Private investigator Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is hired by cartoon studio owner R. K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern) to look into a rumoured relationship between business owner Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye) and the wife of one of his biggest cartoon stars, Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer).
Eddie reluctantly takes the case; he has issues with ‘toons’, the cartoon inhabitants of the world who live alongside humans (we are in the Hollywood of 1947). A toon killed his brother and business partner, dropping a piano on his head. His only real motivation for taking the case is that he really needs the money; business is slow and bills and debts are high.
Meeting Marvin Acme - the owner of Toontown - in the Ink and Paint Club, Eddie sees Roger’s wife, a toon human named Jessica (voiced by Kathleen Turner). She is incredibly attractive, and incredibly flirtatious, and is in fact cheating on Roger with Marvin, as Eddie proves with a series of surreptitiously taken photographs.
When Roger sees the photos, he is devastated, and runs out of Maroon’s office, saying that he will make sure Jessica doesn’t leave him for Acme.
The next morning, Marvin Acme is found dead, a safe dropped on his head. The self-appointed ruler of Toontown, Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) believes that Roger is responsible, and mounts a manhunt (or should that be rabbit-hunt) for him.
When Eddie returns to his apartment, he finds Roger already there, who needs his help to hide from Judge Doom, who he believes will kill him, using a solution of chemicals simply called ‘dip’ that can actually kill cartoon characters. Against his better judgment, Eddie agrees to hide Roger, all the while investigating the murder himself to try and clear Roger’s name.
The screenplay by Jeffrey Price & Peter S. Seaman is very clever, filled with wonderful characters. The dialogue is littered throughout with plenty of ridiculous cartoon-style puns, and references to classic cartoon moments and classic cartoon characters. The various relationships between the cartoon characters and the human characters are well-detailed, and the whole thing is a lot of fun.
I need to mention the production design here, by Roger Cain and Elliot Scott. The sets and locations are all incredibly detailed, and again full of classic cartoon references, while allowing the human characters to still feel right at home in their environments. I’m sure this was not an easy task, but I’m sure it was a task that was a lot of fun to undertake, and an incredibly rewarding process. Of course, the results speak for themselves.
The performances by the entire cast are fabulous. There are sections where Bob Hoskins’s performance is - in my opinion - lacking, but I’m sure a lot of this stems from the fact that in most scenes, he is playing the scene entirely by himself (as the animation was added in later). Processes like this have become more commonplace in films these days, but in the 1980s it was a relatively new concept, and it can’t have been easy.
The voice cast are also well chosen, and do an amazing job at portraying their various characters. Particularly notable is Fleischer’s performance as Roger, a wonderfully memorable character even now after more than 30 years.
Alan Silvestri’s score is also peppered with classic cartoon motifs woven with deftness into the larger score. In fact, sometimes you don’t even notice that it’s happened until after it’s done, and then it gives you an extra smile of recognition.
Director Robert Zemeckis has created here a wonderfully enjoyable film, that has plenty for younger audiences to enjoy, while at the same time providing an abundance of nostalgic enjoyment for older audiences.
8 out of 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment