Amazon.com Customer Reviews
Hard not to laugh - Review written on May 11, 2008
Rating: 4 out of 5
1 customer found this review helpful.
From Robert Castle, Bright Lights Film Journal:
Cartoons and animated features have never been strictly made for children. But not until the 1960s did the cartoon gain serious acceptance from young adults. Especially appreciated were the Road Runner cartoons and Fantasia, the latter a favorite for the blossoming drug generation. It seemed a logical step from adults appreciating cartoons to the emergence of adult features like Fritz the Cat and Cool World, as well as adolescent/adult television favorites like The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Beavis and Butthead. As serious entertainment, however, the animated feature had to wait until Beauty and the Beast was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. And now the animated feature has become a serious box office contender with the likes of Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan, and Anastasia.
At the dawn of this era of serious animation -- serious in terms of big dollars thrown into the production -- stands the witty and inventive Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Superficially, this part animated, part live-action film seems like a throwback to the adult subtexts of Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes. The film is honeycombed with the childish amusements -- unreal slapstick violence of the cartoons within the movie (the opening sequence) and the chase scenes (Eddie Valiant riding a Toon car) -- but, within the same framework, the film dishes out sophisticated parody and earnest historical references. Because director Robert Zemeckis cannot satisfy both audiences, he opts to satisfy the child within the adult audience, consistent for the Zemeckis and Spielberg (executive producer) canon, and never fully takes his parody and history to the end of the line.
Much of Roger Rabbit's plot derives from Chinatown's -- the detective being set up, a past incident affecting the detective's life, and corruption involving a public utility. The allusion is brought home completely when Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) photographs Jessica Rabbit and Toontown owner Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye) playing patty cake; even younger members of the audience will understand the risqué element. After Eddie shows Roger Rabbit the pictures, the Chinatown allusion hits older audience members and brings fidgety amusement. In Chinatown's opening scene, Curly (Burt Young), a client of Jake Gittes, moans at the pictures of his wife having sex with another man in the woods. Several of the photos show her being taken sexually from behind! Appropriate perhaps for the quintessential detective/paranoia neo-noir of the early seventies, but within the frame of a cartoon, and "patty cake" subbing for "delivery in the rear," the ultimate effect becomes unsettling. However, in the film's on and off pattern, the disturbing element of the Chinatown parody takes us nowhere in terms of meaning. That is, we aren't meant to think through the allusion but simply allow it to get on and off our consciousness without effect.
In the historical frame, the club where the patty cake session takes place is situated in a racially separated America, resembling a Hollywood version of the Cotton Club. The Toons replace blacks in the roles of waiters, doormen, maitre d's, and entertainers for the strictly human clientele. By extension, the Toons are barely tolerated minorities relegated to their own ghetto, Toontown, yet seem to accept their decidedly inferior social status. They are depicted as rebellious, cunning, and knowing their place. Toontown as a separate but ideal place appears, upon reflection, mildly disconcerting for us because reality has been pruned to a comfortably commonplace nostalgia for a simpler past. Consistent within the motif of Toons-as-minority, Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) emerges as the classic self-hating figure within that minority by posing as a human. He dispatches Toons who get out of line into "the Dip." The Toons here also resemble another minority, the Jews, and Toontown becomes a World War II East European ghetto, while the Dip simulates a Toon gas chamber/crematorium. Only at the end of the film is Judge Doom exposed as a Toon when a steamroller squashes him.
We mustn't forget, though, that the Judge's goal is to destroy Toontown, erase it from public memory, and for what?
"I see a place where people get on and off the freeway. On and off. On and Off. All day, all night. Soon where Toontown once stood will be a string of gas stations. Inexpensive motels, restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food, tire salons, automobile dealerships, and wonderful, wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful."
He wants more for humans than most humans would want. The Judge becomes the substantive visionary for a future that Eddie, Eddie's girlfriend, and Toons scoff at. Eddie assumes that the highway won't be needed because the city already has an efficient and profitable trolley-car system: "Nobody's gonna drive this lousy freeway when they can take the Red Car for a nickel." The "Red Car" was, in reality, a profitable public transit system in Los Angeles in the late 1940s, and would cease to exist in 1961 because of a corporate conspiracy led not by Judge Doom but by three major corporations, General Motors, Firestone, and Standard Oil of California, that had a vested interest in seeing the automobile proliferate. The conspiracy was proved in court in the 1950s, and the three companies paid nominal fines but were not compelled to resurrect the trolley system. In Roger Rabbit, the judge's company, Cloverleaf Industries, has bought the trolley system and plans to dismantle it.
