A movie everyone can enjoy

Rating: 8/10 (5 April 2010)

"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is a truly unique film. It is part film noir, part animation, part comedy, and part drama. That is something that Hollywood doesn't make each day.
The movie takes place in Los Angeles in 1947. Roger Rabbit, a Toon, as all the cartoon characters are called, is filming a cartoon and has trouble with a scene. Detective Eddie Valiant watches from behind the scenes and afterward goes to see studio head R.K. Maroon, who informs Valiant that Roger cannot concentrate because his wife Jessica Rabbit, another Toon, has reportedly been seen with a man recently. Maroon wants Valiant to find out who the man is. This does not sit well with Valiant because a Toon murdered his brother some years earlier. However, he ultimately agrees to take the case.
It does not take long for Valiant to find out who the man is: Marvin Acme, the owner of Toontown and the Gag Factory. Valiant reports his findings to Maroon and Roger, and Roger goes crazy and takes off.
The next morning, Valiant gets word that Acme has been killed. Once he arrives at the Acme Factory, Valiant meets Judge Doom, who has fingered Roger as the guilty party in Acme's murder. His goal is to find Roger and bring him to justice, which includes putting Roger into a barrel of "dip," which is the one way a Toon can be destroyed. Doom and his Toon Patrol, a quintet of weasels, are on the lookout for Roger.
After leaving the Acme Factory, Valiant returns to his office, and Roger is there waiting for him. He tells Valiant he did not kill Acme, and pleads with Valiant to help him clear his name. Valiant at first wants no part of this, but eventually he decides to help Roger.
While this is going on, Acme's will is missing, and Valiant is also keeping an eye out for that. The finding of the will is important because it involves Toontown's future.
There is not one bad thing about this movie. The casting is terrific, with Bob Hoskins giving an excellent performance as Valiant, and Cristopher Lloyd is a convincing Judge Doom, who is a very eerie individual. The animation is first rate, and fans of the animation genre will love that the major cartoon characters from Disney, Warner Bros., and other studios, are in this film. What is truly amazing is how the Toons and the humans actually interact. It really looks as if the Toons are real. There are also very funny and clever sight gags, many of them a tribute to the cartoon shorts of yesteryear. The script also pays tribute to the history of animation at times, and has some funny lines as well. Not only that, it is also successful in making the characters interesting and memorable, and that applies to the humans and the Toons. The sets deserve mentioning also. It looks completely like Los Angeles in 1947.
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is a movie that everyone can enjoy. The kids will obviously love the cartoons, as will admirers of animation. Adults can find the story interesting with it being part mystery. Of course, the film works as a comedy, too, and everyone will certainly laugh at some point. This is a great movie. Don't miss it.