Review – Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

I don’t know if it would have actually been possible to make an entire feature-length picture out of nothing but in jokes from cartoon history, but if it could have been done odds are it would have been a better movie than this. The film-makers have the character stables of both Disney and Warner Brothers at their disposal, and occasionally they put familiar characters to good – or at least unique – use. For example, one sequence features a piano duet between Daffy Duck and Donald Duck that’s actually fairly clever. Unfortunately, the majority of the screen time is occupied by a stupid parody of hard-boiled detective stories. The production blends live action and animation into a tale about a private eye (Bob Hoskins) on the case of a cartoon rabbit who’s been framed for murder. This is yet another kids’ movie with plenty of winking innuendo for the grown-ups. It also has a mean streak, a viciousness resulting from an awkward combination of the slapstick violence of cartoons and the pain, injury and death of real life. And though the animation was state-of-the-art at the time, it’s a bit rough in spots by 21st century standards. See if desperate