Who Framed Roger Rabbit

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit
This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 2016.
It's the story of a man, a woman, and a rabbit in a triangle of trouble
Genre: Live action-Animation
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Produced by: Frank Marshall

Robert Watts

Written by: Jeffrey Price

Peter S. Seaman

Based on: Who Censored Roger Rabbit?

by Gary K. Wolf

Starring: Bob Hoskins
Christopher Lloyd
Charles Fleischer
Stubby Kaye
Joanna Cassidy
Cinematography: Dean Cundey
Editing: Arthur Schmidt
Music by: Alan Silvestri
Production company: Touchstone Pictures

Amblin Entertainment Silver Screen Partners III

Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release date: June 21, 1988 (New York City)

June 22, 1988 (United States)

Runtime: 104 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $50.6 million
Box office: $351.5 million

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American surreal crime-comedy live-action/animated hybrid film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Disney's Touchstone banner, being the first Touchstone Pictures film to use animation. The screenplay by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman is based on Gary K. Wolf's 1981 novel, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters interact directly with human beings and animals, the movie won 4 Academy Awards.

Plot

In a world whare cartoon characters coexist with humans, down-on-his-luck private eye Eddie Valiant gets hired by cartoon producer R.K. Maroon to investigate an adultery scandal involving Jessica Rabbit, the sultry wife of Maroon's biggest star, Roger Rabbit. But when Marvin Acme, Jessica's alleged paramour and the owner of Toontown, is found murdered, the villainous Judge Doom vows to catch and destroy Roger.

Why It's Drawn Perfectly

  1. It is perhaps the most iconic animated/live action film ever, as well as one of Disney's most popular movies of the 1980s, perhaps even more so than Toy Story, The Lion King, etc.
  2. The movie brings a creative idea, where what if cartoons are real and they exist in the same world as real-life people. However, it was a huge concept about a hero battling the evil criminal who has the plan to destroy the toons.
  3. The film has an incredible concept based on a surreal style of humor.
  4. Both Disney and Steven Spielberg had the ultimate collaboration.
  5. It has the biggest crossover of cartoon characters in animation history, featuring various popular classic cartoon characters from various animation studios from the Golden Age of American Animation (1920s-1960s). In fact, almost all the animation studios from the Golden Age of American Animation at least have one or two of their characters make cameos in this film.
  6. Most of the Disney cartoon characters, including J. Thaddeous Toad from The Wind in the Willows, the penguins from Mary Poppins, and lots of the characters from the Disney shorts from the 1920s and '30s, are made their cameo appearance. Amazingly, the adult entertainment studio, Touchstone Pictures, IS a Disney company!
  7. The film is known to crossover Mickey Mouse and Looney Tunes characters in various iconic scenes, the most well-known scene is where Eddie is falling in Toontown and he meets Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, making it the only time we see the two most famous iconic things in cartoon history from both rival companies (Disney and Warner Bros.) be together in one place, another example is a scene where Donald Duck and Daffy Duck are playing the piano, only for Donald to start having one of his anger attacks because of his strong dislike for Daffy, but characters from other studios appear, which is pretty creative.
  8. Very creative, inspired and beautiful animation which was drawn by Richard Williams.
  9. Speaking of which, Roger Rabbit is a perfectly well-drawn and established, toon protagonist to work along side the more serious-minded Eddie in a plot about an crime which resolves with saving toons.
  10. Judge Doom, the film's main antagonist, is a well-known character who was a toon, who was very scary for children that, a few years later, they remembered him as one of the greatest villains.
  11. Awesome and convincing advanced special effects to combine both of the animation and live-action, even much better so than previous animated/live-action hybrids produced beforehand, thanks to Industrial Light & Magic making it look incredibly imaginative.
  12. The opening sequence looks like a very great 1940s-style Chuck Jones-esque cartoon.
  13. The characters are capable of delivering a lot of fun and strong memorability.
  14. There are many Easter eggs in the film that can be spotted.
  15. It is a love letter to cartoons, film noir, and the Golden Age of Hollywood along with the Golden Age of Animation.
  16. Fantastic musical score.
  17. The "That's All Folks!" gag in the end of the movie fits the cartoony appeal of this movie.
  18. It spawned 3 cartoons of Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman due to the success of the movie.
  19. Like the fully-animated feature film, The Great Mouse Detective, the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? helped reignited the general public's interest in animation after the Dark Age of American Animation of the 1970s to the mid-1980s caused the American animation industry in general to go downhill for two decades, as well as inspired the animation industry to return to quality in the 1990s, including the launch of the Disney Renaissance beginning with Disney's The Little Mermaid the following year and the release of many popular fan-favorite television cartoon shows with higher production values and broader audience appeal as opposed to just younger children like The Simpsons, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, SpongeBob SquarePants, and many others.
  20. It spawned the inspiration of Bonkers, which was originally a Roger Rabbit Spin-off before becoming its own thing.
  21. "STOP THAT LAUGHING!"

