Walt Disney, part XXXV: I hope you're proud of yourself—and those pictures you took

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT

1988

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman ("based on" the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf, but at least the book properly punctuates its title)

Spoiler alert: forget it, reader, it's Chinatown

Robert Zemeckis, part VIII: Tempus quiescit

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III

Back to the Future takes a vacation in the Old West, which doesn't seem like it should be the summing up of a box office-shattering, pop culture-redefining trilogy, and guess what?  It really isn't—but there we have it, and there's no changing it now.  And yet it's still an awful lot of fun on its own lessened terms, and that doesn't just count for something; it's damned near the whole ball of wax.

1990
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis
With Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly and Seamus McFly), Christopher Lloyd (Dr. Emmett Brown), Mary Steenburgen (Clara Clayton), and Thomas F. Wilson (Biff Tannen and Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen)

Spoiler alert: severe

Robert Zemeckis, part VII: Tempus sulcat

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II

Back to the Future jumps right up its own ass—and, somehow, this makes it even better than it already was.

1989

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis

With Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly, Marty McFly, Jr., and Marlene McFly), Christopher Lloyd (Dr. Emmett Brown), Elisabeth Shue (Jennifer Parker), Lea Thompson (Lorraine McFly nee Baines), Jeffrey Weisman (George McFly), and Thomas F. Wilson (Biff Tannen and Griff Tannen)

Spoiler alert: severe

Robert Zemeckis, part VI: I hope you're proud of yourself—and those pictures you took

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT

Zemeckis reemerges with one of the most technologically audacious films of all time, a spectacle worth watching over and over again for the sheer complexity of its achievement.

1988

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman ("based on" the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf, but at least the book properly punctuates its title)

With Bob Hoskins (Eddie Valiant), Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit, Benny the Cab, and several weasels), Kathleen Turner (Jessica Rabbit), Lou Hirsch (Baby Herman), Stubby Kate (Marvin Acme), Alan Tivern (R.K. Maroon), and Christopher Lloyd (Judge Doom)

Spoiler alert: forget it, reader, it's Chinatown

Robert Zemeckis, part V: Tempus fugit

BACK TO THE FUTURE

And now, we really find out what we've gotten ourselves into: the uninterrupted run of classics, super-classics, and near-classics that can compete with the work of any director, living or dead—not to mention a great movie, in and of itself, as well as the beginning of something even bigger than just one film, no less than a trilogy worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the mightiest franchises of a singularly-befranchised decade.

1985

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis

With Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly), Christopher Lloyd (Dr. Emmett Brown), Claudia Wells (Jennifer Parker), Lea Thompson (Lorraine McFly, nee Baines), Crispin Glover (George McFly), and Thomas F. Wilson (Biff Tannen)

Spoiler alert: severe