Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a quirky little movie. It blends live action film noir with animated cartoon comedy to create a unique and wholly original atmosphere. The movie is about Eddie Valiant (Hoskins), a down-on-his-luck private investigator who has to work for cartoons in Toon Town when he's not busy guzzling down alcohol. Cartoons exist side by side with real people, but they're placed in a segregated society and are forced into the service or performance industries. Roger Rabbit (Fleischer) works in the movies as an actor. Just like all the violent cartoons of our childhood, we realize that he can't be killed by having a refrigerator dropped on his head or falling off a cliff. His wife Jessica Rabbit works in a night club as a singer. "[She's] not bad. [She's] just drawn that way." Valiant photographs her in a compromising position with prop giant Marvin Acme and shows it to Roger, who goes berserk. When Acme is found dead the next day, Roger is the usual suspect. Judge Doom (Lloyd) has devised a way to kill cartoons, by dipping them in his own special mix of paint thinners (turpentine, benzene, and acetone), and he is eager to test it out on Roger Rabbit.
Quite frankly, the special effects weren't quite at the level to make it work for me. It should have been made 25 years later at a time when special effects were advanced enough to have them believably live on screen with real actors (I'm imaging something fluid along the lines of District 9). I loved the concept though--it was bold and innovative--but the mood was just too farcical. The movie should have been a true film noir with very minor elements of black comedy, directed by someone unafraid to make an unapologetically dark film like Darren Aronofsky or the Coen brothers. And, I just realized, there are a bunch of plot holes and the whole thing doesn't really make sense in a truly cohesive and believable way. It's a great idea marred by the limitations of its time; if it gets remade into a far more serious film, I will be first in line to see it.
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096438/