Roger Rabbit animator reveals behind-the-scenes controversy that threatened an iconic scene

Animation legend Phil Nibbelink recalls the making of a memorable gag from Who Framed Roger Rabbit During the final warehouse conflict in the animated/live-action classic Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the evil Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) pulls a sword on hero detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins). Desperate to defend himself, Valiant looks around and finds a box labeled “Singing Sword.” He opens the box and whips out a rubbery cartoon sword that looks and sounds like Frank Sinatra singing “Witchcraft” as the blade sways back and forth. Embarrassed by the unintimidating weapon, Valiant stares at it, then chucks it away in search of some other way to save himself. While the singing sword gag is one of many memorable jokes in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it’s just about the only one worth bringing up on Cool Sword Day. That’s why Polygon reached out to Phil Nibbelink, a veteran animation director of films like An American Tail: Fievel Goes West and We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story. Nibbelink also served as a supervising animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, overseeing and hand-drawing many bits of animation in the film, including the Singing Sword, which he says had a few stumbling blocks on i