Who Framed Roger Rabbit – Roger Rabbit is a struggling Toon star in a world where cartoons and people live together. When put in the picture for the murder of a human, Roger turns to washed up and bitter detective, Eddie Valiant. With the terrifying Judge Doom looking to destroy any Toons who step out of line, can Eddie shake off his past and prove Roger’s innocence?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) – Director: Robert Zemeckis

Rating: PG

Running Length: 104 mins

Starring: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer

Genres: Comedy, Noir, Murder Mystery

REVIEW: ‘WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT’

Cliché or not you can’t help but say of this Chinatown / Looney Toons mash up: “they don’t make ’em like that any more”. For a generation that grew up on ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ we have laughs and nightmares for memories. For a younger generation free from a world where ostensibly a kids film could include a bitter alcoholic lead and an undoubtedly ‘femme’ fatale, a movie such as this must seemed beamed in from another dimension.

Regardless of generational tonal whiplash, ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ is still an outstanding piece of filmmaking. The blending of hand-drawn animation to live action seems virtually flawless nearly 40 years later and even now provides a real thrill. Yet even away from this unique selling point, the performances of the live actors are wonderful. Bob Hoskins wrings every drop of comedy from playing his broken and mean character so straight that he comes back out the other side whereas Christopher Lloyd read the words ‘villain’ on the script and turned in a character so chilling that he remains imprinted on those who saw him at a formulative age.

Yet ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ is unarguably an odd duck of a movie; it’s almost only a kids film by default. These days animation comes in all shapes and intended audiences. Back in 1988 when Loony Toons, Tom & Jerry, and Wile E. Coyote ruled the airwaves it was a child’s playground. In ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ the double meaning for adults is draped heavily over so many of its scenes a child watching at aged 10 versus aged 15 will see two wildly different movies.

Whether you most enjoy snarling Eddie or pratfall-in-pants Roger (voiced pitch-perfectly grating by Charles Fleischer), the hard-bitten noir element is as vibrant as the silly animations. Zemeckis created a real classic in 1988 whilst unknowingly underlining at the same time how much time was up for the Toons. Watch this movie to step back in time in more ways that one. Can you resist the knocking rhythm of “shave and a haircut…..”

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..

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….”Two Biiiiiits!”

CONTENT: IS ‘WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

After an opening cartoon a director yells ‘cut’ and we see that the animated characters are co-existing in a ‘live action’ world. The animated baby switches to acting and talking like a coarse older man. He barges under a woman’s dress on the way to his trailer and yells ‘scuse me, toots!’

Eddie (Hoskins) slugs whiskey from the bottle during the day. Shortly after he helps himself to some alcohol in the office of a CEO of the cartoon company. As a character he clearly has an alcohol problem and is frequently seen drinking, wanting to drink, and (on one occasion) passed out drunk.

Eddie returns to a bar that is also his office and home. Lots of patrons are drinking alcohol. One patron irritates Eddie and he kicks away the man’s barstool so that he slumps chin first on to the bar. Eddie then forces an unshelled boiled egg into the man’s mouth and makes him crunch. The man was shown to be taunting Eddie (as justification for this) and the scene is a quick one.

Eddie’s investigation takes him to a members bar with Toon staff and performers. The big show is a very sultry performance from the animated Jessica Rabbit, who is drawn to be a voluptuous and busty woman in a tight fitting red dress. During one shot the camera is set so that as she walks past, the frame captures her at bosom height. Eddie watches her performance goggle-eyed and other men lust after her.

After Jessica’s performance, Eddie needs to take photos to prove that she is cheating on her husband, Roger Rabbit. A man goes into Jessica’s dressing room and we hear dialogue like him trying to persuade her to do something and her saying ‘not tonight.’ Eventually she concedes. The audio (and photos taken) that we later see are Jessica and the man playing Paddycake, but the clear implication and pitch of her voice we hear during the scene is that this is a double entendre for sexual activity. Roger reacts like this is a betrayal, although the human characters are generally bemused.

Roger is given alcohol to drink and physically reacts very badly to it. His face contorts and changes colour. The pressure builds until he bellows steam from his ears. Despite this unpleasant reaction, once he collapses back to normal he says, ‘thanks, I needed that’.

Eddie remembers his dead brother and starts drinking. The camera pans to a series of photos on his desk which tell a short story of how they came to leave the police force and set up a private detective agency. The last one is a newspaper headline that says “Two Flatfoots and a Floozy Go Into Business”. Although for comic effect, this is derogatory to Dolores (who runs the bar and used to be in a relationship with Eddie) whom we have only ever seen as a decent character.

At a crime scene there is a chalk outline of where a body was, and a the corner of a heavy safe rests within broken cement where the head would have been.

Judge Doom (Lloyd) is a very imposing character who is introduced as someone to be afraid of. One character whispers that he ‘found a way to kill Toons’ (as Toon’s otherwise cannot be killed or even really hurt regardless of what happens to them). This is shown to be an acidic looking substance referred to as ‘dip’. Judge Doom grabs a Toon shoe that has broken loose from a crate. Out of nothing but spite he slowly lowers the shoe into the dip. It looks terrified. A second shot shows steam bursting out and the sound of a scream as he slowly lowers it. The shot cuts at it around half way in and shows all the human characters wincing. The next shot is Doom with his gloved arm covered in dip and it is clear the Toon shoe has been disintegrated. This whole sequence lasts about a minute and although the shoe isn’t a character that has been previously introduced, it would be potentially very upsetting for younger viewers.

