Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a theatrical animated/live-action hybrid feature film, written by Jeffrey Price and Peter Seaman and directed by Robert Zemeckis, Richard Williams and Darrell Van Citters. It features Roger Rabbit, Eddie Valiant, Baron Von Rotten, Jessica Rabbit, the Toon Patrol, Benny the Cab, Baby Herman, Marvin Acme, Dolores, R. K. Maroon, Angelo, Teddy Valiant, Lieutenant Santino, the Toontown Sun, Bongo, Toon Donald Duck, Daffy Duck, Toon Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, Lena Hyena, Betty Boop, the Toon Bullets and many more miscellaneous Toons.
Plot[]
Hollywood, 1947. Human private eye Eddie Valiant (who has hated Toons ever since an unknown Toon murdered his beloved brother) gets tangled up in the mystery of the murder of Marvin Acme, for whom lovable Toon rabbit Roger Rabbit has been framed. It's the beginning of a physics-defying adventure featuring chilling judges, loathsome weasels and enamoured singers…
Behind the scenes[]
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released in 1988 (under the Touchstone Pictures label because Warner Bros. was uncomfortable with the Looney Tunes cast appearing in a self-proclaimed Disney film).
The film is very loosely based on the first-ever Toon Noir novel, Gary K. Wolf's Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, though beyond a few characters the two stories are basically unrelated (to cite a few of the outlandish details in the book, the Toons are comic strip actors, not cartoon ones; Jessica Rabbit is a morally-bankrupt vamp who never really loved Roger; and a Genie is integral to the mystery's solution).
A first draft of a Disney adaptation was completed between 1981 and 1983, featuring completely different designs and cast members (that version's design for Roger Rabbit famously made a cameo in the cartoon Soccermania), such as Paul Reubens as Roger and June Foray as Jessica Rabbit, only to be shelved. The project was only reopened in 1985. An ant