Hvem snørrede Roger Rabbit
There is a small subgenre of movies that mix animation and
live action. In an era where CGI makes up a significant portion of almost any
movie, you could argue that this is not really a genre anymore, except where
the animated part is supposed to look animated. Essentially cartoon characters
mixed in with live action. The most famous among these and in my opinion the
best (I have not yet watched “Coyote vs. Acme”) is “Who framed Roger Rabbit. I
was in ninth grade when it came out and it was all the rage among us youngsters
who wanted to be seen as adults, but still at heart were children.
In a version of 1947 Los Angeles where cartoon characters
are not just something you watch on the screen, but actual actors that live and
breathe in their own territory, Toontown, private detective Eddie Valiant (Bob
Hoskins) got a job to dig up some dirt on Jessica Rabbit (voice acted by
Kathleen Turner. Studio owner R.K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern) is convinced that
Jessica’s husband Roger Rabbit (voice acted by Charles Fleischer) is performing
poorly because of her extra-marital activities. Eddie is reluctant as he does
not want to work with ‘Toons, his brother was killed by one (got a piano on his
head), but he needs the money. This sounds like a classic opening for a Phillp
Marlowe story and that is exactly what it is supposed to be, except Raymond
Chandler never wrote in cartoon characters.
True to form, there is a deeper plot that is only gradually
revealed, and nothing is what it looks like. Marvin Acme (yes, that Acme) (Stubby
Kaye) is a stiff showing up. Jessica Rabbit is that Dame that may or may not be
a lot more than she looks like. Except being “more” than she is, is not
physically possible. Behind everything is a villain as sinister as any Chandler
could have dreamed up. Dr. Doom is exactly that, a representative of doom, and
Christopher Lloyd gives him exactly that sort of madness we recognize so well
from “Back to the Future”.
There is no way this would not end up being silly, but it is
a silliness the movie embraces. The Toons are wacky, exactly the way we know them
from the classic shorts, but they are also integrated into this world and fleshed
out to be a little more than their silly selves. Daffy and Donald Duck work in
a club where their show always involves them fighting a war on each other. Roger
Rabbit and Baby Herman film a classic short, but offscreen Baby Herman is a
cigar smoking adult in a baby’s body who hit on the girls. Of course, a lot of
this makes absolutely no sense. The movie does not even begin to explain why
there are these cartoon characters walking around. It simply accepts that this
is the way it is and asks us to do they same. The raison d’etre of the Toons is
to make us laugh, both in the world of the movie and for us, the audience.
It is funny, once you accept the world. Maybe not as funny
as I thought back in the day, but judging from my son’s reaction, who is of the
same age I was back then, this is actually holding up quite well. Anybody who
loves the classic shorts will find their favourite characters here. Knowing
this is a Disney production, this could have stuck with the various Disney
casts, but it includes a lot from many of the other productions, especially
those of Looney Tunes. Cameos mostly, but so many of them that they are more
than just flavour.
Maybe the most impressive element of “Who Framed Roger
Rabbit” is how the live action cast manages to keep a straight face to all the
silliness that surrounds them. This could so easily have washed out in an “everybody
are crazy” scenario, but with very few exceptions the cast takes this serious enough
for it to work. Silly characters desperately need a non-silly world to be silly
in, otherwise they are not funny. Today it is standard that actors need to
imagine the world they are in or the characters they are playing against when
they are filming on greenscreen where computer generated opponents will only be
added later, but in 1988 this was a weird situation for the actors and seeing how
well they cope with that is impressive. Bob Hoskins especially manages this
very well.
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was nominated for seven technical
Academy Awards and won four of them. While it missed the big ones, I still
think this is pretty good, it is an impressive movie. What really matters,
though, is that it still works for its target group. That is not a given thing.
