Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988 film)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 live action/animated fantasy comedy film, produced by Touchstone Pictures, Amblin Entertainment and Silver Screen Partners III, that combines animation and live action. The film takes place in a fictionalized Los Angeles in 1947, where animated characters (always referred to as "Toons") are real beings who live and work alongside humans in the real world, most of them as actors in animated cartoons. At $70 million, it was one of the most expensive films ever at the time of its release, but it proved a sound investment that eventually brought in over $150 million during its original theatrical release. The film is notable for offering a unique chance to see many cartoon characters from different studios interacting in a single film and for being one of the last appearances by voice artists Mel Blanc and Mae Questel from animation's Golden Era.

Plot
The movie opens, innocently and deceptively, as a Baby Herman short subject, which in the realm of this film is revealed to be a "live action" slapstick short in the midst of production (after the manner of The Three Stooges). This introduces the film's title character, who plays the supporting comic foil to infant cartoon star (actually a grown man who appears to be a baby) Baby Herman. In the movie's milieu, cartoon characters are a cohabiting sapient species alongside human beings, though unlike them, are unbounded by the laws of physics when it's funny. Eventually, it is revealed that Marvin Acme, the owner of the Acme Company and of Toontown, has been murdered. All signs point to Roger Rabbit, a Toon star at Maroon Cartoons, who had recently been shown evidence that Acme and Roger's wife, Jessica Rabbit, a sexy Toon femme fatale (uncredited speaking voice by Kathleen Turner, singing voice by Amy Irving), had been playing pattycake together (literally) — this is tantamount to infidelity in the eyes of a Toon.

The only person who can help clear Roger's name is Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), a washed-up, alcoholic detective who hates Toons because his brother, Teddy, was murdered by a Toon during a routine criminal investigation in Toontown years before when a piano was dropped on his head. Eddie is reluctantly forced into helping when Roger hides in his apartment, and soon finds himself shielding Roger from Judge Doom of the Toontown District Superior Court (Christopher Lloyd) and his "Toon Patrol" henchmen, a group of weasels: Smartass, Greasy, Psycho, Stupid, and Wheezy.

Meanwhile, Doom's giant Cloverleaf Corporation is plotting to buy out the interurban railway, the Pacific-Electric, nicknamed "the Red Trolleys," and replace it with freeways (based on the General Motors streetcar conspiracy and National City Lines, the effort to replace trolleys with buses across the country). With Acme dead and no will having been found, Toontown is in danger of being bulldozed in order to make way for the freeway.

Eddie and Roger must find the will of the late Marvin Acme, which purportedly gives ownership of Toontown to the Toons, as per Acme’s solemn oath. Judge Doom is also trying to find the will in order to dispose of it, so he can destroy Toontown and build his freeway where the place once stood, making himself a profit out of the deal. If any Toons happen to get in his way, Judge Doom feels no qualms about subjecting them to the "dip": a mixture he’s concocted of acetone, benzene, and turpentine – the only sure way to kill a Toon.

Eddie goes to the studios of Maroon Cartoons, Roger's employer, to help clear the rabbit's name. There he speaks to R. K. Maroon, who is shot during the confrontation. Thinking the shooter to be Jessica Rabbit, playing Roger for a patsy, Eddie chases the assassin all the way into Toontown, despite his trepidation; Eddie has not set foot in Toontown since brother Teddy’s demise. There Eddie discovers that the assassin was actually Judge Doom, who manages to kidnap Jessica, and later Roger, so he can "dip" them.

In the film's climax, set in the Acme Warehouse, Judge Doom spews "dip" from a huge machine and tries to eradicate Roger and his wife, Jessica. He reveals his plans to then use his "dip" vehicle to erase Toontown. To combat Doom's weasel henchmen, the normally hard-nosed Eddie plays a clown (not completely out of character, as the audience has been shown a photo of him and his brother working for Ringling Brothers earlier in the film), causing the weasels to die of laughter – evidently another way to kill a Toon (or at least, specifically, the weasels). During the final battle with Eddie, Judge Doom is revealed to be a Toon himself after a steam roller flattens him, and he reinflates by using an air tank, revealing his Toon features. To Eddie's horror, Doom then reveals himself to be not just any Toon, but the very one who murdered Eddie's brother, then he fights Eddie by creating all sorts of tools – buzzsaws, anvils, and springs, which are lethal - from his hands and feet.

