dumbo and the Pink Elephants from Dumbo'
  • the Magic Brooms, the Hippos and the Ostriches from Fantasia

With the exception of the characters created specifically for the movie, all the characters are cartoon created in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b McKee, Mike. 2004-01-22. "Roger Rabbit Rumble Revived" The Recorder, via law.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
  2. ^ 2001-05-30. "Who's irking 'Roger Rabbit' author?" CNN.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
  3. ^ (Associated Press). 2003-03-26. "Don't expect a 'Rabbit' sequel" USA Today, via usatoday.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
  4. ^ Gudmundsen, Jinny. 2004-02-10. "Keep the Cogs from overtaking 'Toontown'". USA Today, via usatoday.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
  5. ^ 2004-01-06. "Michael Eisner, Disney Chairman and CEO, Speaks at Smith Barney Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference". Business Wire, via findarticles.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
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