Roger Rabbit: Book vs. Movies
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
Television’s most famous rabbit is a cartoon cornerstone. Iconic, to say the least.
Bugs Bunny evaded Elmer Fudd, frustrated Daffy Duck, and provided hours of entertainment.
Without Looney Tunes’ Bugs Bunny, we likely would not have another cartoon rabbit, one who hit the silver screen in the summer of 1988 supported by Bugs, Daffy, and dozens of other Toontown citizens.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is based on Gary K. Wolf’s 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? The film opened the door for Disney to restore its animated film division to the glory days of yore.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? opens with a brief jazz music introduction consisting of a bass and piano. It culminates with a saxophone at the title’s appearance. The introduction sets the tone for the film, a unique introduction to the detective genre set in 1947.
Recalling moviegoing days gone by, a cartoon short precedes the main feature.
Somethin’s Cookin features Baby Herman and sidekick Roger Rabbit, two of Maroon Cartoons’ brightest stars. Looney Tunes’ title sequence heavily influences the title sequence in Somethin’s Cookin.
Fictional director Raoul J. Raoul helms the story. It is chock full of dangers caused by Baby Herman and experienced by his easily distracted rabbit babysitter. The hijinks begin when Roger tries to get a cookie from the top of the refrigerator.
The Acme brand name familiar in Looney Tunes cartoons graces the kitchen: Acme Deadly House Poision, Acme Chili Sauce Extra Hot, Acme Toastamatic, Acme Suck-O-Lux vacuum cleaner.
Harry McCracken addresses Somethin’s Cookin and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in Animato #17 (Winter 1988) in his article Rabbit Season.
Somethin’s Cookin is one of the most elaborate cartoons of its kind ever made; in fact it’s its lavishness that gives away its identity as a modern, big-budget production. Roger, for instance, casts an animated reflection on the kitchen’s well-scrubbed checkerboard floor, something even Disney characters rarely did. More noticeably, the cartoon features incredibly sophisticated use of the camera, with more shifting perspectives, animated backgrounds, and other tricks than have probably ever been crammed into five minutes of animation before.
These modern techniques don’t really detract from the intended effect, which is to pile as much frenetic, breathless gags and action into a short cartoon as conceivably possible. This is something better than a mere imitation of a classic Hollywood cartoon: it’s an over-the-top parody that caricatures the excesses of the genre with loving detail.
Somethin’s Cookin transitions into the main story when Roger sees birds instead of stars at the climactic moment of the refrigerator falling on him. When Raoul gets angry at Roger for blowing his cue, we see that animated characters (‘toons’) co-exist with humans as a separate species. But they do not receive equal treatment. At least not by Eddie Valiant, a down-and-out gumshoe.
Studio boss R. K. Maroon hires Eddie for a case in his lavish office decorated with posters of other Maroon Cartoons (Pistol Packin Possum, Herman’s Shermans).
Maroon’s silly rabbit can’t keep his mind on his work. The problem? A woman. His wife. The sexy, sophisticated, sassy, sleek, smart, sensual, singing sensation of the Ink & Paint Club -- Jessica Rabbit.
Maroon wants to prove to Roger that Jessica’s cheating on him so Roger can achieve closure and get his mind back on his work. Maroon offers Eddie $100 for the job. With no steady or even spotty source of income on the horizon, the grizzled detective takes the case.
Eddie celebrates by going to the Terminal Station Bar, his hangout and the employ of his long-suffering ex-girlfriend and ex-assistant Dolores. This character device appeared in another detective film with a showbiz theme -- rock and roll instead of cartoons. In the 1990 film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, Lauren Holly plays Jazz, the long-suffering ex-girlfriend and assistant to Andrew “Dice” Clay’s title character.
When Eddie goes to the Ink & Paint Club to survey Jessica, animation jokes and an effective filming technique avail to the audience. An apparent reference to animation king Disney, the password for the Ink & Paint Club is Walt sent me. Once inside the foyer, Eddie cracks wise to the bouncer, a gargantuan simian in a tuxedo. Nice monkey suit!
As Eddie opens the main room’s door, he moves off camera and suddenly we enter a hidden world through Eddie’s eyes.
