A-Z GUIDE TO MOVIES AND TV SHOWS PARODIED BY MAD, CRACKED, CRAZY, ETC. UP TO 1996. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. SPOILERS AND OTHER NON-SEQUITURS, TOO. SOMETIMES THESE THINGS HAVE WORDS OR SITUATIONS WE DON'T USE ANYMORE. YOU KNOW, 'CAUSE THEY'RE OLD.
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WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988)
dir: Robert Zemeckis
WHO DE-FAMED ROBBER RABBIT?
MAD #284, January 1989
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Angelo Torres
Film noir that was a big hit for its many cameo appearances by characters from cartoons from the 30s-50s from different studios. It took place in 1947, with detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) reluctantly taking the case of animation studio head R. K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern) who suspects the reason for his star performer Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer)'s poor performance is that his wife Jessica (Kathleen Turner) is having an affair with Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye). Eddie photographs the evidence, submits it to Roger, the next day Marvin is murdered. Roger has been set up and goes to Eddie to clear his name and this leads a plot by Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) of Toontown, the town where all the cartoon characters live, to destroy the area to make room for a freeway. Eddie, who previously hated 'toons', learns to appreciate them.
The MAD parody is about what was supposed to have happened after the story ended.
The character sitting on the curb is Baby Herman, Roger Rabbit's co-star, who acts like a baby on film, but is a talking adult who smokes when off the set. George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis were the main Presidential candidates of 1988.
'Patty cake' was what Jessica and Marvin were caught doing and literally that, not any actual sexual act. “I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way” was Jessica's tagline in the movie.
Benny, also voiced by Charles Fleischer, was Roger's taxi in the movie's big chase scene. Alfred Hitchcock is always shorthand for “movie director” when it's not Erich Von Stroheim. Mommie Dearest was a book written by Joan Crawford's daughter about how cruel she apparently was.
Howard the Duck, one of the first movies based on a Marvel character before the Marvel Universe was conceived for Hollywood, was considered one of the biggest flops of the 80s. I never saw it. Maybe in retrospect it wasn't as bad as people say it was.
WHEN ROGER RABBIT TECHNOLOGY TAKES OVER ALL OF HOLLYWOOD'S FILMS
MAD #285, March 1989
w: Stan Hart
a: Bob Clarke
As we all know, animation and live action has been done several times since the 80s, then there's CGI and deepfakes, and soon A.I. Will replace all of us.
THE GREAT TOON SURPLUS SALE
MAD #292, March 1990
w: Larry Siegel
a: Angelo Torres
The lower left has Fox and the Crow which had few cartoons in the series and was already discontinued 40 years before this. There was a long-running comic book adaptation of it but even that was over long before most readers of this would have been born.
The weasel with the steamroller was one of Judge Doom's minions in the movie. Magilla Gorilla, next to Mickey and Donald, might be known by some.
German cover.
WHO FWAMED ROGER WABBIT?
Cracked #241, December 1988
w: Rick Kriegel (Lou Silverstone)
a: Walter Brogan
Elmer Fudd narrates the parody. Steven Spielberg wasn't the director. He may not even have been on the set. He was executive producer which could mean a lot of things.
Eddie spent a lot of time at a bar. The waitress was Joanna Cassidy.
Judge Doom had a solution called Dip, which was essentially ink remover, that he planned to execute Roger with.
Eddie hates Toons because one killed his brother. As he's about to be killed, Judge Doom reveals that he was that Toon, which is all Eddie needs to snap out of his hatred, turn the tables, and regain his sense of humor.
Disney release a few Roger Rabbit cartoons with their full-length movies in their attempt to bring cartoons back to theaters.
CRACKED INTERVIEWS ROGER WABBIT
Cracked #245, July 1989
w: Vic Bianco (Lou Silverstone)
a: John Severin
Cher, Morton Downey Jr., and Mel Blanc are the big Lakers fans.
