A novel film for its' time, and marvelous entertainment

Rating: Null/10 (12 September 2004)

On the Special Edition DVD of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", one of the animators says he was talking to another animator in 1986, who told him, "This movie is two years away and I'm scared right now." The guy confessed he was too. And frankly, I don't blame them one bit, considering this was the first film to combine live action with animation, and in the eighties of all decades. One false move, this could have been worse than Plan Nine From Outer Space. Thankfully, they got Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg behind this, who know how to make good, quality (and hit) films, and I don't think they could have made a better movie.
Set in 1947 Hollywood, it deals with down-on-his-luck, hard-boiled private detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins, who does a great job, despite the fact that his British accent comes through once in a while) who is assigned by cartoon studio executive R.K. Maroon, to investigate Jessica Rabbit, the wife of one of his stars, Roger Rabbit, who is allegedly having an affair with the owner of Toontown, where all the cartoon characters (brand new and classic Disney ones) live, Marvin Acme. Valiant reluctantly accepts it because when he was younger, he and his brother Teddy, who lived to work in Toontown and help toons out, were on a case there and a toon dropped a safe on Teddy's head, killing him and leaving Eddie with a hopeless lack of sense of humor. Later, Roger is accused of murdering Marvin Acme over jealousy, and is sought by the eccentric Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd, who follows one eccentric Zemeckis role, Doc Brown, with this one), who wants to put him in his special dip which kills toons. Convinced Maroon made a patsy out of him, Eddie helps Roger prove his innocence, and in the process, it turns out that it is Judge Doom who not only killed Acme, but is also the Toon who killed his brother.
Now, Roger Rabbit is none too bright, and anybody who's seen the movie can vouch for this, but he proclaims when he asks Eddie Valiant to help him that he could never hurt anybody, and that too, should be obvious to anybody who's ever seen the movie. I can remember seeing the movie when I was seven or eight in the theaters and saying, "I never saw a cartoon talk to a person before." Which I'm sure everybody else thought too. But I can't recommend it enough for kids or adults because kids will love the enduring, lovable Roger and adults will appreciate the marvels of the movie, which were impossible before it, as well as appreciate how much hard work went into it.
There was a book before this, Who Censored Roger Rabbit, in which they were comic strips not actors, it was set in present day and Roger and Jessica's marriage was fake like Bennifer. I also hear Roger wasn't as goofy in the book, so I prefer not to read it. Plus, he dies. Now, as lovable as Roger was in the film, if they'd killed him off in that, do you know how many angry parents would have written letters to the studio that they made their children cry? I love the movie, and that might ruin it for me.