Dueling ducks at the piano -- Daffy and Donald -- entertain the audience. Daffy’s remark about his partner reflects his standard frustration. Thith ith the last time I work with thomeone with a thpeech impediment.
Penguins work as waiters at the Ink & Paint Club. And so does Betty Boop, albeit as a cigarette girl in black and white. Since cartoons went to color, she’s having a hard time finding work. Betty implores Eddie to see that she’s still got it. Boop boop be doop! Boop!
Among the human patrons is gag king Marvin Acme. He’s also the #1 fan of Jessica Rabbit, she of the long legs, flaming red hair, and a body built like the proverbial brick house. Her seductive singing performance triggers an outpouring of applause, admiration, and passion from the testosterone-filled audience.
Eddie positions himself at a vantage point after the show and takes pictures of Jessica and Marvin playing patty-cake in her dressing room. Seemingly having the proof he needs, Eddie informs Maroon and Roger. Upon seeing the photos, Roger thumbs through them quickly to give the impression of animation.
Maroon gives Roger a drink to calm him down and he consequently goes catatonic from the alcohol. Simply, he doesn’t want to believe Jessica is unfaithful.
Eddie ranges back to his office where his silhouette appears at the door, another device of the detective genre. Valiant & Valiant Private Investigators with an emblem and the word Veritas adorn the door. Veritas is Latin for Truth and works well as Eddie’s motto.
Eddie partnered with his brother, Theodore J. Valiant, until a toon dropped a piano on his sibling associate, hence Eddie’s dislike of the species.
The brothers Valiant were investigating a robbery of the First National Bank of Toontown at the time. Eddie clearly remembers his brother’s killer, a toon with a high, squeaky voice and red eyes.
Eddie comes across pictures of the Valiant brothers. His discovery triggers a pan of the room beginning with Teddy’s name plate on the desk facing Eddie and then the empty desk.
Front pages of the Los Angeles Chronicle indicate Eddie’s toon attitude used to be different. Headlines declare Valiant and Valiant Crack Nephew Kidnapping and Goofy Cleared of Spy Charges. Huey, Dewey, and Louie were the abductees in the kidnapping case.
An L.A.P.D. Graduating Class of 1925 photo has the caption New Clowns on the Beat describing the Valiant brothers. They’re wearing rubber noses in the picture! Evidently, they inherited their humor from the paternal side of the family; the Valiant father was a circus performer. A photo circa 1906 depicts Eddie and Teddy on the Road with Dad in front of the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey sign.
Finally, a 1938 photo and corresponding caption indicate a new life for the Valiant brothers -- Two Flatfoots & A Floozy Go Into Business. Dolores was the ‘floozy.’
The short-lived television series Private Eye also used a dead brother character and detective theme. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946 - Present by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh summarizes the 1987-88 NBC show.
Jack Cleary was a moody, scruffy ex-cop, wrongfully busted from the Los Angeles police force, who inherited his brother’s detective agency upon the latter’s violent demise. Although he was later cleared and offered his badge back, he declined, preferring the fast life of a private eye.
The explanatory scene with Eddie ends with the detective asleep at his desk, sleeping the night away with a little help from a bottle of booze.
Lt. Santino, the obligatory cop-friend character, wakes Eddie and informs him that Marvin Acme is dead, courtesy of a falling safe. Roger Rabbit is the prime suspect. Eddie’s reputation of nosediving from prominent detective to washed-up sleuth precedes him as a cop at the murder scene taunts him.
Didn’t you used to be Eddie Valiant? Or did you change your name to Jack Daniels?
Enter the film’s antagonist, the appropriately named Judge Doom, costumed in black with Toontown under his jurisdiction. Judge Doom wants to exterminate toons and his concoction of ‘dip’ will serve his purpose. ‘Dip’ is a formula of turpentine, acetone, and benzine -- the only known way to kill a toon.
Back at his office, Eddie runs into Baby Herman, a frustrated baby with a fifty year-old lust and a three year-old phallus. Baby Herman defends his sidekick and gives the private dick some information. Although the newspaper says that Acme didn’t have a will, Baby Herman claims he promised to leave Toontown to its inhabitants, the toons.
