Murder, Mystery & That's All, Folks!

Today's movie recommendation is a breakthrough in Hollywood history: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) staring Bob Hoskins as Detective Eddie Valiant, as well as all of the beloved Disney and Warner Brother's cartoons. Picture below.

The story takes place in Los Angeles (Hollywood) in 1947. The main character, Eddie Valiant, is a drunk private detective who is offered a job from R.K. Maroon (the owner of Maroon Cartoons) to take dirty pictures of Jessica Rabbit, the wife of the star, Roger Rabbit. Eddie hesitates at first, saying that he doesn't work with toons (we learn later that this is because his brother/partner was killed by a toon), but finally accepts when Maroon promises him he wont have to go to Toontown (a cartoon world where most toons reside). Later, Eddie goes to a night club called The Ink & Paint Club, where toons are both the entertainment and the staff. As Eddie enters the main room, a man in a crazy plaid suit turns around and sprays ink from his pen on Eddie's shirt. Furious, Eddie grabs the man only to find out that he is Marvin Acme (the guy who creates all of the gag toys) and that it was disappearing ink that was spilled on his shirt (now gone). Marvin informs Eddie that Jessica is about to perform and Eddie watches Roger's stunningly sexual wife enter the stage and sing to the lusty male audience. After the show is over, Eddie exits to the alleyway where he snaps some "dirty" pictures of Jessica and Marvin. Upon receiving Eddie's pictures, Maroon shows them to Roger, who explodes in a jealous rage and escapes through Maroon's window (leaving a Roger-shaped hole in the glass). The next morning Marvin Acme is found dead and Roger is the main suspect, but no one can find him... that is, until Eddie finds him in his flat claiming he was framed and pleading for help. The rest of the movie consists of Eddie's search for who framed Roger Rabbit.

This is a movie you can watch over and over again and always find something new. The amount of detail that is put into it is unbelievable. It actually appears believable that the toons are interacting with the actors and their surroundings. Don't let the cartoons fool you,this is not a movie for young children. Adults will definitely appreciate this film. The jazzy music, the period cars and costumes, and the multiple sexual references gives the movie a real 1940's detective feel. Although many of the toons present in the film did not actually exist until after 1947, it still is fun to see all of them again but this time just walking around "behind the scenes".

Fun facts:
- In the night club scene, the effects for Jessica's sparkly dress was created by filtering light through a plastic bag scratched with steel wool.
- Benny the cab was originally planned to be a Volkswagen Bug instead of a Taxi.
- Judge Doom's weasel gang is a satire of Snow White's seven dwarfs.
- The directer, Robert Zemeckis, compared Judge Doom's "dip" to Hitler's Final Solution.
- The rights were not acquired to use Popeye, Tom & Jerry or the Terrytoons.
- Mime artists, puppeteers, mannequins, and robotic arms were all used to help the actors interact with the "toons".
- The movie made a total of $329.8 million worldwide, which at the time was the 20th highest grossing film of all time and was the second highest grossing film of the year after Rain Man.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit? won Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Film Editing.
- Walt Disney Imagineering began to plan Mickey's Toontown for Disneyland in 1991.
- In 1994 it was discovered that on the Lazerdisc edition of the movie that viewers could slow down the film enough to find subliminal pictures of Jessica Rabbit in the nude. This would not show up at the normal playing rate of 24 film frames per second, but the Lazerdisc player allowed viewers to slow down the frames. Many people complained about this saying it was inappropriate. A Disney executive responded by saying that people need to get lives if they find stuff like that, and that it was a trick put in by the animators which they didn't know existed and that it would never show up if people watched it normally. Another controversial second in the movie is when Bsby Herman goes under a woman's dress and comes out (supposedly) with is middle finger up and drool on his lip.

This movie is rated PG, but I would give it at PG-9 (ok for kids over 9). Yes, there are a lot of sexual references, but a lot of them go right over kids' heads. Kids enjoy seeing all of the characters and love the mystery aspect of the story. There are some parts that are pretty dark and the ending scene with the villain has been known to scare younger kids, so only kids over 9 or at least take the advice of the given rating and give Parental Guidance.

Link to the trailer