Being a private investigator is a tough gig. Hercules Poirot discovered murder everywhere he went. Sherlock Holmes had to take a dive off Reichenbach Falls to stop his arch-nemesis. And Eddie Valiant … well, let’s just say Eddie’s career as a PI has soured his view of the world—particularly the world of cartoons.
See, once upon a time, Eddie and his brother, Teddy, ran a successful private investigator business in Los Angeles, serving as detectives to the stars. They rescued Donald Duck’s nephews, Huey, Louie and Dewey from kidnappers. They found evidence that cleared Goofy of spy charges. And every toon in ToonTown (a cartoon city located adjacent to Hollywood) knew that if they were in trouble, the Valiant brothers were the ones to call.
But while investigating a robbery, a toon purposely dropped a piano on the two brothers, breaking Eddie’s arm and killing Teddy.
Eddie hasn’t been the same since. He stopped working and started drinking. What once made him laugh now makes him scowl. And as far as he’s concerned, the world would be better off without cartoons.
Of course, that all changes when Roger Rabbit, a cartoon star, is accused of murdering Marvin Acme, the owner of ToonTown. The alleged motive? Acme was rumored to be having an affair with Roger’s wife, Jessica.
Roger swears he’s innocent. He knows Jessica would never betray him and that someone must be setting them up. And Eddie, despite his prejudice, is inclined to believe him. After all, Acme’s will, which would have bequeathed ToonTown to the cartoons who live there, has gone missing.
Who would want ToonTown enough to kill Acme for it? And why would they want such a ridiculous place (in Eddie’s opinion) to start with?
Eddie plans to find out. But first, he needs to discover who framed Roger Rabbit.
Roger lives to make people laugh. So when he meets the angry and depressed Eddie, he makes it his goal to cheer Eddie up. And while Eddie scoffs the rabbit’s early attempts, Roger’s constant positivity—even when he’s brought up on murder charges and believes his wife has cheated on him—softens the jaded investigator.
Soon, Eddie finds himself helping Roger not because he was paid to do so, but because it’s the right thing and because Roger has become his friend. And the positive influence of Roger’s friendship becomes most apparent when Eddie decides to dump out a bottle of booze instead of imbibing as he has since his brother’s death.
When some cartoon characters perish, their spirits rise up from their bodies as angelic versions of themselves. A character talks about “raising Cain.”
Jessica Rabbit is a human-looking cartoon with exaggerated female anatomy. She wears a dress that emphasizes these characteristics and often walks and talks in a manner that can only be described as sultry. She sings at a nightclub, and while performing, she flirts with men in the audience by lightly touching them and coming very close to kissing a few of them. Many men, cartoon and human alike, ogle her.
Eddie is hired to take incriminating photos of Jessica with Acme, and we’re meant to think they’re having sex. We hear Acme saying “Patty-Cake” over and over while Jessica responds passionately and a bed squeaks. But when the photos are developed, the pair are, in fact, just playing the hand-clapping game Patty-Cake. Nevertheless, Roger sees this as a huge betrayal, and Jessica later apologizes profusely, explaining how she was coerced and reassuring her husband that she loves him and only him. (She also kisses Roger many times.)
In one scene, Jessica interrupts Eddie at his apartment as he’s changing clothes (he’s shirtless). She tells him how people don’t take her seriously because of her looks and claims that she isn’t “bad” (referring to the assumption that she had an extramarital affair), she’s “just drawn that way.” Unfortunately, Jessica undermines herself a bit by pressing her chest up against Eddie’s, causing him to drop his pants and reveal his underpants. Even more unfortunately, Dolores (Eddie’s old girlfriend who’s helping him hide Roger) walks in right as this happens. A flustered Eddie bends to pick up his pants but bumps his head against Jessica’s bust. Dolores is understandably upset with Eddie, and she later calls Jessica a “painted hussy.”
