Good concept, poorly executed.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, and stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, and Charles Fleischer.The story revolves around a crime that the cartoon character, or "toon," Roger Rabbit has been, to quote the title, framed for.Okay, let's get one thing out of the way (SPOILER): The villain "twist" for who they are and what they are is so painfully obvious from the moment of his introduction early on in the film. This is a huge problem, and would only fool me if I was a 6-year-old watching this.The great news is, even without this, the film is a very solid and entertaining experience. The story, aside from the villain, is very creative. The characters are all good to say the least. And you know what hit me? This is the film I wanted to see when I was a kid. All my favorite cartoon characters together. There is no painful "modernization" of the characters or dialogue at all. Robert Zemeckis' direction is fantastic. There are even some scary and dramatic moments that hit home, too!I loved this movie, and I recommend it (but seriously, who has not seen it?) and I will be returning to it several times in the future.RATING:8/10

I love this movie so very much, I think it's a sublimely-crafted one-of-a-kind amazing experience of a film to watch on various levels, and I don't believe that there's ever been another one that combined the use of animation and live action that has even come close to the kind of pure magic that was achieved so perfectly with this wondrous little picture back in '88. With every scene you can feel the downright astronomical effort that must have been put into every moment of the movie to make you fall in love with the fantastical world that it presents. They really pulled out all the stops to make you believe that cartoon characters were walking and talking with real world regular people, and nothing is lazy whatsoever about the production of the animation and live-action combinations, they gave the animated characters animated shadows, they had the physical environment reacting to the frequently calamitous movements of the toons as well as the actors reacting to them, such as when Jessica pinches R.K. Maroon's cheeks, and the ultimate hybridisation of the physical and animation stuff is the rather terrifying toon form of Judge Doom! I find it such a joyous marvel to sit through and it was always a big favourite of mine and I love it just as much now as when I was a kid, it gives me a warm feeling just to think of some of the scenes, like the entire sequence at the Pink and Paint Club, and the sweet Betty Boop cameo that saw the voice actress resuming her iconic voice role after fifty years and the way that she seems to be the only toon at that point in the story that Eddie Valiant has nostalgic admiration for. I'm always blown away by the whole opening sequence where Eddie walks down the 40s street to that terrific classy music score while the toons chaotically go about their business everywhere and the film in general seems to come with a sense of nostalgia that's built into its very fabric and atmosphere. I mean you'd have to be totally heartless for there not to be some little thing that you love or appeals to your inner child about it, because if the rich tone, fantastic visuals and great sight gags don't grab you, the characters will! The sadly late but forever great Bob Hoskins was solid in his role and was really the grounding force of the movie as his good old-fashioned down on his luck hard-boiled detective completely contrasts with and reacts to all the weird and wacky characters around him, and undergoes a real arc as he delves deeper into what's going on and uncovers the dark secret that threatens all of the toons and regains his humour, pride, and respect for them along the way. He and Roger made a great unlikely team, and as hyper and loud as he is, Charles Fleischer delivered a voice performance as Roger that was very lovable and endearing, which I think is because he occasionally reigned in his energy a little and gave the manic clownish rabbit moments that help to make him more well-rounded and relateable. And of course he is enormously backed up by his significant other Jessica Rabbit, who arguably stole the show! What a sassy legend the movie made in her, she's so brazenly sexual and it's so hilariously blatant the the way the buxom babe sensuously sashays around in her scenes! She's the most human-like of all the toons and does feel more like a human than one of them, with the exception of her reaction when she's faced with the dreaded Dip! Kathleen Turner gave her the ideal voice that perfectly captured the traits of a classic sultry femme-fatale... And Christopher Lloyd was just phenomenal as the ice cold and utterly ruthless terror of Toon Town, Judge Doom! He's a villain who by his commanding presence alone brings the fear to a generally happily-toned picture - due in no small part I'm sure to the frightening threat that he poses to the seemingly indestructible toons with his Dip, as clearly demonstrated for the audience in the famously chilling moment where a poor helpless shoe gets it! On subsequent viewings the little signs of his true nature are cool to spot, not just the constantly billowing cloak, but how he always avoids the Dip, how he can smell Roger on the record, how he moves kind of stiffly and has odd skin that's almost rubbery and teeth that are too big and white! I love the mystery of Doom, how could a toon who's purpose is supposed to be to bring joy and laughter yet who disguises himself as a stern humourless man, be so completely evil and twisted that he'd concoct an elaborate scheme to ultimately give him the power to eliminate his own kind? When the truth is finally revealed and the mask comes off(sort of), he's finally free to let loose and really goes creepily crazy with it!! I think what would have made a perfectly great happy ending even better, would have been if they'd have made a kind of callback to the poignant early scene in Eddie's office, by showing new pictures of Eddie and Delores on their planned vacation, joined by Jessica and Roger this time, and maybe some showing that Eddie and Roger had teed up as a new detective duo: Valiant and Rabbit! I think Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a solid gold classic because not only is it a fantasy come to life and a loving homage to the beloved animated characters of yesteryear, but also because it creates such an amazing alternate reality within the world of the movie that feels so rich and alive and fun to watch and that you'd love to be a part of and is so memorable and precious, it's a glorious celebration of childhood joy, animation, ingenuity, and the imagination. X