After taking a shot of liquid courage, Eddie puts the shot glass on the newspaper laying on his desk. One of Eddie’s patty-cake pictures graces the page and the glass magnifies a part showing Acme’s Last Will and Testament jutting from his picket. Eddie inspects the original photo to make a further determination.
Roger shows up and pronounces his reason for selecting Eddie to help him clear his name. Everybody knows when a toon’s in trouble, there’s only one place to go. Valiant and Valiant.
So, Eddie takes the case. Indeed, somebody framed Roger for Acme’s murder. Eddie’s prime suspect is Maroon, but his pursuit turns into a dead end.
Maroon is murdered in his office and in Eddie’s presence. Before he dies, the cartoon producer confides his real purpose in hiring Eddie. Maroon wanted blackmail material on Acme.
Maroon’s lucrative real estate deal with the Cloverleaf company wouldn’t go through unless Acme sold Toontown to Cloverleaf. Maroon even threatened Jessica by using her rabbit husband as the carrot. If Jessica didn’t go along with the plan, Roger would never work in Hollywood again. Maroon’s blackmail scheme didn’t work, though. Acme refused to sell and his stubbornness resulted in his murder and the potential elimination of toons.
If Acme’s will doesn’t appear, Cloverleaf will get Toontown by virtue of being the highest bidder. And Toontown will be no more. Cloverleaf wants to expand its concrete concerns by paving over southern California and making the thereto unheard of ‘freeway’ the modern mode of transportation. Cloverleaf began its plan by purchasing the mass transit operation known as the Red Car Trolley. Judge Doom designed the scheme and he will be its prime beneficiary.
Doom predicts a freeway will make traffic jams a thing of the past and create a haven filled with fast food franchises, motels, and automobile dealerships.
Jessica knows Doom killed Acme. Her biggest fan confided that Doom wants to get his hands on Toontown. Acme gave his will to Jessica for safekeeping, but it’s blank. Or is it?
Acme wrote his will on disappearing, reappearing ink. Unknowingly, Roger wrote a love letter to Jessica on the will when he thought it was a blank piece of paper.
True to formula, Eddie saves the day and defeats Doom with the villain’s own invention of dip. Doom melts away like the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.
Besides defeating the villain, Eddie also achieves vengeance, closure, and happiness. Doom was a toon masquerading as a human. Doom was the toon who killed Teddy Valiant.
Hopeful romantic movie lovers rejoice as Roger and Eddie win back their respective loves, Jessica and Dolores.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? contains corny jokes that might be in the script to poke fun at the silliness of the story.
When Eddie hides Roger in his overcoat, Dolores asks, Is that a rabbit in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
When Eddie remarks on Jessica’s outrageous figure, she defends herself. I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.
When Doom looks for Roger in the Terminal Station Bar, a regular says that the rabbit’s next to him in the empty bar stool. Wrong rabbit! He claims it’s Harvey.
When Doom lures Roger out of hiding, he does it with something no toon can resist -- the ‘shave and a haircut...two bits’ bit
In addition, a nod to Hollywood lore appears in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Near the tunnel to Toontown, a roadside sign displays Hollywoodland, a real estate concern. In fact, Hollywoodland was a real estate operation and the famous Hollywood sign derives from the company’s publicity. It originally was the Hollywoodland sign. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce dropped the last four letters in 1949.
Bob Hoskins shows his musical chops in a song and dance routine to Merry-Go-Round Broke Down, similar to a performance by Roger earlier in the movie. No stranger to musical performance, Bob Hoskins starred in the 1978 public television miniseries Pennies From Heaven.
Cartoon favorites populate the supporting cast in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Droopy Dog is the elevator operator.
Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse skydive alongside Eddie as he falls from a pole projecting from a skyscraper after Tweety plays this little piggy with his hand.
Woody Woodpecker, Foghorn Leghorn, Pinocchio, Goofy, and many other toons appear in the final scene.
McCracken reveals the problem of combining different animated characters and the styles behind them in Rabbit Fever.
It’s good to see a major movie acknowledge so many animation giants, but by failing to blend these disparate styles into an altogether-pleasing style, the movie proves it’s as difficult to pay homage to Disney, Jones, Avery, and Fleischer in one cohesive work as it would be to do so to Hitchcock, Welles, Renoir and Griffith in one dramatic film. That’s a nice compliment to the diversity of the golden age of Hollywood animation.
