In the spring of 1987 Harald Siepermann and Hans Bacher worked in London on character design of the weasels for Who Framed Roger Rabbit. When their work was finished, Animation Director Richard Williams asked if they wanted to go to Los Angeles and work on the storyboard for the ‘Escape from Toontown’ sequence. In this sequence Eddie Valiant, played by actor Bob Hoskins, finds himself in a cartoon world.
In June, Siepermann and Bacher flew to Los Angeles and worked for several weeks at the Amblin Studio, that was located at the Universal Studio lot. Nobody had worked on this sequence yet, therefore Siepermann and Bacher had to start from scratch. Director Robert Zemeckis gave them the task to draw and write down everything they could think of and to include a lot of Tex Avery jokes. Siepermann and Bacher drew the funniest storyboard that run up to 15 minutes. Eventually only 45 seconds was used in the final version of the film. Among these seconds was also the elevator scene with Droopy.
“What a great movie and what a great experience that was,” commented Harald Siepermann years later. “Remember, this was way before computers and we did it as we went along. Wonderful times… I may sound like a war veteran here, but those were great times. Think of it: just a few years ago, I had been a student of Graphic Design, now I was right in the heart of Hollywood, in Spielberg’s office.”
Below is a part of the storyboard by Harald Siepermann and Hans Bacher.
Click here for a post with more information about the Escape from Toontown storyboard from the wonderful blog of Hans Bacher.