Robert Zemeckis' fifth feature movie at the heel of the phenomenal BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985), WHO FRAMED RABBIT ROGER is an enormously entertaining amalgamation of live-action and traditional 2D animation, unprecedentedly assembles a plethora of cartoon characters from both Disney and Warner Bros. stocks. A none-too-mind-boggling whodunit in 1940s Hollywood where human society co-exists with a toon world. Rabbit Roger (voiced by Fleischer) is a name toon star who is framed for the murder of Marvin Acme (Kaye, in his silver-screen swan song), the mogul of Acme Corporation, and a human private eye Eddie Valiant (Hoskins), whose past tragic brush with the toon world still rankles, is dragged into the scramble to shake thing up, scupper a deleterious scheme of the evil Judge Doom's (Lloyd), settle the old score and finally he and Rabbit Roger establish a mutually respected bond between humans and toons. Decades later, the picture still looks pristinely stunning, a seamless coalescence of the 3- dimensional real world with the 2-D fantasy inspires great immediacy and fun, in both scenarios where Eddie is thrown into the toon-land or the other way around, toons wandering in the Hollywood lot or engaging a car-chasing in the street of L.A.. A petulant Hoskins is quite gung-ho in acting in front of a green-screen, and Lloyd is a palatable villain with cardboard identity and a cunning plan which is too prescient to be sardonic. A shrewd revelation of the villain is the victims' very own kind, would spawn different reactions from various projects, on the negative side, Frank Oz's god-awful THE STEPFORD WIFE (2004) brings to mind, but here, it can easily bypass any unwarranted hard feelings as who gives a fig about what a fruitcake toon thinks. The main cartoon characters are tailor-made to defer to the lowest common denominator - a kid's talkie, Rabbit Roger comes off as irritably garrulous, and his pleading of "toons are made to bring laughter" rings hollow since it fails to connect with today's reality, as we have been constantly assured and re-assured that animated works can do a whole lot more than cheap pratfalls and belabored jokes; the overtly risqué image of his wife Jessica (voiced by an uncredited Kathleen Turner) shows the industry really doesn't mind pigeonholing female characters into wishful- thinking love interests with inherent crassness, which is also confirmed by the one-note girlfriend role from Joanna Cassidy. On a larger scale, the movie's overwhelming success has at least partially sparkled a rekindled mass appreciation of the studio animation, which in the decades to come, has been prevailing over the global market henceforth, a throwaway question mark arises, nevertheless, how come a sure- fire sequel has yet to be green-lit regarding that the innovation in the animation department has already gone through a sea change, certainly, its appeal would exceed those live action performance-capturing ventures Zemeckis has consistently but unfruitfully experimented thrice in THE POLAR EXPRESS (2004), BEOWULF (2007) and A Christmas CAROL (2009).

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was not the first movie to combine cartoon with real things. It was just the best movie to do so and still remains the best. Who Framed Roger Rabbit helped popularize the double usage. Yogi Bear, Smurfs, Casper, and Alvin & The Chipmunks are some of the best known movies like Roger Rabbit of recent times. The first reason Roger Rabbit surpasses those is because of the kind of animation that is used. The pure CGI stuff used in Yogi Bear and Smurfs is easy as hell in comparison with this. The 80s was when people needed to draw out cartoons by hand. I highly doubt there were 50 frames drawn by hand per-second used for the cartoons, but whatever. I saw a special feature that looked through how the actors would be communicating with the cartoons, and that was enough. Roger Rabbit provides constant asking "How do they do that?" I don't want to know anymore behind-the-scenes tricks because the magic would be lost. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is not specifically for children. Kids under the age of 9 should be accompanied by adults. There's sexual innuendo, drinking, smoking, and profanity out of youngsters' reach. Besides, adults would appreciate the work that went into it and understand the story better. This is a neo-noir, so the story is guaranteed to be complex. Bob Hoskins plays a down-on-his-luck detective named Eddie Valiant who is sent to spy on Roger Rabbit's wife Jessica who is suspected of cheating on him with the owner of Toontown. It is true and Roger is heartbroken. The next day, the man is murdered and Roger is the prime suspect. Baby Herman explains Roger is innocent and mentions the man's plans of Toontown. Soon, Valiant uncovers a deadly conspiracy of betrayal, lies, deceit and murder in which Roger and his wife are just a small piece of the puzzle.This is a truly funny movie and all characters are lovable. This uses every film noir trick in the book but adds warmth and hilarity with wonderful cartoons.