Mice and Rabbits Unite

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2013)

Growing up as a kid, I had this stuffed rabbit doll that I used to sleep with at night and carry around with me everywhere I went. Since I was young, I never really got the name of the rabbit until I saw this masterpiece of a film and was blown all the way to the moon. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is not only a comical action packed suspense thriller, but a film which brings all our childhood fantasies to reality. Who didn't want to see Mickey Mouse interact with Bugs Bunny? Who didn't want to see Donald Duck throw Daffy Duck into a piano? Who didn't want to see Mary Poppins' penguins serving drinks in a nightclub? It's all stuff we imagined as youngsters, and this film brought it all together in a well paced, well put together, exciting, innovative, and most of all entertaining epic. It's undeniably one of my all time favorite animated films and one of my all time favorite films in general.
I think what I love most about this movie is the way the human characters interact with the cartoon characters. The way Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) picks up Roger and tosses him in the sink, pretending to do his laundry, it's hilarious and impressive at the same time, and I still question how they were able to pull off such an effect. The way Jessica Rabbit dances around Marvin Acme, tugging on his cheeks and taking the hat off his head, it makes you think the cartoon characters are actually there and not inked animated creations superimposed over the film. I also like the scenes where the cartoons interact with human appliances. The scene where Roger is drinking, he's drinking from a real glass and he picks it up just like a flesh and blood human would. The scene where Roger is smashing plates over his head, he's smashing real plates and not animated cartoon ones. The scene where the Toon Patrol tracks down Eddie, they are wielding real guns and not cartoon ones. What's ironic is that the human Eddie would wield a cartoon gun later on in the film.
This film has the perfect blend of slapstick, humor, drama, terror and straight forward fun, which makes sense for a film involving cartoon entities. I love some of the jokes seen throughout the motion picture and the puns spewed from the mouths of some of the characters really add a bit of comic relief, even in the film's most horrifying of scenes. I really love Charles Fleischer's voice work as Roger Rabbit, but would you believe Paul "Pee-Wee Herman" Reubens originally auditioned for the voice. Although Reubens would have done a great job, I really dig Fleischer's voicing of the character, especially his PWWWWLLLEEEAASSSEEE! You gotta love that, for it's the character's most distinctive trademark and makes him stick out among other rabbit characters in the world of the Toons. Bob Hoskins is also phenomenal as Eddie Valiant and to this day, it's considered one of his best roles, although I'll always remember him for playing Mario Mario.
But the actor who steals the show in my eyes is Christopher Lloyd as the slinky yet intimidating Judge Doom. Straight out of Back to the Future, Lloyd delivers a menacing performance that has you laughing and screaming in fright all at once. You really feel frightened by this dude, and although he is defeated in the end, he sticks out in your mind and has his cartoonish red eyes watching you in your dreams. He's just that chilling. Although the human/cartoon interaction and Lloyd are some of my favorite aspects of the film, my favorite moment of the film is the scene at the very end where the wall to Toon Town is broken and all our favorites come running out to get the spotlight. Literally, ALL our favorites are there. Mickey, Bugs, Betty Boop, Woody Woodpecker, Donald, Daffy, Goofy, Yosemite Sam, Pinocchio, Droopy Dog, even Peter from Disney's adaptation of Peter and the Wolf somehow squeezes in a cameo. My only gripe is that my all time favorite cat and mouse duo Tom and Jerry don't make an appearance, but that's just a miner nitpick.
Overall, this is a perfect movie. This film clearly displays what films are made of or can be made of if a lot of hard work and ingenuity are put into them. This film clearly displays what fantasies and images of imagination are all about, and takes all the things we love about the Toons and blends them all together into one solid concoction. It also combines genres. One time it can be an action thriller, the other time it can be a romantic comedy, the other time it can be a horror film with Judge Doom drowning a Toon shoe in the horrid "Dip". It puts together a lot of stuff we love about the movies and when you set your eyes upon this film, no matter how many times you set your eyes upon it, your inner child is released and in no time, you feel like your in another dimension filled with flying elephants and reluctant dragons. AND DON'T FORGET THE FLOWERS AND TREES. This is a solid picture that I've seen so many times, and I still can't believe how magnificent it is.