Fabulous, Unmissable, One-Of-A-Kind Private-Eye Meets Cartoon Rabbit Picture

Rating: 8/10 (21 August 2005)

Eddie Valiant, an LA private-eye in the forties, is hired to take incriminating photos of Jessica Rabbit, the wife of cartoon star Roger Rabbit, whom it seems is two-timing her husband with wealthy businessman Marvin Acme. When Acme turns up dead, Roger is the chief suspect and is ruthlessly pursued by the sinister Judge Doom and his weasel henchmen. Roger, protesting his innocence, hides out with Eddie, who discovers that he is just a pawn in a far larger plot to develop real-estate by destroying Toontown. Eddie sets out to clear Roger and save Toontown.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, based on a book by Gary K. Wolf, is a great movie on three levels; as a dramatic rites-of-passage story about a grief-stricken alcoholic throwing away the booze and avenging his brother's death, as a supercool private-eye movie in the classical style with a fabulously villainous plot, and as a gleefully hysterical cartoon comedy stuffed with great gags. From the brilliant opening cartoon featuring Roger and Baby Herman to the fantastic final battle in the Acme warehouse, the film is just brimming with visual invention. Made just prior to the advent of CG effects, it is a milestone of achievement in combining live action and animation, supervised by Richard Williams (who also does the voice of Droopy). The photography by Dean Cundey and music by Alan Silvestri are both superb. Hoskins is one of those rare gems of seems-totally-wrong-but-turns-out-perfect casting - he is phenomenal, completely undaunted by the huge scope of the movie, giving a completely straight dramatic performance the film anchors itself upon, and somehow adding real depth to a character who is mostly cliché and fantasy. Equally terrific is Fleischer, who imbues Roger (and three other characters) with a fantastic voice, ably supported by Questel, Blanc and Foray, all of whom were cartoon-voice stars from the golden age of animation. Jessica Rabbit is the sexiest cartoon character this side of Ralph Bakshi, and Turner's vocal is gloriously husky (Irving also voices her for a great torchsong). Equally memorable is Lloyd as the truly terrifying, no-redeeming-features Judge Doom, with his toon-killing Dip and his horrific get rich quick scheme to shut down public transport and sell land bordering the new freeway ("You lack vision. But I see a place where people get on and off the freeway. On and off, off and on, all day and all night. Soon, where Toontown once stood will be a string of gas stations, inexpensive motels, restaurants that serve rapidly-prepared food, tyre salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful !!"). God forbid that kind of society should ever arrive. Cassidy is a terrific game gal, old-timer Kaye does a great turn as the unfortunate Marvin Acme, and bigshot producer Silver has a funny bit as a cartoon director. Everyone in this movie is great !! This is a fabulous homage to the classic cartoons of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, a stunning piece of film-making and a fantastic movie in a field all of its own.