In the Spielberg/Zemeckis film universe, however, good guys must prevail. Judge Doom and his gang are themselves dissolved by the Dip (don't have to worry about them after that) and Toontown is saved -- Acme's will leaves it to the Toons. The highway can wait. Forget the historical parallels. Who would want to spoil the carefully conceived fantasy with even a mild social critique? More than the realist in me chafes at the ending. Zemeckis gets on and off the historical reality. Just as the parody caused a breach within our initial humorous response, the historical parallels, from the demise of the Red Car line to the apartheid treatment accorded the Toon, suffer from the happy ending.
The substance of the parody and historical parallelism, their placement within the film, arises from the same impulse to convoke certain historical-cultural twitches in audience members. The "Spielmeckis" approach has no label or ideology but reflects cultural indifference to the implications of historical events. It reduces, say, the Holocaust to a survival exercise and science to dinosaur theme parks. History and Art have become nothing but pastiches of retrieved material. I don't object to the choice of the scene from Chinatown because it causes discomfort for the audience, but wonder whether the film's authors have seriously calculated the association of patty cake and graphic sex in a family film.
Judge Doom's euphoria, quoted above, anticipates Amon Goeth's comment before razing the Krakow ghetto in Schindler's List to the effect that both celebrate the cessation of their victims' existence. To save Toontown and halt the building of the Los Angeles Freeway accomplishes an analogous historical obliteration -- via the feel-good mentality fostered by the Spielmeckis worldview.
Toontown as such represents the state of the American imagination as it slouches toward history. Herein lies the knack to absorb realities and present them with the most realistic and impressive touches (Forrest Gump, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan), to the point of basing an extreme fantasy -- cartoon characters and humans intermixing -- in the real world. Yet, beneath or beyond this reality recognition, Spielmeckis either embrace the values of a simpler time or ignore the nihilistic guts that their movie realities deal with. Toontown must stay alive, to be the repository for our dreams of a simpler, better time and people. Toontown becomes the American Valhalla. All becomes smiles because the Toons live to make humans smile. The worst blight finds atonement.
Fantasy as escape and entertainment is one thing, but one wonders whether Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is just fantasy-as-denial. Spielberg's enthusiasm to make the world remember the Holocaust seems related inversely to this denial, which I associate with a fundamentally antihistorical position. In other words, an earnestness to remember the past, or a specific atrocity, will tend to veer from historical truth before reaching the end of the line, where lies a more terrible truth: those who remember history will never learn or will always misapply those lessons.
***
At the end of this article, I wonder whether anyone will care about a critique of this innocuous movie. How can someone take Who Framed Roger Rabbit? that seriously or deny Americans their Toontown fantasy? Can one really criticize the intentions, as such, of Spielberg and Zemeckis? Aren't they using History to make us aware of the past? Don't they, like the Toons, labor to make us smile and feel better about ourselves? Why am I trying to make people feel bad?
In the movie of my life, knowing I have accomplished little by writing this or any other article, when I'm being escorted off the Red Car named Valhalla, Roger Rabbit will have his arm around me and say:
"Forget it, Bob, it's ... Toontown."
A Sardine on Vacation
What can I say? What's left to say? It all been said... it speaks for itself... - Review written on March 05, 2008
Rating: 5 out of 5
1 customer found this review helpful.
by dane youssef
Gee... What can I say?
What can be said that hasn't been said a zillion times about this movie before? By film critics, film buffs, the other user posters on IMDb and every other person who saw this one?
But you know what? I'm not here to really promote this movie, or analyze it... I'm here to write my love letter for it. We're all here to share our movie-going experiences, aren't we? Well, f*ck it, here's mine.
I still remember being a little prepubescent boy sitting in the theater watching this movie, totally amazed and astounded by what I saw. Seeing this wacky cartoons going through a routine Tom-and-Jerry-type episode... and then... it was amazing how these movie actually tricked you, convinced you to believe that human and cartoons can exist in the same universe and dimension of reality.
There are many a great pleasures and moments in this movie, one of them is the duet at a "toon" night club called "The Ink & Paint Club" where Eddie goes to get information about Roger's wife, and the opening act is a dueling duet on the piano featuring two great legends, Daffy Duck and Donald Duck (I doubt there's any biological relation there) together at last. Why did it take so long for these two to get together? Well, they are rival entertainers for rival studios, so...
