Written by: Jeffrey Price & Peter S. Seaman
Starring: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer, Stubby Kaye, Joanna Cassidy
Rating: [3.5/5]
If humanity has shown one thing, the forced construction of a hierarchy will always put one group of people over another as a form of one controlling the other. Typically these lines get drawn through race or socioeconomic lines, but never did I think it would transpire through literally drawn characters as Toons as shown in the rambunctious and fun Who Framed Roger Rabbit A film that can get quite tiring after a while but still employs some of the finest integration of animation and live-action ever seen.
Operating his days as a private investigator, Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) gets commissioned to find proof of Jessica Rabbit (Kathleen Turner) cheating on her husband Roger Rabbit (Roger Rabbit). When he obtains pictures of her playing patty cake, Roger becomes distraught and the next day appears to have murdered a man. Valient, doubtful of this being the truth seeks to clear the Rabbit’s name albeit reluctant at first.
Adored by many and rightfully so, Who Framed Roger Rabbit stands as one of those seminal films in the history of the medium. The manner in which it combines animation and live-action remains unparalleled to this day. Something other imitators like Space Jam could not measure up to in any way. What we receive in this mix of the two worlds displays the difference between the wackiness of these cartoon characters along with the more grounded approach of the tangible human characters. This makes for the majority of the comedy this feature has to offer, but what makes this film work best comes from its central story.
Working as a straight-up noir down to the voice-over in moments and general look of the human world we get this serious search for clearing the name of this rabbit all mixed in with all of the goofiness one could expect from these characters. An approach that continues to add intrigue and keeps us grounded on a narrative to follow seeing as these cartoon characters can become a bit much after a while. Pulling towards the third act, it did become grating at how much energy Roger continually brought to the story it made me thankful we still had Eddie Valiant running the show and doing his job.
Along with this noir story, we receive an interesting observation on how Toons get treated like second-class citizens in the eyes of many humans, including Eddie Valiant himself. He makes it clear when he takes on this initial job that he does not work for Toons because of personal reasons brought up in the movie but also the general feeling held about them by humans. When the larger more sinister plot becomes known, it makes the discriminatory look at these toons all the more prevalent. While silly, it does track with what humans typically do with any group they want to paint as “the other,” and in this case instead of other humans, we have cartoons feeling the brunt of it.
The toons we follow in this story come with quite the array of characters many will recognize including the Looney Tunes and even Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and his crew of friends. Several of them merely come in for a cameo but it shows the different cartoons all congregated on this side of town and only further highlights how they do not adhere to the same laws of physics and basic anatomy as the rest of the humans around them. None of these cameos overstay their welcome but add some coloring to the story.
Providing a thoroughly entertaining story from beginning to end Who Framed Roger Rabbit bundles a bunch of silly moments and characters and weaves it into an intriguingly dark noir set in Los Angeles. A film that understands what balances the overt silliness with something much more tangible to hold on to and allows us to take this all as a whole. We have to give lots of love to Bob Hoskins and his work as Eddie Valiant as without his performance, this film would certainly not work in the same way as he provides the proper balance to all of the wacky things happening around him. Beloved by many and rightfully so.
Films with Josh 
