It’s almost impossible to create a sense of wonder in movies now because we know too much about how they’re made. Who Framed Roger Rabbit flies in the face of that statement. I know the mix of live action and animated characters was done with a lot of wires, puppetry and other special effects but it’s all so quick and varied that you start to take it for granted. It’s not seamless, but the number of shots where it doesn’t work I can count on one hand. This is remarkable for a decades-old film which has animated characters in a real car chasing real people in an animated taxi.
That’s the trick, and the reason why Robert Zemeckis was the perfect man for the job. This film does not cut corners for the sake of making it easy. Animated characters are constantly handling real props and interacting with a real set. Then there’s the lengthy sequence where Bob Hoskins’ Eddie Valiant chases the bad guy through the fully animated Toontown. There’s a bar with penguin waiters and an octopus bartender, and it all looks great. The 2D is given an extra layer of magic through the noir-tinged lighting, something that’s very difficult to capture. I love the moment where Valiant saws free of his handcuffs in a room with a swinging overhead lamp. The lighting on him is sweet, but getting the same effect on Roger, that’s the extra mile this film always goes for.
Into that world we get a great semi-noir plot of blackmail and murder and a hilarious comedy that satirizes cartoon conventions (“Shave and a haircut.”) as we watch them play out in the real world. The actors all do a fine job, but special mention to Christopher Lloyd in his most unique performance. As the creepy, odd-looking Judge Doom he’s menacing from his first shot. Lloyd finds the perfect tone for his character, someone with one foot in the toon world and the other very much in the real one. It also brings logic to his loony master plan, and only Lloyd can sing the praises of a freeway with the hilariously ironic line, “My God, it’ll be beautiful.”
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