elicopperman
Over the span of 30 years, Who Framed Roger Rabbit has been lauded for its technical innovations, admirable tongue-in-cheek tribute to cartoons from the Golden Age of American Animation and classic film noir, and just being a fantastic film in every regard. What was originally a book by the name of Who Censored Roger Rabbit went through roughly seven years of development before finally reaching the big screen in the summer of 1988. Since then, the movie would become arguably one of the most influential films of all time, and would also help launch the animation renaissance of the 1990s next to The Little Mermaid and Ren & Stimpy. As for me, considering that this is my all time favorite movie, you can bet I have much to say about it.Set in Hollywood around 1947, where cartoon characters exist in the real world, cartoon star Roger Rabbit is accused of murdering owner of Toontown, Marvin Acme. This was the result of alcoholic private eye Eddie Valiant getting hired by cartoon producer R.K. Maroon to investigate adultery involving Roger's wife Jessica and Acme. Now Roger tries to get Eddie to clear his name from the villainous Judge Doom who vows to destroy him and all other toons. While that plot does sound wacky in concept, it nonetheless adds in to the film's tone, as the whole film is a passionate love letter to the style and humor of cartoons from the 1940s. The very first scene is a Roger Rabbit/Baby Herman cartoon entitled Somethin's Cookin', which is a rapidly paced homage to the zany cartoons of Tex Avery and Hanna-Barbera. Of course the other pairing of toons themselves are memorably hilarious, especially that famous Daffy Duck and Donald Duck piano duel, but the film always keeps on its toes to make sure the main story doesn't get out of focus.In terms of the film noir aspect, the general story is executed as one big crime case that has much more hidden underneath it as Eddie unravels more clues. Admittedly, the plot can be a little complicated to follow at times, mainly due to the immense amount of details once everything is revealed, although it does make much more sense upon repeat viewings. Nonetheless, the buildup further creates the necessary suspense and thrills to figure out who exactly is behind the cartoon murder case. It's with all of these elements that help recreate the original book's mystery angle while condensing it a bit to play around with the cartoony antics and fast paced comedy. It's debatable whether or not the filmmakers studied any particular film noir classics, but the film's point of view as a thriller is so well put together that it's hard to believe that wasn't the case.As for the characters, Eddie Valiant may start off grouchy, but it's through his backstory that explains his inner struggles with toons, and Bob Hoskins portrays his down-to-earth persona up to the point where one could also relate to something they love ruining their life. Charles Fleischer pulls off Roger's voice, and while some could find it annoying, he manages to carry Roger's emotions in context to the human actors astonishingly while making him delightfully amusing. Jessica Rabbit could pretty much be called the spiritual successor to Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood, mainly from her bombshell design and scarlet attire, but she's also a very devoted wife to Roger, showing how sometimes a human and a rabbit being married ain't so bad after all. Lastly, Judge Doom may seem like a subdued psychopath at first, but his plan to wipe out all toons is so diabolical that his reveal sums up his whole character. While there are other fun characters like the weasels, Dolores, Benny the cab and Baby Herman, they're not quite as developed as the rest, but they do their jobs well as supporting characters. What's interesting to mention is a subtle social commentary on how the toons are depicted. Similar to the book, the toons are depicted as minorities, since real people don't really interact much with them outside of working in Hollywood, unlike that of Eddie and friends or Judge Doom and his weasels. Not to mention, the scene where Roger tells Eddie how laughter can be a very powerful thing while standing on a soap box is rather symbolic of African Americans standing up for their own rights. In fact, ToonTown is essentially a ghetto since only toons live there far off from the people of the real world. Hell, Roger stated in the film, "there's no justice for toons anymore," as if that statement was similar to how little justice there were for people of different races back then. It's when Judge Doom reveals his plans to turn ToonTown into a freeway where viewers may see the lovable toons in a completely different light. While these metaphors are more subtly played out, this really makes that legendary happy ending with all our favorite animated characters celebrating Marvin Acme's will surfacing their free rights a blessing in a way.I think Richard Williams was the perfect choice to direct the film's animation, as he and his crew managed to set up distinct rules in combining the toons with the real world. For example, when Roger crashes through R. K. Maroon's office, the hole he leaves behind looks just like him, and one scene shows Roger spitting out realistic water, not water drawn on paper. This is not only thanks to the highly talented animators, but also ILM who helped create a wonderful method of compositing the traditional animated characters into the same environments as the live actors without using advanced computers. The processes ranged from prop manipulation, to superimposing the frames on photostatic blowups, to multiple matte layers, and especially constant camera motion, showing just how painstaking the process must have been for the crew. In addition, Williams designed Roger based on features of characters born out of Warner Bros, MGM, and Disney. Considering how hard it is to make real people interacting with characters of another realm look convincing, the techniques worked so well that one could imagine the film's world being real.Of all the films that have combined live-action and animation, as well as being tributes to classic cartoons and crime thrillers, there may never be one that will even come close to topping this one. Who Framed Roger Rabbit still stands the test of time for its fantastic technical achievements, intriguing story with some hidden albeit smart depth and satire, lovable characters and charming imagination. At this point, there's no reason not to see this film again, as anybody who loves cartoons, film noir, or even highly creative movies in general will get a kick out of this now as much as the audiences of back then. And now, to end this off, time to quote the movie itself: "Things are never black as they are painted, time for you and joy to get acquainted. So make life worthwhile; come on and smile, darn ya, smile."