McCracken cites the final scene as smacking of a what-might-have-been quality because of the difficulty in combining distinct characters and styles.
The crowd scene at the movie’s conclusion, too, is an important moment in cartoon history that just isn’t as interesting as it could have been. So many characters are crammed into this brief sequence that none of them has time to do anything very interesting. Considering how well the animators accomplished the daunting task of breathing life into so many great cartoon stars, it’s too bad that only a few of the characters get the kind of material they deserve, and intriguing to wonder what it would have been like if the script had eschewed the cameos in favor of meaty roles for just a few classic characters.
Appropriately, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? ends with Porky Pig’s patented Th-th-th-that’s all folks! followed by Tinkerbell’s sprinkling pixie dust.
Who Censored Roger Rabbit? is a different story altogether. Literally.
Set in the present day, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? begins with Roger hiring Eddie because he thinks someone wants to buy out his contract from comic strip syndicate sibling kings Rocco and Dominick DeGreasy. They refuse to sell and Roger wants to know why.
Rocco is murdered and all signs point to Roger Rabbit. Roger once threatened to kill Rocco; the threat took place in front of witnesses. Roger’s motives include shabby treatment and a fight for Jessica’s love. Jessica and Rocco were an item. She abruptly, inexplicably, and surprisingly switched to Roger and then back to Rocco just as fast.
Soon thereafter, Roger is murdered. Eddie decides to stay on the case because his detective’s natural curiosity overcomes his common sense. Roger’s doppleganger shadows Eddie on the quest for justice. A doppleganger is a double that a toon can create for situations, such as dangerous stunts. It can only last a very brief amount of time, usually a few hours. Then, it will disintegrate.
A highly significant plot point of Who Censored Roger Rabbit? is an ancient solid-gold teakettle with jewels and stones inlaid, commissioned by a gourmet potentate for his royal chef in the 10th century. Hundreds of years later, the Templar Knights possessed the object, claiming it during one of their grand crusades to the Holy Land. To disguise the teakettle and protect it from potential pretend possessors, the Knights change the color to gray.
Several people now claim ownership of the teakettle.
Roger says he got it from the movie set of the Alice in Wonderland remake.
Jessica claims they bought it at an antique auction while they were married. Now she wants it for sentimental reasons.
Dominick claims it’s a DeGreasy family heirloom.
Unbeknownst to the principals, the teakettle is cursed. It has a corresponding warning. ‘Beware. Great tragedy will result should this fiendish device ever fall into the hands of a toon.
Carol Masters has the object of everyone’s desire. She is a comic strip photographer, toon rights advocate, and ally of Roger Rabbit. She was at Roger’s the night he was murdered. She saw the teakettle thrown out the front door and picked it up. Eddie now has the sought-after clue.
On the teakettle’s bottom reads a transcription -- May your dreams come true. Coincidentally, that’s one of the lines from When You Wish Upon A Star, Roger’s song of choice to serenade Jessica. It’s also the secret to unlock the genie inside for the teakettle is really a magic lantern. Only toons can benefit from the genie’s granting of wishes, though.
The DeGreasy brothers pursued the object of toon mythology with voraciousness because they are, in reality, toons. When Rocco and Dominick finally got the bounty, they used their requisite, standard three wishes. Or at least they tried to.
Rocco and Dominick used the first two wishes to become human and rich, the latter occurring by becoming comic strip syndicate moguls.
Before they got their third wish, a thief stole the teakettle and Roger became the de facto owner. However, the wishes have a price as the genie tired of satisfying desires for free.
Unknowingly, Roger releases the genie with the magic words and asks for Jessica’s love and a comic strip contract. Deviously, the genie grants Jessica’s hand in marriage with her love terminating in one year and a contract as a ‘perennial second lute’ in the funny papers. Sometimes, the price of a wish is death. Eddie learns the genie killed Roger.
Eddie then defeats the genie with pure heart and physical strength. To make the genie a memory, though, Eddie must drop him in the ocean. He gets one wish from the genie by threatening to put him in the next best place -- fish tank. The granting of the wish is an exception to the toon rule.
