Intensity	Stupidity:Nudity Ratio 2:0	Budget Studio

Is it is odd that I think Jessica Rabbit is hotter than Jessica Simpson?

During the shooting of a new Baby Herman cartoon, Roger Rabbit flubs his lines for the 27th time because he has heard rumors about his wife. A frustrated studio head hires a private investigator to get photos proving that Roger's wife is playing around. When Roger sees the pictures he goes ballistic and shortly after that the guy in the photos turns up dead. Roger goes on the lam and turns to the PI for help. In the process of clearing Roger's name the PI discovers a plot to destroy Toontown and replace the public transportation with a freeway.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a classic. It is one of those rare great movies that just happens to be a comedy. At it's core Who Framed Roger Rabbit has a strong adult theme, much like Tom Sawyer before it the movie touches on racial inequality without being preachy or obvious. The Toons are second class citizens that are allowed to entertain regular people but not allowed to mix with them freely. Oddly enough, the only minority is a Black GI in a small role, so this theme may be a more a holdover from the book rather than a conscious inclusion. Which, again, would follow as Disney certainly did not play up the racial inequalities aspects of Mark Twain's novel. While we see a small amount of segregation and only rarely do the two groups mix, no one really hates or fears the Toons, they are simply different. We also have a pretty good murder mystery and a PI with a past. There is enough in the movie to make a good story without having a significant number of the main characters be cartoons. Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer) is a Toon and like most Toons, he only wants to make people laugh. Jessica Rabbit (voiced by Kathleen Turner and Amy Irving) is based on a lot of 50's movie stars but the red hair falling down over one eye is from Veronica Lake. Numerous cartoon characters make cameo appearances; Betty Boop, Daffy Duck, Donald Duck, Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Dumbo all show up during the course of the movie. Annoying enough Kuzco (from the Emperor's New Groove) is visible during the menu selection.

I'm a total fanboy on this one. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is my kind of movie. While I normally view movies with a little more violence, sex and nudity (okay, usually a lot more violence, sex and nudity), I like clever, subtle movies too. I remember and quote lines from Roger Rabbit and fondly remember many scenes. Most of the comedies around leave me cold. The American Pie series rarely get a chuckle out of me, I have never seen a Jim Carey movie twice and we don't really have to talk about the Wayans brothers at all, do we? There are no laugh out loud scenes but there are plenty of clever lines just causally dropped as the story plays out. Jessica stating "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way", Roger's "only when it was funny" line, Hoskins keeping a bottle of booze in his holster, Joanna Cassidy sad comments as she hands over the camera that has the Catalina pictures still on it. There are countless little touches to the movie that describe the characters and not once does the filmmaker feel obligated to hit us over the head with something. It is so nice to have a director (Robert Zemeckis) trust that his audience will get the jokes. In particular I love the camera sequence because it strikes gold twice. First of all the camera has not been used since Dolores and the two Valiant boys went to Catalina on vacation. This makes a strong metaphor for their relation ship now; everything is on hold. Eddie realizes that he has hit rock bottom and is now doing the lowest form of PI work. When the photos of Jessica and Maroon are developed and he also sees the vacation pics. Hoskins' face lights up with joy at seeing the pictures of Dolores and him at the beach and though the pictures of Teddy depress him, we get the sense that Eddie is ready to move on. Rather than just do the dirty work and walk away, when Roger asks for help, the old Eddie returns. After five years of drinking and avoiding Toons, Eddie returns to form. The second great trick with the photos is when Roger is looking at them he starts shuffling through them faster and faster until it demonstrates animation. And if you want you can count when Eddie finds the first clue in one of the photos as the third bit.

One more quick point about Eddie; Dolores still loves him. We know that Eddie has been living in a bottle for the past five years and, yet, Dolores is still waiting for him. Frequently a movie will have a situation like this but give no indication as to why the love interest hasn't left the hero's sorry ass. In this case, we see enough flashes of Eddie being a nice guy that we understand why Dolores would hope that he would get over his brother's murder and return to normal. Unlike most movie heroes, Eddie is likeable.

