Who Framed Roger Rabbit

So I remember hearing about Who Framed Roger Rabbit when I was a kid. I knew about the film but I had no idea what it was about or what the big hype about it was but I was aware of it. My parents never showed it to me because either they didn't think it was appropriate and they didn't allow me to watch it, or they never saw it themselves and therefore I never did. However, since I have been paying more attention to movie reviews on the internet these days, I have heard a lot of people rave about this movie and I thought it was time to finally give it a shot.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit takes place in 1940's Hollywood but we live among cartoons. Instead of being drawn and animated, cartoons film the same way a live action movie does.

And in this world, Eddie Valient (played by the late Bob Hoskins) is a private investigator who worked for high profile stars. He is hired by a studio executive to spy on the wife of the star Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer) because they believe that she's cheating on him. Soon after he takes some pictures of Rabbit's wife Jessica Rabbit (voiced by Kathleen Turner) playing patty cake (it's a PG movie people). Roger goes missing and is implicated in the murder of the head of a big studio. Eddie soon finds himself helping Roger as they try to unravel the mystery behind the murder of the studio executive while avoiding the grasp of a mysterious but clearly evil Judge Doom (played by Christohper Lloyd).

The first thing everyone always says in this review is that this was the first and only time that you saw both Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons together on screen... and yeah it's pretty cool to see that.

This film has a timeless feel to it, especially if you're like me where you grew up watching characters like this in cartoons and movies as a kid. And what's better is seeing what happens when these characters interact with one another.

Watch this scene and tell me that this isn't incredibly entertaining.

But even until a couple of months ago before I watched the movie, that's really the only acclaim I knew about this movie, that it was the only outing where Disney and Warner Bros cartoons were together. I never really knew a whole lot about the story and how charming it is.

Is it the best story out there? No. But I do have a bit of a soft spot for Noir films and Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a tried and true noir film. It's actually kind of an interesting combination and actually some how is the closest thing to a serious mystery that includes animated characters with live action, something that has been mimicked but never really done correctly since.

I thought that Roger Rabbit looked like the most annoying character that could ever exist and that Jessica Rabbit was just a sex symbol that everyone thinks women should look like these days. But when you actually watch the film, you realize that they actually put a lot of effort into the story and the adaptation of a book I now want to read.

The book, Who Censored Roger Rabbit actually is a pretty big commentary on racial discrimination and prejudice and you can definitely see that within the film. It's done in a very clever way. The commentary in the film is just subtle enough to make a good point but not distracting enough to take away from the story and instead just add to it.

I thought Bob Hoskins did a really good job and that can't be easy, especially since the person he interacts with the most is an animated rabbit.

I read something that said that Harrison Ford was supposed to play Eddie Valient but his price was too high. Other names included Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy. After seeing the film I can only imagine what this film would have been like if all those other options had fallen through, and what's more interesting is that each one of those films would have been different. Harrison Ford's Eddie Valient would have been really interesting but Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy would have done the movie in a totally different way and that's the kind of stuff that interests me a lot.

Again, I'm glad Bob Hoskins is in the role, but that's the kind of stuff I find really interesting.

The most fun character hands down though had to be Christopher Lloyd playing Judge Doom. Have you ever wondered what Doc Brown would be like if he was evil? Besides Rick from Rick and Morty, Judge Doom is the perfect epitome of that.

Lloyd plays this part so animated and so beautifully evil that he's the kind of villain you just love to hate. His plot is actually kind of mature and gruesome for a kids movie but I never really saw this movie as a "kids" movie per-say and more of an adult movie with cartoons in it. Also I never saw it as a kid... so yeah... not a kids movie.

The thing that works best about this movie is just how it flows. It's an adventure and it sucks you in from the beginning. You like the characters, you like their flaws and their bravery. Now again, is it going to go down as one of my favorite movies of all time from the one time that I watched it? Most than likely no. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is more entertaining to me because of the historical value and technique used in the film. Personal preference really has nothing to do with it.

There's a classic feeling to it and it seems like something I could easily return to and watch again with ease. Maybe with some time it could start to climb the ranks of my favorite movies, but for now, I recognize the value it holds and the time and care that was put into a film like this.

If you're looking at this in the modern times where we love to reboot things, someone might ask the question, should we reboot Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The quick answer, I think, is no. I think it's so well done and kept in the time capsule of 1988 that anything created now might feel cheap and not really relevant, especially since a lot of the acclaim of this movie comes with the technological advances of the times and the type of animation that was celebrated in its hay day then.

If the right idea came along to perhaps continue the story or reboot it in a way that would be constructive I'm not so attached to the film that anything new would be an affront to me, I just don't see that happening, especially how few reboots that are good these days.

But overall, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is definitely a film worth checking out and if you haven't seen it yet like me, you're in for a treat.

But those are my thoughts, what did you think? Did you grow up watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Would you recommend it? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Kind of a fun video about making live action and animated hybrids. Enjoy!