Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)

Film: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
Stars: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer, Kathleen Turner, Amy Irving
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Oscar History: 6 nomination/4 wins (Best Film Editing*, Sound, Sound Effects Editing*, Visual Effects*, Art Direction, Cinematography...and a fourth Honorary Oscar for "animation direction")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

When I write these articles, you might have noticed I put "Snap" or "(Not So) Snap" Judgment Ranking for my star rating.  This indicates whether or not this is the first time I've seen a movie or whether this is something that I'm revisiting for a second (or hundredth) time.  On rare occasions, though, I don't actually know the answer as to whether or not I've seen a movie.  I am really OCD about movie lists and spreadsheets, but when it comes to specific movies, I don't know if it's just a case where I've seen parts of the film or whether I saw the whole thing.  That's the case with Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a landmark 1988 film that was nominated in both Sound categories amongst six Oscar citations (this week our review theme is Sound nominees at the Oscars).  So full disclosure-some parts of Roger Rabbit had an air of familiarity (I knew the twist, and not because I'd read about it before), but by-and-large after watching, I feel confident enough that I haven't seen this movie full-through to warrant a "Not So."

(Spoilers Ahead) But enough of my minutia-let's get to the film at hand.  Roger Rabbit is a live-action/animated film that takes a lot of its cues from film noir.  The movie takes place in the late 1940's, and it's a world where "toons" and humans live side by side with each other, though there is some animosity between the two worlds.  One of the humans who struggles with toons is Eddie Valiant (Hoskins), a washed-up detective whose brother was killed by a toon during a bank robbery, and he holds prejudices against them.  He is forced into a situation of defending a toon, though, when after being hired to track film star Roger Rabbit (Fleischer) and his voluptuous wife Jessica (Turner for speaking, Irving for singing), Roger is framed for murder by Judge Doom (Lloyd), and they form an unlikely alliance as they try to clear Roger's name.

Roger Rabbit was a landmark production that took almost a decade to come to light as Disney was handling its own nightmares in its animation department, and the film ended up finally happening due to Steven Spielberg & Amblin Entertainment getting involved.  While the film's visual effects were groundbreaking at the time, it's actually the cartoons that are featured in the film that are truly jaw-dropping considering the copyrights at stake.  While it's not shocking to see Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck in a Disney animated film, them being alongside the likes of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Woody Woodpecker, Betty Boop, & Porky Pig is insane, particularly since Spielberg amassed most of the voice actors that these characters are most associated with-the film is helped by adding in two instantly iconic cartoon characters (Roger & Jessica Rabbit), but even as a curiosity it's worth investigating.

That said, the movie's great-sure, it's cliche, but it's mining that cliche for some fun camp, and I loved it.  Bob Hoskins is perfectly cast as Eddie, using his tough guy persona to great affect and keeping the ridiculousness grounded, and Turner/Irving give a performance for the ages as Jessica, who gets away with jokes you couldn't dream are coming out of a Disney character's mouth.  It's a fun, joyous, predictable ride from start to finish.

The film won six Oscar nominations, as well as a special trophy for its landmark animation.  The visual effects are the best of these.  While the strings are clear still to modern audiences, this is a marked improvement on even a few years earlier where you had live-action figures alongside humans in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Pete's Dragon.  The sound work is also strong-this requires a lot of seamless voiceover work to make it compelling (mad props again to Hoskins for interacting with essentially a green screen so well, and creating such chemistry with Roger/Jessica), and the toon town effects are delightful & witty; this is also a credit to the editors, who took a plot that could have been a slog (parodies of noir oftentimes are) and kept it bright, but still moody.  The Art Direction is fine, if a bit played for parody (there's no set that feels like it wasn't plucked out of a Dashiell Hammett novel, and not always in the best way as there could have been more fun in recreating aspects of Toontown), and the cinematography also could have had more ambience or leaned in a little heavier into the noir aspects of the picture.  All-in-all, though, whether it was for the first time or the second, Roger Rabbit holds up.