Why I Love "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2010)

In "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," which exists in an alternate 1947 Hollywood in which human beings coexist with cartoon characters (referred to throughout as "Toons"), alcoholic private eye Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is put on the case of clearing a long-eared fugitive of the law, the titular Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer), of murder charges. Roger, the fun-loving Toon star of Maroon Cartoons, is married to a beautiful Toon woman, Jessica Rabbit, and Roger had become distraught that she may have been having an affair with his boss Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye), and Acme himself later turns up dead, with Roger as the #1 suspect. As Eddie digs deeper and deeper into his investigation, he soon finds himself on the run and having to journey to Toontown (the home of all the Toons in Hollywood), one of the last places on Earth he wants to be for reasons I'll explain later. This was one of my favorite movies from my childhood (I was three when it was originally released), and it still is after happening upon a recent viewing of the picture, and I only recently discovered that it was not an original piece as I once believed, but it's adapted from the novel "Who Censored Roger Rabbit?" by Gary K. Wolf. Does that mean I love it any less? Of course not. It just gives me more room to appreciate what director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman were able to do with the story. This movie is fantastic, especially with its mix of comedy, detective-noir, and good old-fashioned murder-mystery whodunit. It's also brilliant for its Oscar-winning special effects, which combine live-action with animation. That's been done before, but I've never seen it done with the care and precision as it's done in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." The whole movie is like a dream, a dream where people can happily coexist with their favorite cartoon characters, rather than go to the theater for the on-screen antics. Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd from Zemeckis's earlier "Back to the Future") is a classic movie villain, with his all-black fatigues, snarl, and typical bad-guy demeanor; there's also a unique twist with his character that you have to see to believe. Bob Hoskins is great as Eddie Valiant, in what is arguably his best-known American film role; growing up, I of course had no idea that he was actually British, but he pulls off his American accent perfectly. One of the things I really like about his character is the resentment he has toward Toons, since one killed his brother several years before this film's story takes place, and his attempts to clear Roger Rabbit of murder charges provides a foundation for him to overcome his hatred. (Am I the only one who spots the obvious parallels to racism here?) "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is a classic comedy/fantasy, and undoubtedly one of my favorite movies. As I stated earlier, a recent viewing allowed me to really see this movie's greatness all over again. I'm glad I'm still in love with it after all these years.
10/10