Review of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) by Jonas K — 28 Jul 2013

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a bona fide classic of special effects cinema, and it's one of the most wholly original and visually appealing films out there (partly because of Jessica Rabbit...). It's the first film that blended live action with cartoons, and it still retains its status as one of the best films of the 1980s.

What I really enjoyed about this film is that, although it is a cartoon, it's not entirely for the kids. There are some themes you don't usually find in kid's films, like alcoholism, infidelity, and trophy wives with enormous cartoon... personalities. As a rule, I can't stand films made specifically for little kids, as they usually have stock characters and horrible dialogue. However, Who Framed Roger Rabbit takes that to such extremes, it parodies it.

The film is about a detective named Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) who is hired to take pictures of Hollywood cartoon star Roger Rabbit's cheating wife. He does so, prompting Roger to have a nervous breakdown. The next day, Roger's boss is found dead, and he is the prime suspect. Valiant is then tasked with proving Roger's innocence and discovering who the real murder is before it's too late. He is forced to team up with Roger and his... dynamic... wife to prevent Toon Town, the home of all the cartoons, from being destroyed.

Although it is technically kid-friendly, I enjoyed the nice edge it had to it. This is not your typical little kid movie. But even so, I usually wouldn't watch a PG movie about cartoons, as I prefer to devote my reviews to Quentin Tarantino films and the like. What makes this movie the classic it is are the special effects. The precision with which the cartoon's actions were planned out must have taken months, and it's completely stunning to watch the ingenious interaction between humans and cartoons. To this day, it's one of the ultimate cartoon movies, and is definitely the best cartoon/live action movie. Really, what's it going up against? Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties?

Unfortunately, it devolves into slapstick humor a lot, but what's to be expected from a movie about cartoons? Roger Rabbit himself tends to get a little annoying, and I kind of thought of him as one of the inspirations for Jar-Jar Binks (which is NOT a compliment). However, he's a prime example of a CGI character done right, while Jar-Jar has all but unanimously gone down in history as the anus of the Star Wars prequels. There's no contest. Also, Jar-Jar doesn't have such a wife with such noticeable... um... 'qualities.'.

Final Score for Who Framed Roger Rabbit: 8/10 stars. It's a truly revolutionary film, but unlike other visually creative movies like The Matrix and Tron, it actually goes through the effort of creating good characters and a story around the special effects. Altogether quite an amazing film that is definitely worth a viewing.