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Who Framed Roger Rabbit should have a serious case of multiple personality disorder given the amount of ground it tries to cover: a zany madcap comedy, an animated film and a film noir with a broken man at its center. Somehow, through sheer movie magic I imagine, it all comes together and creates a great film. And it has aged surprisingly well.
Nowadays everything would be done with just computers, maybe a few sequences here and there would have been done in the hand-drawn mode, and the seams would have been incredibly obvious. Not all modern films suffer from this, but I’ve noticed a lot of them that mistake being able to program it as being able to make it look believable and complete the illusion. The talking dragon at the end of Enchanted screams to mind. Roger Rabbit painstakingly drew in the characters. And they have a real weight, dimension and scope to them. They interact and create action with real world objects. This, I believe, helps prove that while computers can help create great and wondrous things, they can’t replace the magic and realism that comes with the artistry of doing something the hard way. A real set, real animatronics, a real puppet will always be better than the plug-and-chug computer fantasia we’re immersed in right now. There are excepts, but, by and large, doing something the hard way pays off more.
And now for the plot, for the film isn’t simply a gorgeous exercise in visual treats, although it is very much that. Like film noir giant Chinatown, Roger Rabbit uses real Los Angeles history to tell its story. Yes, the red cars really were bought up and closed down, but this had more to do with automobiles being more attractive than public transportation. But there is such a thing as the Great American streetcar scandal, which is more than parallel to the events depicted in the film in numerous ways if not the exact shape and form. And, yes, the California freeway system wasn’t built until the 1950s, but the water and power issues in Chinatown were from different eras than the one presented in the film and no one complains about it harming the overall impact there.
Naturally, the fantasy takes off and creates an alternate world parallel to our own. But what is it really about? Like all great film noir a simple crime that spirals deeper into a city’s under-belly than anyone could imagine. Marvin Acme has been killed, his will is missing, and Roger Rabbit is the only suspect. Our grizzled, frequently drunk and nasty former P.I. must sidestep his ‘toon bigotry and prove that Roger is innocent. Oh, what laughs do we have along the way!
This movie came out when I was a one-year-old, and I feel like I have been watching it all of my life for numerous reasons. As a child I loved the animation. I loved to see the Disney and Warner Brothers characters interacting like some epic crossover that can only happen in the imaginations of young children. The older the got the more I loved it for its adult humor. And now I love it for its dark film noir aspects. Truly, this is great family entertainment. This is from back in the days when family entertainment offered something for everyone and didn’t rely on celebrity voices, ADHD pop culture references, bratty humor and recycled storylines. (I’m looking directly at you Dreamworks!) Who Framed Roger Rabbit is just a great movie.