Qualities That Need to Stop Laughing

  1. The ending was totally rushed.
  2. The film hasn't aged well, and most of its jokes, especially the sexual innuendos with Jessica Rabbit, are deemed inappropriate nowadays. As another example, the character of Baby Herman, a baby who likes to smoke and who at one point slaps his nanny in the butt for not doing what he asked her, is not a character you can put in a film of today's world.
  3. Eddie Valiant can be a bit unlikable sometimes, like in one scene where he yells at Roger for attempting to sit on Marvin's old chair, which was a bit mean-spirited of him.
  4. Some moments can be distressing for younger viewers, such as the scene in which it's revealed that Judge Doom is a toon and is known for terrorizing an entire generation of children in the late '80s, and the scene where Judge Doom outright dips a Toon Shoe to death to prove his point of him wanting to murder lawbreaking Toons.
    • The scene Toon Shoe being melted (which also tells that Toon Shoe is dying) in this scene is not only very dark for an all-ages film, but also very painful, as the Toon Shoe did nothing wrong and also because it behaves like a small animal. (Additionally this scene was also cut in some TV airings)
  5. There's a missed opportunity for cameos of some popular classic cartoon franchises due to the filmmakers unable to get the film rights to use them; for instance characters from MGM's Tom and Jerry, UPA's Mr. Magoo, Famous Studios' Little Audrey and most of the Terrytoons characters are notably absent from this film due to legal issues.
  6. The relationship with Roger Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit, while adorable and heart-warming, can be seen as a bit bizarre for today's standards due to the fact that Roger himself is a Rabbit while Jessica is a Human (That sounds familiar...) which could be seen as bestiality by most sensitive people and tends to be a bit disturbing at times considering that they're married to each other, but it isn't too over-the-top like most media nowadays and their love for each other is pretty fun to see by how much they adore each other and have a huge connection with each other though it isn't seen much through the film and is relatively minor at best.
  7. Since Betty Boop is depicted as a black and white toon, it creates a plot hole and confusion. You see, Betty still had cartoons that have color instead of black and white.

Reception

Critical response

Who Framed Roger Rabbit received universal acclaim from critics and is considered to be one of the best films of all time, making Business Insider's "best comedy movies of all time, according to critics" list. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 97% based on 67 reviews, and an average rating of 8.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit is an innovative and entertaining film that features a groundbreaking mix of live action and animation, with a touching and original story to boot." Aggregator Metacritic has calculated a weighted average score of 83 out of 100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Who Framed Roger Rabbit was placed on 43 critics' top ten lists, third to only The Thin Blue Line and Bull Durham in 1988. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Controversies

With the film's LaserDisc release, Variety first reported in March 1994 that observers uncovered several scenes of antics from the animators that supposedly featured brief nudity of Jessica Rabbit. While undetectable when played at the usual rate of 24 film frames per second, the LaserDisc player allowed the viewer to advance frame-by-frame to uncover these visuals. Whether or not they were actually intended to depict the nudity of the character remains unknown. Many retailers said that within minutes of the LaserDisc debut, their entire inventory was sold out. The run was fueled by media reports about the controversy, including stories on CNN and various newspapers. Another frequently debated scene includes one in which Baby Herman extends his middle finger as he passes under a woman's dress and re-emerges with drool on his lip. Also, controversy exists over the scene where Daffy Duck and Donald Duck are playing a piano duel, and during his trademark ranting gibberish, it is claimed that Donald calls Daffy a "goddamn stupid n_____"; however, this is a misinterpretation, with the line from the script being "doggone stubborn little—.

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