When Jessica is captured by some cartoon baddies, the leader orders one of his cronies to “frisk” her for weapons. The cartoon happily sticks his arm down her dress but is painfully impeded by a “booby trap,” as someone calls it. Eddie sings a song where one of the lyrics is supposed to say “balls,” but instead of saying the word, Eddie demonstrates it by kicking a male character in the groin.
Eddie and Dolores nearly kiss twice. Dolores wears a dress that shows some cleavage. In one scene, Eddie ducks to avoid danger and grabs Dolores by this part of her dress to pull her down too. We see pictures of the couple at the beach, with Dolores in a 1940s swimsuit.
Betty Boop is another human-looking cartoon. And although her feminine attributes aren’t quite as prominent as Jessica’s, she wears a short dress that reveals a garter. Eddie mistakes a cartoon woman for Jessica because of her silhouette, and when he investigates, the woman chases after him, trying to kiss him.
Roger kisses Eddie on the mouth in an attempt to make him laugh. Later, Eddie does the same, though neither of these actions is meant to be anything but humorous.
Baby Herman (a cartoon who looks like a baby but talks and acts like a grown man) says he has the “lust” of a 50-year-old man and the “dinky” of a 3-year-old. A male character smacks a woman on her rear. A knife flying through the air narrowly (and pointedly) misses Roger’s groin. A woman jokingly asks Eddie a sexually charged question when Roger hides in Eddie’s suit, causing the clothing to bulge in a private area.
Cartoons do what cartoons do. They fall off buildings, crash cars, smash their heads and beat each other up, all without suffering a scratch. And when Eddie ventures into ToonTown, he becomes subject to the cartoon world’s laws of physics, experiencing many injuries that should have been fatal, but which don’t do much more than frighten the man.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said outside of ToonTown. While cartoons are still impervious, humans are not. We hear that Teddy Valiant was killed when a piano fell on his head. A chalk outline shows where a safe dropped onto Acme’s head (and his body is rolled away on a gurney covered with a sheet). And a few other characters are fatally shot.
Judge Doom, who presides over ToonTown and wants to convict Roger of murder, develops a method of killing cartoons called the “Dip.” He demonstrates its power by dipping a cartoon shoe (which appears to be a sentient being) into the substance, melting and effectively killing it. Several other characters are also killed or injured by the Dip.
We also learn that cartoons can die from laughing too much. The Weasels, Judge Doom’s cartoon cronies, are repeatedly warned that if they continue to laugh, they’ll die, just like their hyena cousins. (And we indeed see a few of the weasels perish after they’re unable to stop laughing.)
Eddie kicks a stool out from underneath a man, causing him to hit his chin on a counter. He then threatens the man and stuffs a hard-boiled egg into his mouth. Eddie roughs up a few other characters as well, often threatening them too. And he repeatedly yanks Roger’s ears. (Roger is also repeatedly grabbed by his throat by several different characters fed up with his antics.)
The Weasels are a raucous bunch who threaten folks with baseball bats, knives and guns as they carry out “justice.” There are several fistfights, car crashes, and other silly moments of peril synonymous with cartoons that result in zero permanent injuries. A cartoon character’s hand is snapped by a bear trap. Another cartoon is kicked in the groin. Jessica slaps Eddie across the face.
[Spoiler Warning] A human character gets flattened by a steamroller, and we spot him screaming and twitching as he’s presumably killed. However, it turns out he’s a toon wearing a rubber mask and glass eyeballs. As he reinflates his body, his eyes pop out, revealing red, demonic-looking orbs in their place. We learn this is the cartoon who killed Eddie’s brother and that he has maniacal plans to wipe out ToonTown forever with the Dip.
We hear six uses of “h—,” a few of “d–n,” and singular uses of “a–,” “b–ch” and “b–tard.” God’s name is also misused a couple of times. We also hear “darn,” “idiot” and “stupid,” which some parents may not want their kiddos repeating. And Eddie washes a cartoon weasel’s mouth out with soap after the character says “cut the bull shtick.” And a cartoon cat says that Eddie wasn’t a “p—y.”
