Brian Sibley reviews the Disney-Speilberg smash-hit, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Roger Rabbit is an anarchist. Probably because he’s a Toon and comes from Toontown, where all the tedious restraints of real life – from gravity to commonsense – are non-existent, and where the only laws are those of mayhem and madness…
Hollywood, 1947: in a gloomy room behind a seedy bar, private detective Eddie Valiant is handcuffed to a three-foot high rabbit in red dungarees and a blue-and-yellow spotted bow-tie. Leaning on a rickety crate, Eddie struggles to free himself with a hacksaw.
The rabbit – number one star of the R.K. Maroon cartoon studio – slips off the handcuff in order to hold the box steady. Eddie stops sawing and gazes with open-mouthed incredulity into Roger Rabbit’s crazy-blue eyes. “You mean you could have taken your hand out of that handcuff at any time?” he asks. “Not at any time,” replies Roger, “only when it was funny!”
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (without a question-mark and without a doubt) is a movie-phenomenon. The loony, lop-eared rabbit and his Toontown chums – some new creations, some old stagers like Mickey Mouse, and Daffy Duck – have smashed all American box-office records and, after eighteen weeks in the top ten, has earned the Disney-Spielberg studios over $145 million.
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