Here are some parodies of movies from a few days ago that were also parodied by Cracked. One because it was the only issue I didn't have when I was assembling material last year, the other because it was past the cutoff point I established. Click 'previous' a few times to see the trailers and summaries and who the actors are. Enjoy.
TWISTED
Cracked #312, November 1996
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Walter Brogan
Spielberg wasn't the director for Twister. It was only produced by his company.
TWITS
Cracked #245, July 1989
a: Walter Brogan
PLATOON (1986)
dir: Oliver Stone
PLA-TOONS
Cracked #245
w: Matthew Sweeney
a: Walter Brogan
This parody doesn't require having seen Platoon, it just made for a good pun.
The end has Charlie Sheen and Kevin Dillon from Platoon, as well as Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter and Sylvester Stallone as Rambo. If they were going to use actors from other films about Vietnam, they missed out on they opportunity to use Charlie Sheen's real life father Martin Sheen of Apocalypse Now.
The reason Charlie Sheen's helmet says 'Estevez' is because it's his real last name.
MAD # 292, January 1990
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker
Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) is a scientist that has invented a ray to shrink objects that he can't seem to get to work. His son Nick (Robert Oliveri) is an inspiring inventor himself. Next door is his jock neighbor Russ Thompson (Matt Frewer), who wishes his son Ron (Jared Rushton) would follow in his footsteps. His brother Little Russ (Thomas Wilson Brown) is practicing baseball and he breaks the Szalinski's attic window and the ball lands on the ray up there, shrinking the some of the objects. Ron makes Little Russ go and apologize to the Szalinzkis, which he also sees as an excuse to talk to their teenage daughter Amy (Amy O'Neill). All four kids go upstairs to retrieve the ball and the ray, which has now gone haywire from being hit by the baseball, and shrinks them.
It also shrinks Wayne's couch, a plot device later used. Their dog Quark is later used as well, and like most MAD spoofs thinks here. Wayne had pitched his machine to a group of scientists earlier, and has now come home frustrated that it didn't go over, writing it off as a failure and smashing it. After his tantrum, he sweeps up the mess he's made and throws it in the garbage, not seeing the shrunken kids. After taking the trash out, the kids escape the bag and find themselves on the lawn. The Thompsons next door are getting ready for a fishing trip.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids got a lot of its audience by having a cartoon before the feature, something that hadn't been done for a long time.
There's a long adventure (the Cracked parody gets more into it) on their lawn that involves all of them in large blades of grass, drops of dew that are rivers, sprinklers are huge storms, and the like. They fight an ant over an Oreo they find and end up taming and befriending the ant. Tinkerbell and the Mad Hatter are not in the movie, just also properties of Disney. Russ sneaks a cigarette in the backyard and throws the butt onto the neighboring lawn, which the kids use for fire at night. At home Wayne Finds the missing couch and discovers the ray actually does work and has shrunken the kids.
Lily Tomlin complains this movie is derivative of The Incredible Shrinking Woman, though her movie is taken from several different movies as well.
Wayne's wife Diane (Marcia Strassman) comes home and he has to break the news about the missing children to her. They both look for the kids by hovering over the lawn suspended from a clothesline so they don't step on them, searching for them with magnifying glasses. Quark hears them and rescues them, bringing them the rest of the way back and into the house. Wayne finds them in his Cheerios and brings them upstairs to bring them back to normal size. Russ Thompson volunteers to have the ray tested on himself before using it on them. Here they make a reference to the actor having been Max Headroom.
This was the cover for the German edition of MAD.
From If Famous Movies Were Made Into Comic Strips by Russ Cooper, in MAD #295, June 1990
HONEY, I STUNK THE KIDS
Cracked #251, January 1990
w: Charles E. Hall
a: Walter Brogan
The movie ended with the two families getting and having a giant turkey. Here it's a California Raisin.
Here is the cartoon that proceeded it. Although what annoys me about the Roger Rabbit series that the action is in 360 degrees and the characters are always in motion, something that didn't exist in the forties cartoons they're paying homage to.Mbr>
