Who Framed Roger Rabbit (film)
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Amblin Entertainment, and Touchstone Pictures on June 22, 1988. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters interact directly with human beings. Who Framed Roger Rabbit stars Bob Hoskins as a private detective who investigates a murder involving the famous cartoon character, Roger Rabbit. Charles Fleischer co-stars as the titular character's voice, Christopher Lloyd as the villain Judge Doom, Kathleen Turner as the voice of Roger's cartoon wife, and Joanna Cassidy as the detective's girlfriend, Dolores.
Plot
In a stereotypical 1947 cartoon, Somethin's Cookin', Roger Rabbit messes up (he sees birds instead of seeing stars). Detective Eddie Valiant watches him blow his lines, and R.K. Maroon, Roger's boss, tells Eddie that he thinks Roger's wife, Jessica Rabbit, has been making Roger suspicious that she is cheating on him. He sends Eddie to figure out if Jessica had been cheating, to which Eddie replies he will not work with Toons (a Toon killed Eddie's brother). R.K. convinces Eddie, and he finds out that Jessica has been playing patty-cake---literally---with Marvin Acme, the owner of Toontown.
Eddie takes a few pictures of the patty-cake game and shows them to Roger. Roger gets drunk and storms off, declaring that him and Jessica will be happy no matter what. Heartbroken, Roger sits outside of the Acme Factory crying, wile looking at pictures of him and Jessica. The next day, Eddie finds out that Marvin has been killed by a safe dropped on his head. Roger is the prime suspect, according to Judge Doom, the Judge of Toontown. Doom says that when he catches Roger, he will kill him using the Dip, the only thing capable of killing a cartoon character. Doom has enlisted the help of the Toon Patrol, a gang of weasels named Smarty, Stupid, Psycho, Greasy, and Wheezy, to capture Roger.
Eddie goes home and recieves a tip from Roger's co-star, Baby Herman, that Roger did not kill Marvin. He said that whoever did kill him, however, must have been after Marvin's will, which supposedly left Toontown to the Toons. Without it, anyone could destroy Toontown. Eddie discovers Roger in his room, pleading innocent. Eddie decides to take his case, only because whoever set Roger up was also making Eddie look bad. He hides Roger in a bar, only to have Doom find him the next day. Now, Doom and the Patrol are after both Eddie and Roger.
After saving Benny the Cab from being "dipped" for driving on the sidewalk, Benny drives Eddie and Roger to safety. They go to a movie theater, where a news bulletin says that R.K. has signed a deal with Cloverleaf Industries, who want to buy Toontown.
Eddie and Roger go to interrogate R.K., and Eddie tells Roger to stay outside and guard. Roger gets captured by Jessica, who throws him in the trunk of her car. While questioning R.K., R.K. tells Eddie that Cloverleaf wanted Toontown, but it would "become land for the free-" then R.K. is shot before he can finish the word. When Eddie goes to see who shot R.K. to death, he sees Jessica running to her car and leaving. He follows her into Toontown. While chasing her, Eddie thinks he has found her. He is fooled, as he has just found Lena Hyena, who wants to marry him all of a sudden. Scared, Eddie runs away into the men's bathroom, except...there is no men's bathroom! Eddie starts falling to what he thinks is his doom. While falling, Eddie runs into Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, who are skydiving. They both taunt him by saying they have a spare, but Bugs says that Eddie probably doesn't want it. Thinking Bugs means a spare parachute, Eddie pleads Bugs to give it to him until Mickey says, "Better let him have it, Bugs!" Turns out the "spare" was a tire, which weighs Eddie down.
Eddie thinks he is about to die, until Lena catches him. After escaping her, Eddie encounters Jessica and finds out that she is innocent, and that Judge Doom killed Marvin Acme and R.K. Maroon. Benny comes and drives Jessica and Eddie to chase Doom, until, Doom makes Benny slip. Jessica and Eddie fall out to the ground, and Benny pretends to be dead. Doom and the Patrol take Jessica and Eddie to the Acme Factory.
Roger comes by Benny, and Benny finds the strength to get up and drive Roger to where Doom is holding Eddie and Jessica. Roger grabs a gun and tells Benny to call the cops. Doom reveals that he is the boss of Cloverleaf, and that he will dip Toontown off the face of earth and put a freeway in it's place. Roger then comes and starts threatening Doom with a gun, until Greasy drops a pile of bricks on him. He sees stars, and becomes happy because he couldn't see stars at the beginning of the movie. Doom has Roger and Jessica tied up, and leaves the weasels alone to dip Roger and Jessica with a dip cannon. Eddie gets an idea and makes the weasels laugh themselves to death, except for Smarty, who gets kicked into a pool of dip by Eddie.
Eddie gets ready to shut the dip cannon off, until Doom stops him. Eddie then runs over Doom with a steamroller, but Doom survives, because he was a Toon. But not just any Toon---he killed Eddie's brother! After a long fight, Eddie reversed the dip cannon and fires all the dip left in the world at Doom, killing him. He lets Roger and Jessica down just as the cops show up, as well as a bunch of famous cartoon characters. Roger is proven innocent, and Toontown now belongs to the Toons! Anyone sings "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile" as Porky Pig closes the movie with his famous "Th-th-tha-th-th-th-that-th-that's all, folks!" and Tinkerbell flies by.
Cast
- Uncredited roles
| Jack Angel | Toon Shoes |
| Jeff Arbaugh | Mime |
| Nancy Cartwright | Dipped Toon Shoe |
| Sadie Corré | Ink and Paint Club Patron |
| Christine Hewett | Ink and Paint Club Patron |
| Kit Hillier | Ink and Paint Club Patron |
| Lane Leavitt | Stunts |
| Derek Lyons | Drunk in bar |
| Philip O'Brien | Earl (bar customer) |
| Ken Ralston | Judge Doom when he runs away in Toontown |
| Frank Welker | Dumbo / Additional voices |
Sequel
- Main article: Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2
In February 2013, Gary K. Wolf, creator of Roger Rabbit, that he as well as Erik Von Wodtke were working on a development proposal for an animated Disney buddy comedy starring Mickey Mouse and Roger Rabbit called The Stooge, based on the 1952 film of the same name. The proposed film is set to a prequel, taking place five years before Who Framed Roger Rabbit and part of the story is about how Roger met Jessica, his future wife. Wolf has stated the film is currently wending its way through Disney.
Trivia
- This is the second-to-final movie where Mel Blanc voiced the Looney Tunes before his death in 1989. The final movie where he voiced them was Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, released on September 24, 1988, 94 days after Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released.
- It is also the final time Mae Questel voiced Betty Boop before her death in 1998.
- The film's success led to 3 cartoon shorts being produced, the shorts being Tummy Trouble, Roller Coaster Rabbit and Trail Mix-Up. It also led to the comic book series Roger Rabbit and the short comic book series Roger Rabbit's Toontown being released.
- The character's personalities from the film are reflected in Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?.
- Roger Rabbit: The Resurrection of Doom is set between the film and Tummy Trouble.