Eddie wants proof that Dominick DeGreasy killed brother Rocco and Roger Rabbit. Miraculously, a suicide note explaining the killings appears in Dominick’s handwriting. In fact, the genie also killed Dominick. Eddie kills the genie despite his bargain to let him go after getting the proof.
However, Eddie deduces the real killer of Rocco was Roger Rabbit. He finds out in the nick of time.
Just as Roger’s doppleganger begins to disintegrate, Eddie confronts him and the rabbit confesses. Roger’s doppleganger existed because the rabbit toon put an extra amount of effort into making a believable twin for the purpose of an alibi.
On the night of Rocco’s murder, Roger sent his ‘twin’ to buy a pair of red suspenders with a fifty dollar bill. Eddie figures, ‘So the situation would be unusual enough for the shopkeeper who wrote up the sale to remember you. Roger created you as an alibi.
In sum, Roger hired Eddie as a patsy so the police could use him as a suspect in Rocco’s murder.
To complicate matters, a stolen comic art ring is having fun at Rocco DeGreasy’s expense. It’s an inside job.
Carol Masters works with Rocco’s son Little Rock to take her own work from Rocco and sell perfect duplicates as originals on the market.
Their only problem is the requirement of the negative for each print. In turn, Masters brings her old boss into the mix, the fittingly named Sid Sleaze, formerly Sid Baumgartner. Coincidentally, Jessica posed for Sleaze years earlier in a pornographic comic entitled Lewd, Crude and In the Mood. Little Rock explains the plan in Chapter 31 of Who Censored Roger Rabbit?
Carol approached him with our proposal. In return for a flat fee per piece, he was to take our original negatives and turn out duplicates in limited quantity. I framed the duplicate prints and negatives together, and Carol signed them. We then sold them as originals through shady dealers like Hiram Toner.
Little Rock was the prospective buyer for Roger’s services. He wanted to use Roger as a franchise character for a new toon syndicate.
Who Censored Roger Rabbit? encompasses a racial allegory more directly than its film counterpart. It clearly portrays toons as lesser citizens. Chapter 1 provides an example.
Since ‘toons could not legally buy human-manufactured liquor, most drank the moonshine produced by their country cousins in Dogpatch and Hootin’ Holler. Potent stuff. Few humans could handle it. (The mixture is also known as toonshine.)
Another example of the racial allegory angle appears in Chapter 9. She lived in a partially ‘toon, partially human neighborhood that real estate agents called ethnically enriched, and urban renewers called blighted.
A role reversal appears in Chapter 4 when Eddie visits Baby Herman who has the ultimate toon status symbol -- a human servant. Like the film version, the toon star has an adult lust with child equipment.
Wolf’s dialogue definitely derives from the detective genre. In Chapter 5, Eddie describes his thoughts about Carol Masters for the reader.
Before I left, I got her home address and phone number, just in case I decided later to ask her a few of the more personal questions that kept jumping to mind every time I saw her move.
In Chapter 19, Eddie needs something to wash away the tension. I went back to my office and let my bottom desk drawer buy me a drink.
Wolf gives a wink to the reader in Chapter 10 by naming a toon psychiatrist Dr. Booker T. Beaver. Dr. Beaver services the community with comics like VD pamphlets and family-planning brochures for the medical associations to give to the free clinics.
Comic strip characters appear throughout Who Censored Roger Rabbit? as their cartoon counterparts did in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Dick Tracy and Hagar the Horrible are two examples. Cleverly, Wolf details a world where the toons communicate via word balloons.
In a Q & A on the Internet on August 2, 1995, Wolf views the film as a considerate, just, and thoughtful expression of his literary vision.
The film and my original idea are perfectly mated. I participated all along in the production of the movie. That’s very unusual in Hollywood, for a writer to be involved, but Roger Rabbit was a very unusual project. Everybody associated with it really wanted to make it the best movie it could possibly be. There were times when I sat in rooms with 50 of the most creative people in the film business kicking around jokes to include in the movie.
Of course, the plot line and some of the toon conventions had to change because I wrote a book and this was a movie, but the changes were all within the context of my original premise, i.e., a world where cartoons were real. I’ve got no complaints.
And neither do we.
Th-th-th-that’s all folks!