Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Retro Review #75: Cartoon props and sight-gags courtesy of Acme Corporation.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
+ Feature film, /@ 1h 44m🎖️
+ Based on literature (novel) Who Censored Roger Rabbit (1981)‼️⭐ by Gary K. Wolf ⭐
+ 3️⃣/10+ works in Roger Rabbit multiverse ⭐
+ 2️⃣/5 videos in Roger Rabbit series ⭐ (also includes 1️⃣, the first Roger Rabbit cartoon short)
A+^
Grade: A+^ (20.0) / HOF: 90
EQ 👍A+ | 📖A+ 👥A 📽️A+ 🎼A+
DW 😎😎11.9 | 🌚11 🌝13
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R 💻⬇️0️⃣ 👀⬆️0️⃣ 🛐⬇️1️⃣
In 1981, Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, the first novel in a comedic mystery series by author Gary K. Wolf was published. The novels are set in a world where comic strip characters are real, photographed to provide comic strips for the humans with whom they share the world. Disney purchased the film rights almost immediately, but it wasn’t until 1985 that production began when Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment agreed to join Disney in the production of the movie.
The film wisely departed from the novel a bit, changing the “toons” from comic strip stars to movie cartoon stars, setting the story in the golden age of American animation, specifically an alternate 1947 version of Hollywood. Title character and cartoon star Roger Rabbit is framed for the murder of Marvin Acme, the human owner of Acme Corporation and Toontown, a cartoon neighborhood in Los Angeles where most toons live.
R.K. Maroon, owner of cartoon-producing Maroon Studios, is dismayed about his star’s declining performance and hires Eddie Valiant to investigate, but Eddie has an alcohol problem and a resentment of toons. Once a hero to toons for solving crimes against them, he now hates them, ever since a toon killed his brother.
By now you can see this is a film that is right in my Dark Whimsy wheelhouse, right? Of course I love it.
Now, there are Darker movies, but with the neo-noir stylings, and a double-digit dose of human and toon deaths, Who Framed Roger Rabbit registers just fine on the Dark scale.
Whimsy? Duh! Obviously, the Whimsy comes close to breaking the scale, with animated fantasy characters, cartoon gags and comedy galore, and cute anthropomorphic characters by the bucketload. If you loved cartoons as a child or still enjoy them as an adult, this movie is the most delicious tribute to cartoons you could ever find.
Disney made an agreement with Warner Bros. to include several of their Looney Tunes characters in cameos, along with several of Disney’s own animated characters. Classic characters from other studios also make cameo appearances, including Betty Boop, Droopy, and Woody Woodpecker, while efforts to acquire rights to use other characters, such as Popeye, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Tom and Jerry were unsuccessful. Many of the original voice actors reprised their roles in the cameos that were included, while several notable contemporary voice actors also participated in the film.
And while those cameos mentioned are neat, the battle of Daffy Duck vs. Donald Duck, and the meeting between Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny have to be included among the most memorable scenes in animation history.
Audiences must have channeled their own inner children. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was the second-biggest box-office hit of 1988, trailing only the star-studded dramedy, Rain Man.
Don’t get me wrong here. While watching this Roger Rabbit film can be a joyful, childlike experience to enjoy as an adult, and while imdb-dot-com includes it in the “family” genre, it’s really not for kids. (That’s why Disney released it under its adult-themed Touchstone Pictures banner, instead of including it in its Walt Disney Pictures animated canon.)
There’s a lot of cartoon violence and gunplay in the movie, and while the deaths that occur aren’t graphic or bloody, they could still be scary for your youngest kids. Your older kids probably won’t catch on to most of the double entendres and, to be honest, even if your teens do catch on, they are pretty mild as such things go.
When considering your older kids and teen viewing, you should know there’s a lot of drinking and smoking in the film. The drinking is portrayed in a negative light, but the smoking isn’t. As I said, most of the innuendos are pretty mild, but Roger’s wife, Jessica Rabbit—well, as she says about herself, “I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.” So if you have a teenage boy, you can tell yourself it’s just a silly cartoon, but having once been a teenage boy… Let’s just say Jessica is a highly sexualized cartoon, even though there is no nudity, cartoon or live-action in the movie. However she’s highly loyal to her husband, making the film ever so slightly, if surprisingly, pro-marriage.
The film is intended to be an entertaining blockbuster and it achieved that. There isn’t really any message or agenda to be found in the film, but it has a very strong, commendable sense of good vs. evil. It does utilize the common progressive stereotype that the villain is already wealthy and greedy for more, but the heroic efforts of the good characters probably outweigh the subtle anti-capitalism propaganda, likely included more for the convenience of the stereotype than for any political intent.
By the way, the movie opens with a short Roger Rabbit cartoon, which is not quite completed when the story cuts to the movie. In later years, three more Roger Rabbit cartoons were produced and released theatrically to precede three other feature films. Don’t be surprised if I review them all down the road! 😉
If you are an adult who has never seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit or hasn’t seen it in a long time, I encourage you to watch or re-watch this highly-entertaining film. If you are looking for something in the same vein, but a little more appropriate to share with your children, I instead encourage you to look for some of the classic cartoons from the first half of the 20th century that are honored by this Roger Rabbit movie. A large number are in the public domain and can be found on YouTube. Message me if you need ideas!
Onwards!
+ last viewed (3) 2025-06-28, HDX7, 1.85v, 1M
+ first viewed 1988, ThX, 1.85, 1
+ ⏳🍌👤🔎🤔🦄🛡️🥸😛🤩🎬🐾🐰
+ ✅0️⃣ Mostly OK for teens and adults. | PGa
+ 😡+0 😵💫-0^ 🤬+0 🤭+0 🫣+0
+ 👀⬆️0️⃣
+ ✝️ +0 ➕(💒)🥴 ➖(🚬)
+ ✡️ +1 ➕🌗💎
+ 🗽 -1 ➖💲🇻🇳
Last updated 2025-06-30
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