Review: Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Set in Hollywood in the late 1940s, Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is a PI hired by an animation studio to work a case of possible marital infidelity. You see, Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer) is the top star in Toon Town, and he’s worried that his bodacious wife Jessica (voiced by Kathleen Turner) is having an affair. Eddie takes some snaps of Jessica indeed seemingly playing footsie with gag creator Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye). The next day, Acme is found dead and Roger is the numero uno suspect. He swears his innocence, and pleads with toon-hating Eddie to help prove his case before the hideous Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) gets to him. Joanna Cassidy plays Valiant’s loyal but increasingly fed-up waitress girlfriend. Countless cartoon characters across several studios turn up throughout the film in cameos/guest spots.

 

It had been a helluva long time since I last saw this 1988 Robert Zemeckis (“Romancing the Stone”, “Back to the Future”, “Forrest Gump”) blend of live-action detective story and animated comedy, hell it might’ve been the first time I’d seen it since its original release. In that time I must’ve forgotten just how good it is. It probably plays better to me now as a 35 year old than it did the first time at around age 8. That said, even as an 8 year old, I knew that Jessica Rabbit was all kinds of wrong in all the right kind of ways. Sexiest animated character of all-time? Hell yes, and I’m calling it now: She has one of the best entrances in cinematic history. Deal with it. Kathleen Turner is perfect as the voice of Jessica Rabbit. I have no idea why Amy Irving provides a separate singing voice, though. Is Turner really that bad at singing?

 

The blend of detective story and ‘Hollywood insider’ story is jolly good fun, and it’s an absolute must for animation buffs. The best thing is that you can’t really call the blend of animation and live-action dated, because the film isn’t going for Gollum-esque realism. CG animation would be beside the point. This is about 2D cell animation characters interacting with the ‘real’ world. It’s better than “Space Jam”, that’s for damn sure. “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” was pretty good, but I bet even Joe Dante would concede that this film is better. I mean, this film was clearly made by animation buffs. It’s cute that a ‘toon’ killed Bob Hoskins’ brother, but it’s priceless that it dropped a piano on his head! Meanwhile, Roger Rabbit is accused of murdering someone by dropping a safe on their head. Repeated viewings are essential, as you’ll pick new things up each time. For instance, there’s the scene where Roger literally hops onto a soapbox. Brilliant gag there. There’s also the funny recurring gag of tweeting birds circling whenever someone hits their head, straight out of “Looney Tunes” cartoons. My personal favourite was probably the scene where Benny the toon car gets to drive a ‘real’ car at one point. That’s insane…or looney, perhaps. Fans of “Looney Tunes” in particular will love all the references to ACME, especially in the climax.

 

However, the biggest source of fascination here is quite clearly all the cameos by cartoon characters not only from Warner Brothers, but also Disney. Yes, you’ll get to see Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny share a scene together, which is really quite amazing. I’m surprised that the WB characters don’t get short shrift here given Touchstone Pictures is related to Disney (Steven Spielberg’s Amblin also produced). You’ll see a funny cameo by Dumbo, the dancing hippo and brooms from “Fantasia”, a frog who looks a lot like Michigan J. Frog from the classic “Looney Tunes” cartoon ‘One Froggy Evening’, etc. My favourites include; a very funny bit with Daffy and Donald Duck playing duelling pianos (possibly a spoof of Chaplin/Keaton in “Limelight”?), a great cameo by a perfectly cast Betty Boop as a waitress, the always hilarious Droopy as an elevator attendant, and an almost as funny cameo by Tweety Bird. Porky Pig turns up at the end, but look out for the rather sick gag involving a poster with him advertising pork sausages! Yep, this movie’s a little bent. I have no idea what the singing sword is all about, but it’s an hilarious Frank Sinatra-inspired creation nonetheless. Good luck keeping score of all the animated characters who literally burst out at the climax! Personally I think Beaky Buzzard from “Looney Tunes” was a shameful absence, but you’ve got pretty much everyone else you could possibly wish for.

 

I’m sure some will tire of him, but I really liked the title character, memorably voiced by Charles Fleischer. Is Roger annoying? Hell yes, but for some reason I kinda like that. It’s a warped, somewhat dark (or at least not kiddie-oriented) film anyway, so it makes sense that Roger is over-the-top, annoying, and borderline insane. At least he’s not sickeningly sweet, and he’s not a wise-arse carbon copy of Bugs. He’s a unique character. Also terrific is Baby Herman. Although he gets kinda forgotten about for most of the film, he’s one of the film’s early highlights. The best thing about the cute, WB-style opening cartoon is when the director calls cut and you hear Baby Herman talk for real. He sounds like the late Robert Loggia! Funny stuff.

 

On the human side of things, this is one of Bob Hoskins’ best roles, and probably the only time he adopted a convincing American accent. Neither he nor the very fine Joanna Cassidy (one of her best performances too) talk down to the material one bit, which is crucial in our buying it for 90 or so minutes. If it weren’t for his unmistakable voice, it might take you a minute or two to spot Christopher Lloyd as Judge Doom. Although I think giving him weasel sidekicks is way too much of a spoiler, he is also a very memorable part of the film. He makes an immediately creepy impression, in fact he’s one of the creepiest villains you’ll ever find in a film that is fairly family-friendly on the whole. If Jessica Rabbit is scandalously hot for a family film, then Lloyd’s Judge Doom is a little bit scary for the young ‘uns. Lloyd has played many a memorable character over the years, and this is definitely one of his best. A funny thing happened to me watching this film. Like I said, I hadn’t seen this in forever, but as soon as Judge Doom approached the chalkboard, an unpleasant memory and feeling of dread immediately hit me. I knew the squeaky chalk horror that was to await me. People who saw this as kids also seem to recall being horrified by the ‘dip’ scene with the animated shoe. Yikes! Apparently Tim Curry read for the role, but was considered terrifying by Spielberg, Zemeckis, etc. I wish there was recorded evidence of that audition, because holy shit he must’ve been positively Satanic in the role!

 

This is a lot of fun, especially for animation buffs. The only reason you won’t find it in my top 10 for 1988 is because 1988 had a whole lotta great films. This still holds up even today, I’m pleased to say. And Jessica Rabbit….va-va voom! Based on a Gary K. Wolf novel, the screenplay is by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman (co-writers of the OK buddy-cop movie “The Hard Way”).

 

Rating: B