Review of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) by John M — 01 Jun 2013

Cartoon noir. So in a universe where toons and humans live side by side, a detective (Bob Hoskins) gets involved in proving a rabbit's innocence, but that is just the tip of the iceberg, as there is something much more sinister brewing just beneath the surface.

Not even looking at the quality of the film as a whole, the fact that this even got developed is impressive. Warner Bros. would only allows their characters to be used in the film if they had the same exact amount of screen time as the Disney characters (you can clearly tell when it happens), not to mention have the same number of lines and be featured equally, down to the frame.

But all the politics got sorted out, and this came together just nicely. To my knowledge, nothing like this has ever been done before, with classic style animated characters interacting with humans (this was obviously years before Space Jam), or at least not to the scale featured here, and they fit both of these worlds together pretty seamlessly and innovatively.

It does also feature some subtle adult humor and manages to be a traditional film noir story with all of the trappings that come with it (you can't watch this and not see Chinatown). It's very fast paced, never boring, and it really does work for all ages.