Steve
I've always been guilty of rewarding ambitious films, much like with Birdman and Boyhood. This film is a staple and a must-watch for anybody. There was no digital compositing with this, it was all optical. This means they took stills frame by frame and composited the animation post-production. The animators went through hell to convey fluidity with the real-world cinematography. They included shadows, highlights, tone mattes, etc. Hand-drawn. Frame by frame. Over 82,000 frames. Then you have the live-action issues with interacting with something not present. The filmmakers went out of their way, challenging themselves, with motion control technology and puppeteering. It won three Oscars for the effort. One flaw was perhaps the misguided decision to screw Warner Bros., despite having their blessing. Following Warner Bros.' lead would have had positive results. Overall, however, this film is a technical marvel of the late 80's and great fun to watch. Top 300 film. 8.5/10 — watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
shadowranger19
This movie was is an unforgivable attempt at comedy/mystery, it does one thing I have allows found to be wrong and downright unsettling when watching any movie. The film takes place in the big city where the movie industry is booming and cartoons are living members of society, so you have brightly colored cartoons walking around the not so bright real world. The problem I have with this is that the cartoons are where they put all the adult content. The cartoons doing things that are sexual or swearing like a sailor and other adult actions. I find that this was a very common thing during the mid to late 1900s to have cartoon characters doing this sort of thing but not to the extreme that this movie takes it to, i believe more adults watched cartoons during this time so they were catering to them in part.The problem with having adult content mixed with the good humor is the fact that a larger number of children are still watching these cartoons, children idolize cartoon characters and when they do inappropriate things kids may find it OK. At one point in the movie a well endowed female toon is being searched for something and another toon sticks his hand down her shirt between the breasts, This is a PG film with many well-known cartoon characters in it kids are going to see that and may think that's all right, when if any adult did that he could go to jail on sexual harassment charges.Speaking of there over use of sexuality, the female I spoke of earlier is brought to the stage at the start of the film as the main entertainment in a bar. She is a singer and a very seductive presence that the all man club just loves. She is over sexualized for the entire length of the movie from seducing men to get her way to having someone stand up off the ground and run into her far too large breasts.Sexual behavior is not the only adult things the toons are doing. People seem to think that if it's a bright colored moving drawing that they can do whatever and it's not a problem because it's not a real person. The toons do most of the swearing and smoking and are rude and violent quite often, well the human characters do not, except for a select few times. For children that connect with the toons better than the adult characters it could be confusing. Not to mention it is not what anyone is expecting from them making for an uncomfortable environment for many adults.As far as the human characters they don't have much to them they just don't do much except the two main human characters. The side cast of living people just draw attention to the things I talked about earlier by commenting on the nature or appearance of toons objectifying them every chance they get. It reminded me a great deal of racial prejudice, toons are treated like property and loaned between the different studios. The toon vs human dynamic is very strong though the movie, humans have all the power and rights they can act as judge and jury and executioner if they see fit. these things made it a very hard to enjoy.
powermandan
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was not the first movie to combine cartoon with real things. It was just the best movie to do so and still remains the best. Who Framed Roger Rabbit helped popularize the double usage. Yogi Bear, Smurfs, Casper, and Alvin & The Chipmunks are some of the best known movies like Roger Rabbit of recent times. The first reason Roger Rabbit surpasses those is because of the kind of animation that is used. The pure CGI stuff used in Yogi Bear and Smurfs is easy as hell in comparison with this. The 80s was when people needed to draw out cartoons by hand. I highly doubt there were 50 frames drawn by hand per-second used for the cartoons, but whatever. I saw a special feature that looked through how the actors would be communicating with the cartoons, and that was enough. Roger Rabbit provides constant asking "How do they do that?" I don't want to know anymore behind-the-scenes tricks because the magic would be lost. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is not specifically for children. Kids under the age of 9 should be accompanied by adults. There's sexual innuendo, drinking, smoking, and profanity out of youngsters' reach. Besides, adults would appreciate the work that went into it and understand the story better. This is a neo-noir, so the story is guaranteed to be complex. Bob Hoskins plays a down-on-his-luck detective named Eddie Valiant who is sent to spy on Roger Rabbit's wife Jessica who is suspected of cheating on him with the owner of Toontown. It is true and Roger is heartbroken. The next day, the man is murdered and Roger is the prime suspect. Baby Herman explains Roger is innocent and mentions the man's plans of Toontown. Soon, Valiant uncovers a deadly conspiracy of betrayal, lies, deceit and murder in which Roger and his wife are just a small piece of the puzzle.This is a truly funny movie and all characters are lovable. This uses every film noir trick in the book but adds warmth and hilarity with wonderful cartoons.