But of course, the dueling duet ends in an all-out war. Come on, we both know the hatchet wasn't going to stay buried very long.
The whole movie is worth renting just to see the two great legends, Daffy and Donald, put their differences aside for one memorable dueling piano duet ALONE.
"Roger Rabbit" pioneered not only animation and film-making style, but acting, writing, directing and a meshing together of different genres.
Imagination, luck, brilliance, skill... it's all been blended so perfectly here... just like the animation and live-action.
Funny, sharp, satirical, smart, thrilling, skillful, bright, bold, hard-boiled, colorful... at even at times, a little scary.
It one three Oscars, not to mention an Honorary Award for it's Technical Advancements.
Hell, it deserved every single Oscar it got! And a few it didn't. It should've won every single Oscar that year. Maybe some from others...
God, you know, I still remember finding my little Rescue Ranger toy in my pocket and running in back-and-forth through my fingers... I remember being very careful not to loose it as I watched this. And it was hard, damn it, all of what was going up there on the screen.
There's the best of the everything here. Everyone should see it, pure and simple. It's a movie... for pretty much everybody. A masterpiece in more ways than one.
So help me God, I cannot think of a better actor for the role of the classic, hard-boiled, rock-bottom, not-too-smooth P.I. than Bob Hoskins. I don't think he's ever played a better role in his whole life. He seems to be a strange collision of Sam Spade and W.C. Fields, in some strange way.
Christopher Lloyd proves yet again (as he does in all his roles) that he's one of the most underrated actors in the business. He's known for playing the bizarre, the crazy, the wired. But his ability to play villains, particularly more sedate and low-key ones, is overlooked so much, it's grounds for a discrimination lawsuit.
Kathleen Turner is damn perfect as Roger's Mrs; especially considering that all she does here is a voice.
Roger Rabbit" pioneered not only animation and film-making style, but acting, writing, directing and a meshing together of different genres. Literature purists and scholars (yes, I mean geeks) will note that this movie is adapted from a novel by Gary K. Wolf, who specializes in science-fiction.
For those of you who are enamored with this movie and just learning this, are actively considering dropping this review right this instant and running to your nearest library and bookstore to pick up a copy to read as an addition to the movie or just out of curiosity, I should warn you that the movie is completely unfaithful to the novel.
Oh, both are clever and well-written spoofs of the whole "hard-boiled private-detective mystery noir genre," but the two are so completely different, in writing-style, character dialouge, plot, theme, even ending, you wonder why they even bothered to get Wolf's permission and pay him a royalty. Gee, usually these Hollywood types are a little more snaky and know how to exploit all these loopholes.
You've no doubt heard the old saying, "You can't please everyone, so don't even bother." Because when you try, you wind up ultimately pleasing no one. Least of all, yourself. It's strange, this movie seems like an exception to that one little rule. I mean, I know there's an exception to every rule, but this is one you're sure is completely iron-clad. This is a movie for everyone. This is a movie that will please everyone. And you know what else? It never got the credit for that. Think about what a big train-wreck this movie could have been. How many things could have gone wrong.
How many years Disney and Warner have been at war, all this time, money for a experiment that could have gone worse than than the killer bees and the atomic bomb. And yet, glory be, it didn't. We all live for days like this, filmmakers, film critics... and film lovers.
The best part? After it was all over... Roger and Baby Herman went on to star in several of their own cartoon shorts before the movie for real ("Dick Tracy" and "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids").
Good for them.
danessf@yahoo.com
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Great for cartoon fanatics, otherwise............ - Review written on September 10, 2007
Rating: 4 out of 5
1 customer found this review helpful, 1 did not.
Yep, I'm a cartoon fanatic. Especially of the era depicted here and of the Hanna-Barbera/Filmation/Rankin Bass of my own era and the Simpsons.
What that said, this film has a lot for the cartoon lover. Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse actually in the same scene? A comic duel between Donald and Daffy Duck? Looney Tunes meets the Disney crew? This is an animationphile's dream come true!
However, the character of Roger is WAY too silly, stupid, and lacking in appeal for me. Imagine Jerry Lewis as a cartoon rabbit and you get the idea. A bit overdone in that aspect. But the business with Jessica Rabbit is amusing as well as the Robert Hoskins character (who interacts quite well with the cartoons-no mean feat for an actor).
Overall, it has it's moments (cartoon freaks will LOVE the ending), but not the kind of thing I want to watch more than twice.
"Restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food!" - Review written on July 26, 2007
Rating: 4 out of 5
1 customer found this review helpful, 2 did not.
Meet Eddie Valiant -- hardboiled, alcoholic private eye in a 1947 Los Angeles that never was, a city where cartoons live and work alongside humans. Eddie used to love Toons, but he's felt differently since a devastating personal tragedy. When Roger Rabbit, one of Hollywood's biggest Toon stars, is accused of murder, can Eddie put aside his personal feelings to help him? What secrets is Roger's alluring wife, Jessica, hiding? And what does all this have to do with L.A.'s public transit system?
I think modern viewers may not fully appreciate the incredible technical achievement of this film, which would be far easier to make today with CGI. For example, when Dumbo hovers outside R.K. Maroon's window, the venetian blinds had to be traced by hand so that they would block the view of Dumbo in the right places, whereas now this could be done with the click of a mouse.
The script of "Roger Rabbit" is extremely clever, in that it functions simultaneously as a homage to a certain kind of zany animation and as a reasonably logical and coherent detective story. The film actually plays fair with viewers in the latter respect -- there are quite a few clues scattered through the narrative that tie together at the end, and there are no major plot holes like those found in classic films such as "The Big Sleep". The influence of "Chinatown" is so obvious that it's a miracle the writers got through the film without having anyone say "Forget it, Eddie, it's Toontown."
Although Roger is the title character, this film's true protagonist is Eddie Valiant, as superbly played by Bob Hoskins. Keep in mind as you watch the film that he is acting opposite nothing. When he yells at Roger, he's talking to no one. When he picks Roger up by the ears, or catches him, or carries him, he's holding nothing, catching nothing, carrying nothing. The man deserved some kind of special award for this unique performance. Eddie's character arc to redemption is extremely well-written, the implications of such scenes as his swapping his real gun for a cartoon pistol crystal-clear even to young children.
"Roger Rabbit" was the first (largely) live-action film I saw on the big screen, and moments such as the scene between Eddie and Roger in the movie theater (the emotional core of the film) and the big twist at the end have stuck with me. In this excellent DVD release, "Roger Rabbit" is now a wonderful slice of nostalgia, not only for the 40s but for the 80s as well.
Wacky and Original. One of My All-Time Favorite 80's Films! - Review written on February 05, 2007
Rating: 5 out of 5
4 customers found this review helpful.
Oh baby! That's what I'm talking about. Hilarious, original, and super cool! The 80's produced some classic gems during its time, and this one (IMO) tops them all!
I loved this film so much as a kid. Even as an adult, I still enjoy watching it. I believe it's great family entertainment--more so than the current lackluster offerings from Disney and digitally animated Pixel films. It contains a solid plot, excellent acting, smart script, fantastic visuals, and an abundance of your favorite LOONEY toons! There are cameo appearances from a colorful array of beloved cartoon characters (Bugs, Mickey, Betty Boop, Daffy, Donald, etc.).
Film includes an extraordinary cast of actors: Charles Fleischer (the voice over of Roger Rabbit, Benny the Cab, Greasy, and Psycho), Bob Hoskins (Detective Valiant), Christopher Lloyd (Judge Doom), Kathleen Turner (Jessica Rabbit), the legendary voice artists of Mel Blanc (aka "The Man of a Thousand Voices" who does Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, Porky, and Sylvester) and Mae Questel (who does Betty Boop!), just to name a few....
Do expect plenty of laughs and the wonderful added mystery and suspense! Although I do recommend this as a family film, I'd advise parents to watch out for the following: some cursing, a "dip-kill" of a toon, and most especially--the icky and frightful ending of Judge Doom! It's super scary (as a kid I would always hide under a pillow during that part) and not for very young children to see.
Overall, highly recommended! It's unique and definitely a landmark film. Show this one to the kids. They will love it! 5 Stars!!!
"Hey Eddie!" - Review written on January 25, 2007
Rating: 5 out of 5
4 customers found this review helpful.
Eddie Valiant is a detective who doesn't really like 'toons. Toons are cartoon characters come to life, working in painted studios like actors in Hollywood. They killed Eddie's brother Theodore a few years ago, dropped a piano on his head. Still, Eddie needs the money, so he takes a job for R.K. Maroon, head of Maroon Cartoons. Their star Roger Rabbit keeps stuffing up their animated shorts because he's so in love with Jessica Rabbit, his wife. Valiant goes and breaks it up, by way of some dirty pictures of Jessica Rabbit and a Marvin Acme, and Roger gets upset. The next day, Acme is killed, and Roger is the suspect. The Judge of Toontown wants Roger destroyed, and Eddie smells a rat. What's really going on?