Eddie drinks heavily throughout the film, and his reputation has been sullied for it. (Someone asks if he changed his name to “Jack Daniels.”) However, working to put a bad guy behind bars (combined with Roger’s positive influence) convinces Eddie to lay off the hooch and restore his good name.
Many characters drink and smoke. Some kids share their cigarettes with Eddie. A few characters besides Eddie get drunk. Baby Herman (who looks like an infant but talks and acts like a grown man) smokes a cigar. When Roger drinks alcohol, his body reacts wildly, simulating a train whistle.
Dolores hides Roger in a secret room of the bar she works in, telling him it used to be a speakeasy during the prohibition era.
Characters lie, cheat and are often rude or mocking to one another. We hear that Judge Doom bought his election. A cartoon car is arrested for driving on a sidewalk.
Women are called several condescending names associated with the 1940s time period, including “toots,” “dame,” “doll” and “broad.” Eddie insults a gorilla cartoon several times, making mocking ape gestures and sounds (all of which could be perceived as racist). A cartoon bullet portrays a racial stereotype of a Native American.
Daffy Duck (of Looney Tunes) and Donald Duck (of Disney) exchange several insults regarding each other’s speech impediments, which is played for humor here.
In a TV show, a woman threatens to send Roger Rabbit “back to the science lab,” referencing animal experimentation. A cartoon wears a straightjacket.
Eddie and some kids sneak onto the back of a trolley because they can’t afford the fare. Eddie tosses his overdue bills in the trash. (He’s also in debt to Dolores, who could lose her job if he doesn’t pay her back.) We hear that a man was unjustly laid off.
When a cartoon’s rear is set on fire, he exclaims, “My biscuits are burning!”
Who Framed Roger Rabbit premiered in theaters in 1988. And we’re covering it now as part of our attempt to revisit some classic films that came out before Plugged In existed.
Well, the biggest thing I have to say here is that PG-rated films in 1988 were not quite as PG as one would hope.
The movie is clever and funny, juxtaposing classic 1940s cartoons with a film noir-style detective. But it’s also deeply problematic on several levels.
First, there’s Roger Rabbit’s wife, femme fatale Jessica Rabbit. The cartoon is “the ultimate male fantasy, drawn by a cartoonist,” said animator Richard Williams. Besides her exaggerated female attributes, there’s also plenty of innuendo surrounding her character. The creators try to get a few laughs by placing Eddie and some other characters in questionable situations with her. And while her “innocent” game of patty-cake with Marvin Acme will go over the heads of younger viewers, the scene’s undertones are deeply sexual—and purposely so.
There’s also quite a bit of violence. Now, of course, we’ve been watching animated fight scenes and deaths practically since their creation. (The death of the Evil Queen in Disney’s Snow White no doubt frightened many a child.) However, since this movie brings fictional animated characters to the real world, it could open some scary new doors for youngsters. A cartoon killed Eddie’s brother by dropping a piano on his head. Another killed Acme by dropping a safe. So I wouldn’t be surprised if a young child watching this started having nightmares about Goofy and his pals.
And speaking of nightmares, the film’s villain, Judge Doom, while played brilliantly by Christopher Lloyd, is one creepy dude. (And the cartoon that killed Eddie’s brother is practically demonic.)
In addition to all of that, there’s also quite a bit of language (albeit, on the milder side) and a multitude of insensitive and inappropriate jokes (mostly leaning towards racism and sexism). Not to mention the fact that Eddie Valiant is an alcoholic through most of the film (and we see some kids share their cigarettes with him).
I wish that I had a better report to give, especially since I remember enjoying this film as a youth. But alas, Who Framed Roger Rabbit perhaps should be retitled Who Thought This Was PG?
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