Consider the Betty Boop scene. Betty is no longer making a lot of movies because technology has passed her by. Betty is drawn in black and white and the studios are only interested in color movies right then. Despite the fact that Hoskins' Eddie Valiant has not yet turned the corner on liking Toons again, we see that he is genuinely happy to see Betty again. When Betty comments that she still has it, Hoskins' reply has the bittersweet tone of one friend responding to another's delusion. This is nicely confirmed when Jessica Rabbit takes the stage. Betty's cute little flapper look and high squeaky voice are ages removed from Jessica's slinky curves and throaty singing voice. This is a fairly important scene as it emphasizes that Eddie used to like Toons. We get a reminder that times change and a little hint that Eddie has been out of the game for a while; he thinks Jessica Rabbit is going to be a cartoon rabbit. This could be a bit of foreshadowing that Judge Doom is not what he appears either.

The live actors in the film are talented and given a lot to work with. Bob Hoskins is perfect in his role. He is traumatized by the death of his brother and feels betrayed by the Toons (turns out a Toon dropped a piano on Teddy's head), is ashamed that he was not able to protect him better and just plain misses the man. Eddie is given moments that demonstrate that he is a likeable person and the tragedy has dimmed this but not entirely snuffed it out. Joanna Cassidy plays Eddie's long-suffering girlfriend and for a change we get some inkling as to why she would hang around with the guy. She knows that Eddie is a good man and we do too. Neither Hoskins nor Cassidy were spring chickens when the movie was made. Hoskins was about 46 and Cassidy was only a year younger. Their age lends a weight to their characters that makes them seem much more real and believable. We do not confuse them with cartoon characters, it is obvious that these two have had their share of live's ups and downs. Christopher Lloyd plays Judge Doom with a casual coldness and a barely controlled insanity. It is obvious that he is evil right from the start and he has a carefully controlled voice that clearly displays his lack of compassion. Of course when it comes time to show his crazy side, who better than Lloyd? Joel Silver (who has produced hundreds of movies and TV shows) makes his only on-screen appearance as the director of the Baby Hermann cartoon. Not to mention that Mel Blanc, Mae Questel and Tony Anselmo do voices. Sigh, as much as I love B movies by up and coming talented directors, there are times when I just sit back and admire the pros. Seriously these guys are good.

This is a movie of its time and younger audiences may not recognize many of the cartoon characters that make appearances. Also the special effects are somewhat dated, the Toons sometimes look very flat and unconvincing. Given the level of animation that is available today even for cheap productions, Roger Rabbit could seem a second rate production. It is not. If the special effects were not really cutting edge at the time, they were still carefully planned out and shot. Still the movie is quite enjoyable even without spectacular or even 3D animation. The story and the characters are strong enough to carry the movie which is the way it should be. A movie that depends entirely on one aspect usually fails. The reason that Pixar is doing so well is not just because of great animation. Their stories and characters are very good as well (yes, very predictable stories and cookie cutter characters, but still very enjoyable).

A note on the book, "Who Censored Roger Rabbit". Needless to say it is nothing like the movie. How could it be? If Disney was not involved there was no way to include all the characters. Other than a couple of references to Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead, none of Wolf's Toons were real life cartoons. (Hmm, that doesn't sound right, but you know what I mean.) My feeling that the themes of racial prejudice are more a part of the book than the movie turned out to be right. Gary Wolf's novel is written in Dashiell Hammett style with a hard nosed detective who is pretty much immune to women's charms. In the early going the book is full of lines like "They had feet large enough to cut 15 seconds off any duck's time in the 100-meter freestyle". Fortunately he drops the silly prose once all the players are introduced and the story starts to take off. About the only things that came from the book were Eddie's name (but he works alone and does not have a brother or a girlfriend), his initial dislike for Toons (which is never resolved in the book), Baby Herman and his line about having a "3-year-old dinky" and of course, Jessica. Some of the Toons in the book could almost pass for human and Jessica was one that tried to. Also she really was bad and not just drawn that way. As typical in this type of detective book, everyone had dirty secrets and no one was a good guy. It is not a bad read, but could not be much more different from the movie. In the movie when Judge Doom questions the patrons in the bar on Roger's whereabouts, they refuse to cooperate out of loyalty to Roger. In the book the same crowd would have knocked aside their own mother's to be first in line to rat on him.

Jessica Rabbit	vs	Jessica Simpson
	Better Voice? Rabbit Better Lines? Rabbit Better Walk? Rabbit Actual Live Human Being? Simpson
Okay, so Jessica Simpons wins by virture of actually existing.

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