Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a classic film noir with the exception that it’s filled with color as it has been mixed with cartoons! It has most of the archetypes found in film noir including the hard-boiled detective, the femme fatale, the corrupt official, and gangsters. It also has just about every old timey cartoon character you can think of.
The toons are looked down upon and treated as disposable in the 1947 Hollywood that exists in this film. Based on the 1981 novel “Who Censored Roger Rabbit” by Gary K. Wolf, which is a much darker story of murder, Who Framed Roger Rabbit has the appearance of a kid’s flick but it also has quite a dark story like the novel and a truly terrifying villain.
Details make the combination of animation and real actors work in this film where it has failed many other times, as in 1992’s Cool World with Brad Pitt. The artists on this film put in the detailed work to make Roger Rabbit a believable mix, as explained in Who Framed Roger Rabbit – The 3 rules Of Living Animation; the extra effort was dubbed “bumping the lamp” by Disney animators. Referencing a scene of a swinging lamp and the shadows on Roger Rabbit that moved with it, they did what other filmmakers couldn’t and seamlessly put him in Bob Hoskins’ hands.
The movie won three Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing. I watched this movie on Friday after a long time since my last viewing, and I was reminded of how frightening Christopher Lloyd’s Judge Doom was and how amazing the animation was. You could say I was drawn in.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit stars Bob Hoskins, Charles Fleischer, Kathleen Turner, Christopher Lloyd, Mel Blanc, Joanna Cassidy, Stubby Kaye, and Amy Irving. Directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is available with subscription on Disney+. $3.99 on Prime, YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play, and Fandango At Home.
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Our cartoon today is the classic Bugs Bunny in Haredevil Hare from 1948. It was the first appearance of Marvin the Martian. I had a devil of a time finding it, here’s an Internet Archive link: Haredevil Hare and on TikTok:
We start a new month of movies next Saturday, April. Celebrating three years of Movie Nights!