Hoskins, who reacted to thin air during the filming while a comic in a rabbit suit read Roger's lines offcamera, is wonderful. You get the feeling that everybody involved was in love with the notion - from director Robert Zemeckis of "Back to the Future" to animation director Richard Williams. But this humanimated miracle is more than razzle-dazzle. That took an army of artists, 1,000 special effects and more technology than a nuclear submarine. Roger has a personality that is as three-dimensional as he appears to be. And surely Jessica is the first to be caught in an extramarital relationship. Roger Rabbit is probably the first Disney cartoon star to toss back a bourbon, much less sip sherry. Warner's lent its characters to the project, Toons with an edge, irascible types who could never have gotten work with Disney in the old days. Whether it is the yakety exuberance of Woody Woodpecker or the squeaky-clean sweetness of Mickey Mouse, the gang's all here. And in a real sense, the moviemakers play mankind's foibles against the unflagging high spirits of the cartoon folk. It's a rap that lends a wry, angry undertone, making "Roger Rabbit" much more than a kid's cartoon, a stroke of genius that makes this tenuously integrated movie society seem all the more believable. It's definitely a take on the old Cotton Club, where blacks entertained whites in Harlem this is a Cottontail Club. Jessica is a chanteuse at the Ink and Paint Club, where Betty Boop is a cigarette girl and Ducks Donald and Daffy are double-billed as a piano duet for the humans-only audience. Though both are Toons, this is a mixed marriage. "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way," says Jessica, who is built like a Playboy bunny but otherwise is all woman. Rabbit (the sultry voice is Kathleen Turner's). He begins his investigation, as any sleuth worth his fedora would, with the slinky Mrs. At Roger's behest, Valiant reluctantly takes on that case. Not since "Fatal Attraction" has a bunny been in such a dangerous stew. 1 suspect in the tabloid murder of his wife's admirer. Valiant's snooping eventually implicates the dizzy but adorable Roger, who becomes the No. Maroon hires Valiant to put a tail on her. Vicious gossip about his wife Jessica Rabbit has affected his otherwise extraordinary timing. "Just like a Toon," said the police officer.ĭown on his luck, Valiant breaks his vow never to work for another Toon and takes a quick, dirty job for Maroon Cartoons, whose headliner Roger has been seeing bells instead of stars. He's been drinking his breakfast ever since a Toon killed his brother by dropping a piano on his head. And nobody but the villain of the story has ever heard of a freeway.īob Hoskins, the gruff ex-con of "Mona Lisa," costars as the grieving gumshoe Eddie Valiant, a cross between Elmer Fudd and Columbo. has the best public transit system in the world. Dumbo flies in baby blue skies, but everybody else takes trolleys as L.A. The animated Toons mingle with humans on the sound stages, and cartoon cows line up for back-lot cattle calls. "Roger Rabbit" is cartoon noir, an antic mystery set in Los Angeles in 1947. And Roger, with the panache of Peter, the brass of Bugs and the, well, stage presence of Harvey, is 24-carrot gold - the Woody Allen of the hutch. Coyote and chipper as a flock of cartoon bluebirds. Already, it's a hare's breadth away from legend.Ī mix of live action and animation, the $45 million movie is as cunning as Wile E. Not since Easter has a bunny been so eagerly anticipated as the lovable, lop-eared star of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" - an instant slapstick classic from Disney and Steven Spielberg. ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ (PG) By Rita Kempley This movie won Oscars for Best Sound Effects Editing Editing and Visual Effects Editing.
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