Anyway you slice it, a classic.

Rating: 9/10 (21 December 2005)

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? is the most brilliant blending of live action and animation since MARY POPPINS. Robert Zemeckis proved to be a master filmmaker with this complex and masterfully edited cinematic gem about a 1930's down and out Hollywood detective (the brilliant Bob Hoskins) who is hired to prove a cartoon rabbit named Roger is innocent of a murder he did not commit. With the aid of crack technical people (the film won four Oscars for its technical mastery), Zemeckis has crafted a completely believable melding of real people and animated characters that is hard to resist. I love when Hoskins is walking through a movie studio and you see all these famous animated characters from the past walking around (he even bumps into one of the hippos from FANATASIA). There's a scene in a nightclub where all the waiters look like the penguins from MARY POPPINS and Betty Boop is the cigarette girl. Charles Fleischer provides the voice of the title character and his wife Jessica, who is human but animated ("Im not bad...I'm just drawn that way.")has the speaking voice of Kathleen Turner and the singing voice of Amy Irving. But other than the technical wizardry that is apparent in every frame of this film, the thing that makes it all click is the amazing performance by Hoskins, who plays the character totally straight as if her were in a real detective story from the 30's. It is his straight acting approach to these comical situations (aided by Zemeckis I'm sure) that makes this whole bizarre roller coaster ride come together. WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? is, quite simply, masterpiece that should have won Robert Zemeckis an Oscar.