Eddie goes up to his office and sees a woman bending over a pram. Both his eyes and the camera focus on her bottom in the first instance, before moving up to the rest of her. The pram contains the baby Toon from the beginning of the movie. He uses derogatory language to the woman such as ‘dumb broad’ and ‘doll’ and slaps her bottom. He then confides ‘My problem is that I’ve got a 50 year old’s lust but a 3 year old’s dinky’ whilst point to his crotch.

Toon weasels (and the baby character) are constantly shown smoking. The baby smokes cigars and the weasels smoke cigarettes.

Eddie hides Roger in his clothes. Dolores says ‘Is that a rabbit in your pocket or are you pleased to see me?’

Jessica visits Eddie in his office. She complains how hard it is to be a woman who looks the way she does. Eddie responds ‘You don’t know how hard it is to be a man looking at a woman who looks the way you do’. Eddie was unprepared for her visit and was in the process of getting dressed. His trousers fall down as Dolores enters the room. He bends down to pick them up and as he rises his head hits the underside of Jessica’s bust causing it to bounce. He apologises.

Roger is threatened with the Dip and is terrified in an over the top animated way.

Eddie visits the Maroon Toons CEO. Eddie threatens him by catching his tie in a device and turning the handle to make him talk. As the the man is about to confess details (mentioning a story of “Greed, Sex, and Murder” a long barrelled gun emerges and shoots him dead. We see the bullets impact but no blood.

Eddie fires an animated gun with animated talking bullets. One is a stereotypical Native American who whoops and uses a tomahawk.

Eddie pursues a character into Toon Town: an entirely animated realm. He corners them but they are not who they appeared to be. A grotesque depiction of a female character yells ‘A man!’. She grabs her own bosom briefly and they bounce and she sets off to chase Eddie, with big animated lips as she tries to kiss him.

A Toon taxi opens it’s door for an attractive female character and says ‘hubba hubba!’ as it does so.

A weasel henchman enjoys the concept of ‘frisking’ a female character. He puts his arm down the low cut neckline of her dress to feel around in between. However, this is quickly cut short by a trap hidden within.

We had previously seen in the movie several occasions where when the weasel’s laugh other characters chastise them saying ‘you know what happens when you can’t stop laughing’. This comes to fruition in a scene in the Acme factory at the end where their laughter becomes uncontrolled. One weasel tries to cling to its own soul as it escapes his body.

Eddie performs a song and dance with rhyming couplets. He ends one line with ‘walls’ and the next line is ‘I’ll kick you in the…’ until Roger interrupts with ‘nose!’. The weasel complains ‘that don’t rhyme with wall!’ Eddie says, ‘No, but this does,’ and kicks him hard between the legs.

Due to a problem with glue, an unsympathetic human character is unable to get out the way of a slow moving steamroller. The inevitability of this is drawn out. The character thrashes and screams as the steamroller first goes over their foot and makes its way up their body. The shot cuts as it gets to their chest and characters look away and wince. Immediately after this though, new information comes to light.

A character screams that they ‘killed your brother’ to Eddie and has frightening maniacal eyes as they do so. The eyes glow with concentric red circles as they attack Eddie with a range of sharp or painful objects. As the scene reaches a peak, the acidic Dip is used once more causing high pitched screaming and the slow melting of a character. This lasts around 5 – 10 seconds and is quite strong, even it narratively deserved and foreshadowed.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT’ FOR KIDS?

‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ is a very strange movie that certainly would not get made today. A PG with slapstick and classic animation humour fused onto a boozy guys and sultry dolls drenched murder noir tale. The result is an amazing achievement and it is a classic for a reason, but it also makes pitching an an appropriate age very difficult. Let’s face it: we all watched this movie too young to understand the implications and tone of much of the content we’ve listed above. We’ve also all been (enjoyably?) scarred by the Dip scenes.

Yet the one thing that ages the movie most is the casual sexism and femme fatale with strong emphasis on the ‘femme’. This makes contextual sense within the movie considering the late 40s noir setting. Yet it is the part that will likely most decide whether or not you wish your child to watch this movie. We would recommend ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ as suitable for children aged 10 and up, with perhaps some time spent to explain the intentionally outdated attitudes and the male lens of objectifying women.

• Violence: 2/5 (most violence is of the over the top animated variety although the steamroller scene is strong)
• Emotional Distress: 2/5 (Eddie carries the pain of his dead brother, Roger is often whatever emotion he is experiencing at 100%)
• Fear Factor: 5/5 (there is a reason that a generation left Roger Rabbit terrified of Judge Doom and dip)
• Sexual Content: 4/5 (whilst no actual sexual activities are depicted, the movie is saturated with sexual suggestion, particularly Jessica Rabbit’s character)
• Bad Language: 1/5 (one use of ‘wiseass’. One not said but implied use of ‘balls’)
• Dialogue: 2/5 (Judge Doom’s dialogue is threat laden. Rough and ready use of speech due to the late 40s noir setting)
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of old Hollywood power moguls, blackmail, jealousy, alcoholism, self-determinisation, and past trauma.

Words by Mike Record