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" pretty stylish film, with a pretty good cast (I love Bob Hoskins as Detective Valiant in this, and Christopher Lloyd as the Judge). The mystery of the story is pretty interesting too, as is seeing Disney and Warner Bros characters together. Worth a look.
A Very Special Movie - Review written on September 23, 2006
Rating: 5 out of 5
3 customers found this review helpful.
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is quite simply a most magical filmmaking experience. It's a film that is truly brilliant in every way imaginable. From its plot, a brilliant homage to the great film noir thrillers of the 1940s', to the fantastic visuals, still impressive even today, to its smart, funny, fast paced script, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is a truly timeless piece of cinema.
Taking place in 1947, Detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is a hard boiled Hollywood private eye haunted by his past. He has gone from a well respected cop, to a brutal, booze swilling drunk. When Marvin Acme, owner of Acme Gag Factory and head of Toontown, is murdered, the prime suspect is Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer), Toontown's most famous star. Desparate to prove his innocence, Roger enlists Valiant for help, and manages to drive Valiant nuts. This doesn't sit well with the power hungry Judge Doom (a frighteningly brilliant Christopher Lloyd), who is intent on bringing Roger to justice. As Roger's innocence becomes more apparent, so does Doom's plot to destroy Toontown and turn it into a freeway (an homage to "Chinatown"). It is up to Valiant and Roger to save Toontown from total chaos. Not that these two are working alone: Valiant's on again, off again gal Dolores (Joanna Cassidy) helps out, and then of course their's Roger's mindbustingly sexy wife, Jessica (voiced like no other by Kathleen Turner, who imbues the character with such a vibrant amount of sex appeal that once can't help but fall in love with her, despite the fact that she's a cartoon).
As I said, this is an absolutely brilliant piece of cinema, and it now looks even better on this special edition dvd, which is loaded with two discs worth of bonus features as well as superb picture and sound remastering job. This is a truly amazing movie that belongs in anyone's collection.
Four Oscars! - Review written on March 03, 2006
Rating: 5 out of 5
3 customers found this review helpful.
Well-deserved Oscars for Editing, Visual Effects, Sound Effects Editing, and Special Achievement (animation direction) recommend this delightful film, which combines live action and animation before CGI came into regular use. Watch for the beautifully realized details throughout. For example, the Toons have shadows, and when one is thrown against a venetian blind, it bends and makes the sound of somebody actually hitting a venetian blind. The interaction between live action and animation is so good, you quickly forget they're not really together at all -- and much of the credit for such realistic "interaction" must go to live actor Bob Hoskins. There are a load of extras in this 2-disc package, including both fullscreen and widescreen versions, audio commentary, a deleted scene, and a very interesting "before and after" split-screen comparison with and without animation. This is a technical masterpiece and well worth seeing again and again.
Animation Sensation - Review written on December 28, 2005
Rating: 5 out of 5
3 customers found this review helpful.
This has got to be my favorite movie of all time. It's got music, it's got murders, and most importantly of all, it's got TOONS!!!!!!!!! Everything a movie should have. Robert Zemeckis is a well-acclaimed director who's done films like Back to the Future and the "newly-released" Polar Express, (but those are completely different reviews... all of which should be very good). Bob Hoskins is hilarious and makes the movie seem realistic. (He's somewhat of a "Scrooge" character). Christopher Llyod is great as he portrays the villain, Judge Doom. (I like that the original concept was that he was the guy who shot Bambi's mother). Though all the actors gave a splendid performance, Charles Fleisher (the voice of Roger Rabbit) was the best. He even wore a rabbit suit on set of the film. I'm also amazed at the wonderful effect of putting toons and actors together in the same frame. (I guess that's why, "Roger Rabbit" has won an academy award.) Probably never again will anyone see Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and Donald Duck in the same frame together. Everyone who hasn't seen this should go watch the flick right now. They can last for 104 minutes. The DVD is also worthwhile, too. There are Roger Rabbit shorts that were originally seen in theaters and an interactive game in which you save Toontown. It was considered that there would be a sequel to "Roger Rabbit"; one that would go directly to video and DVD. If a sequel was made, I'm sure it would be great. In the words of the sexy Jessica Rabbit, "Why Don't You Do Right" and Zemeckis surely has done right in making this a periodic, memorable movie. It has secured a place in film history.