“Who framed Roger Rabbit” is a film which was released in 1988. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and is based on the book “Who censured Roger Rabbit?” by Gary K. Wolf. It also features Bob Hoskins as Eddie Valiant, Charles Fleisher as Roger Rabbit and Christopher Lloyd as Judge Doom. This film mixes animation, comedy and action. It won multiple awards including 3 Academy Awards.
This film takes place in 1947, in Los Angeles where Toons (cartoon characters) co-exist with humans. They are specifically in Toontown, a city near Hollywood (where some often come shoot cartoons). Eddie Valiant is a private detective whose brother was murdered by a Toon, an event that caused him to stop working on Toon cases and to become an alcoholic. However, he is forced to help Roger Rabbit (a cartoon actor) when he is inculped with the murder of Marvin Acme (Roger's wife supposed lover) and hides into his office (making Eddie his “accomplice”). Together, they try to find Acme's will that is supposed to let the Toons run ToonTown by themselves while escaping the Judge Doom and his Toon Patrol (a gang of weasels he hired to track down and arrest Toons).
I found this movie very entertaining and very well-made (both with its beautiful mix of animation and real shots and his plot.) For example, the final plot twist was very unexpected (but still had many clues to not make it too confusing). The acting was also amazing, particularly considering most of the dialogue and action was between actors and cartoons (and therefore had to be perfectly timed to match each other in a natural way). The music and backgrounds were awesome too ! Toontown has is almost blinding and colorful but still looks like Los Angeles (especially when they reach the center of the city). The relationships were very well handled without taking too much time nor making the plot confusing (we ourselves warm up to the characters). For instance, Dolores and Eddie's relationship before the movie is a bit vague but it doesn't disturb the plot either, they build their relationship back up in a natural way. I also find it hilarious that the weasels can litterally die of laughter (which is very ironic when we consider toons are often made to be funny) and I was genuinely horrified when the Judge shows the “Dip” to Eddie by slowly putting a cartoon shoe in it (the poor thing died slowly and painfully with small agonising whines). It was a pretty straight-forway way to show the Judge's cruelty and gives Eddie another reason to help Roger.
However, it is a bit too loud for my taste (which isn't really a bad thing, cartoons are supposed to be loud after all. I am just not that keen on that much noise for so long).
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