Just when it seems that Judge Doom will get the upper hand, Eddie uses a scissor-spring-loaded punch-glove mallet to knock open the drain valve on the "dip" machine. Judge Doom is drenched with "dip" and melts away, screaming "I'm melting!" in obvious reference to the climactic scene in The Wizard of Oz. Eddie frees Roger and Jessica, but the "dip" machine breaks through the wall, and enters Toontown. Fortunately, it is plowed into by a passenger train almost instantly and is rendered harmless.

The police soon arrive, and realize that Judge Doom was responsible for the murders of Maroon, Acme, and Eddie Valiant's brother Teddy, though no one knows for sure who he was under his rubber-mask disguise. Marvin Acme's will is found (Acme wrote it in "disappearing re-appearing ink" and Roger used the "blank" paper to write Jessica a love letter), and Toontown is handed over to the control of the Toons, who all cheer and sing a chorus of "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile."

Cast

 * Bob Hoskins as Eddie Valiant
 * Christopher Lloyd as Judge Doom
 * Joanna Cassidy as Dolores
 * Stubby Kaye as Marvin Acme
 * Alan Tilvern as R.K. Maroon
 * Richard LeParmentier as Lt. Santino
 * Joel Silver as Raoul J. Raoul (the director)
 * Richard Ridings as Angelo (impudent bar patron)
 * Edwin Craig as Arthritic Cowboy/Man in Bar
 * Lindsay Holiday as Soldier in Bar
 * Mike Edmonds as Stretch
 * Danny Capri as Kid #1 (as Danny Kapri)
 * Christopher Hollosy as Kid #2
 * John-Paul Sipla as Kid #3
 * Laura Frances as Blonde Starlet
 * Joel Cutrara as Forensic #1
 * Billy J. Mitchell as Forensic #2
 * Eric B. Sindon as Mailman
 * Ed Herlihy as Newscaster
 * Eugene Guirterrez as Teddy Valiant (still photographs)

Voice Cast

 * Charles Fleischer as Roger Rabbit (voice)
 * Lou Hirsch as Baby Herman (voice)
 * Kathleen Turner as Jessica Rabbit (speaking) (voice) (uncredited)
 * Amy Irving as Jessica Rabbit (singing) (voice)
 * Betsy Brantley as Jessica's performance model
 * April Winchell as Mrs. Herman, screen mother (voice)
 * James C. Collins as Benny the Cab (voice)
 * Mae Questel as Betty Boop (voice)
 * Morgan Deare as Editor (voice)
 * Tom Hiddleston as Bongo the Gorilla (voice)
 * Mel Blanc as Daffy Duck (voice)
 * Anna Paquin as Tweety Pie (voice)
 * Joe Alaskey as Bugs Bunny (voice)
 * Jeff Bergman as Sylvester (voice)
 * Bob Bergen as Porky Pig (voice)
 * Tony Anselmo as Donald Duck (voice)
 * Mary T. Radford as Toon Hippo on Street (voice)
 * Billy West as Yosmite Sam (voice)
 * Joe Alaskey as Foghorn Leghorn (voice)
 * David L. Lander as Smart Ass (head weasel) (voice) (as David Lander)
 * Andrew Lincoln as Wheezy (weasel) (voice)
 * Mark Zuckerberg as Greasy (weasel) (voice)
 * Mark Ruffalo as Psycho (weasel) (voice)
 * June Foray as Lena Hyena (voice)
 * Russi Taylor as Minnie Mouse (voice)
 * Steven Yeun as Toontown Bluebirds (voice)
 * Les Perkins as Toad (voice)
 * Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse (voice)
 * Jim Gallant as Bullet #1 (voice)
 * Jim Cummings as Bullet #2 (voice)
 * Pat Buttram as Bullet #3 (voice)
 * Andrew Robinson as Andy Devine (voice)
 * Sam Raimi as Additional Weasels (voice)
 * Frank Sinatra as Singing Sword (voice) (archive recording)
 * Tony Pope as Goofy (voice)
 * Peter Westy as Pinocchio (voice)
 * Marton Csokas as Big Bad Wolf (voice)