Who Framed Roger Rabbit

When Who Framed Roger Rabbit first came to theaters in 1988, I was three years old.  As far back as I can remember, my family had a copy of the movie on VHS, and it was regularly in the VCR.  There are many scenes I can play back in my memory like a favorite song, complete with cartoon sound effects.  I’ve always loved this movie, but never realized what a technical achievement it was, or that it was my introduction to film noir, for nearly twenty years.

In 1940s Los Angeles, Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is a private detective who used to take cases for toons.  You know, cartoon characters, most of them live in Toon Town, like most Hollywood stars might live in Beverly Hills.  After Eddie does a job taking some incriminating photos of Roger Rabbit’s wife with Marvin Acme the same night that Acme is murdered, Roger becomes the prime suspect.  Ready to sentence him to a dip (which kills toons), is Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd), a dark and menacing gargoyle of a villain.  Working with him is a bumbling bunch of toon gangster-like weasels who often lose focus when something funny happens.  When Roger turns to Eddie for help, complete with an alibi for his innocence, the two uncover a plot that could destroy Toon Town and turn LA into the traffic-filled city that it is today.

Roger Rabbit is a unique cartoon character.  Physically, he looks like an odd combination of Mickey Mouse (similar red pants and gloves) and Bugs Bunny (same species).  However, he is a whole different kind of character.  He’s goofy, much more clown like, not very intelligent, makes his living off physical comedy (when he can get his cues right) and surprisingly, his wife is the hottest babe in LA.

Though Jessica Rabbit is a toon in this live action world, she attracts the attention of countless men, not the animated kind.  Her opening scene shows throngs of men anxiously awaiting her next stage performance, the way they’re drooling you wouldn’t expect a toon’s shapely leg to slip through the curtain.  Throughout the film, she is the main source of sex appeal, with all her drawn curves and boob-bouncing timpani sound effects.  Happily, she’s also a strong supporting character and a woman who can take care of herself.  She’s not bad, she’s just drawn that way.

At the Oscars, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was nominated for six awards total and ended up winning four, including a special achievement award.  The film was nominated for best cinematography, sound and art direction.  It won awards for sound effects, visual effects and film editing.  The extra award was for the animation director, Richard Williams, in his achievement in creating and directing the animated characters within the film.

Some amazing bits of movie magic in the film happen when the toons interact with the objects around them.  As a kid, I never questioned if the toons were really there or not, it was all so fluid and natural.  I was about twelve before I started trying to figure out how the toons could pick up real life objects.  We see a Donald and Daffy playing pianos, baby Herman smoking a cigar, Roger breaking plates over his head and much more.  To show the toons interact with the things around them, puppets and robots were used in some scenes, and the animation was carefully put over whichever device caused the movement.  In the late 80s, quite a lot of creative ingenuity went into the effects, that could easily be done with computers today.

The greatest moments of the film are when real life characters and toons interact so well.  A saxophonist playing outside the film studio and the booms from Fantasia sweeping around him is flawless and natural.  Baby Herman harasses the woman pushing his buggy, even slapping her butt as she leaves.  It is Eddie’s interactions between Roger and Jessica that really bring the film together.  One of my favorite scenes is when Eddie has to hide Roger after he handcuffed them together.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a wonderfully fun and hilarious film that kids and adults can enjoy together.  This is one of the films that I have only grown to love more since I was a child.  Everyone will get a kick out of all their favorite classic cartoons walking around their real world.  Gags that may have been too childish for adults are much more accessible with Eddie and other adults reacting to them.  Adults have plenty of jokes sprinkled around just for them that are so fluid and flawless the kids won’t feel left out even when the punchline flies right over their head.

“Is that a rabbit in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“Which one of you nuts has got any guts?”

That’s R.P McMurphy, the newest member of Nurse Ratchet’s mental ward.  He was transferred from the penitentiary because he wasn’t cooperating, but he’s just a live-wire, not crazy.  Most of it is an act, he hoots like a gorilla and climbs on the orderlies at first, but once he sees his ward-mates McMurphy starts to enjoy the entertainment around him.  But there’s one person there ruining his good time; Nurse Ratchet.  McMurphy rallies his ward-mates around him to rebel against the cold-hearted nurse and feel some freedom, if only for a little while.

Jack Nicholson pours so much energy into playing R.P. McMurphy it feels like he can bend the entire ward with just the raise of an eyebrow.  He’s perfectly cocky, rebellious and knows how to mold the patients, but can’t get Nurse Ratchet to budge.  When he’s denied simple wishes, like watching a baseball game, he pretends to watch a baseball game, yelling and cheering while narrating the game to his comrades.  It’s hard to keep him down.  And that’s why he won Best Actor

Nurse Ratchet, played by Louise Fletcher is a worthy adversary and also brought home the Lead Actress Oscar.  She holds all the power and has this creepy sense of control over all the men in the ward.  When she scolds with her fierce eyes, it can freeze the men in their tracks and make your hair stand up.  Her face is eerily placid and void of emotion, and next to so many colorful characters she looks especially blank and wicked.  The way she talks to the men and keeps them down is so cold and clinical, she won’t even let them watch a baseball game.

One of the funnest thing about this film is the variety of crazy people in the ward, and a few familiar faces just getting their start on Cuckoo’s Nest.  There’s an always smiling Danny Devito as Mr. Martini, Christopher Lloyd as Tabor, who enjoys bullying paranoid Harding and Brad Dourif makes his debut (and a supporting actor nomination) as the sweet stuttering young Billy.  Along with the budding stars are unforgettable extras (where IMDB claims some of them to be real mental patients.)  I always love when the old man in the wheel chair gets to go swimming; his reaction is just so genuine and wonderful, does anyone know if he was a real patient?

My favorite scene is the later group therapy scene, where Cheswick (Sydney Lassick) throws a tantrum for his cigarettes.  It’s where the power struggle between McMurphy’s riled companions and Nurse Ratchet it being pulled to a near snap.  The scene stars with Ratchet trying to run her usual quiet group therapy session, arguments flare up and by the end everyone is freaking out.  It’s utter chaos with poor Cheswick sounding like an angry toddler yelling, “I want something done!”

I cannot recommend One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest enough.  Those who’ve read the book may be a little upset at how different the two mediums are, author Ken Kesey was so upset that he’s made it a point to never watch the film.  Yet AFI has ranked this as #20 in their top 100 films.  On top of the awards for the actors, Cuckoo’s Nest took home top honors for adapted screenplay, director and picture.  The course language brings the film to an R rating (and provides some of the best lines), but if you watch it on T.V. (AMC plays it quite often) it’s edited to a PG-13.