WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT
A film review by Craig Good
Copyright 1988 Craig Good
Don't look now, E.T. There's a rabbit on your tail.
Wednesday evening I stood in line at the newly restored Alhambra Theatre in San Francisco. (Here's a trend I hope catches on: the theatre used to be split in two, but now it's back to being one large room the way theatres are *supposed* to be!) I was at the head of a long line -- a very long line. Opening night audiences are the best in the world, especially when the movie is An Event.
And what an event it turned out to be. WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (always sans question mark) is a landmark film. Technically it is as big a breakthrough as STAR WARS, and there are precious few movies I've enjoyed as much as this one. Now, I like to think of myself as reasonably well up on the state of the art in visual effects and, to a respectable degree, in the state of the art in animation. Roger proved to me that I don't know nuthin'.
The animation, as John Lasseter pointed out, is the kind of animation animators dream of doing: this is real animator's animation. In nearly every shot they go out of their way to show off. Most of it is so flawless that animation neophytes will never guess how hard it was to do. But they will enjoy it just the same. How could you not enjoy a piano duet with Donald and Daffy Duck? How could you not enjoy seeing nearly every great animated character ever created working together in one film? (I could tell you more about characters which get applause for just showing up, but I'm bound and determined not to put any spoilers in this review.)
Industrial Light and Magic, especially the optical department, deserves a zillion simoleans and a basket of joy buzzers for their work on this film. I particularly hope that Ed Jones gets a little statue for the "tone mattes" used to give the animated characters so much dimensionality. The optical crew composited 1,050 shots, as compared with just over 600 for RETURN OF THE JEDI. Bear in mind that they pulled this off simultaneously with doing WILLOW. Those guys are superhuman, suicidal, or both.
Do not, I repeat -- do *not* -- show up late for this film. If it starts while you are at the candy counter, forget the imitation popcorn and bits of sticky chewy stuff and run into the theatre. The first several minutes contain some of the best (and hardest) animation ever done. While the animation is pedal-to-the-metal during the whole movie, one standout sequence is also the most subdued. Jessica Rabbit, Roger's wife, delivers a knock-out torch song at the Ink and Paint club in a sequence which is a cinematic tour de force. (Amy Irving did the vocal performance for the scene, and I didn't know she could sing!)
As if the animation weren't enough reason to go see the movie, and don't you think it ought to be, Robert "Back to the Future" Zemekis serves up his finest work ever. The same layered, detailed approach he took to the world of 1955 is applied to 1947. For example, there are no cartoon characters in the movie predating that year except for the penguins from MARY POPPINS, but they're working as waiters. The best part of his direction for me is his sense of kinetics. The timing, the pace, the movement of everything is darn near perfect, from the way scenes are cut to the way props move.
Bob Hoskins is absolutely dead-on as the drunk, has-been private eye Eddie Valiant who is caught up in a murder mystery. His ability to act with characters that aren't there yet is stunning. This is "effects acting" at its finest. If he isn't remembered at Oscar time then the Academy is a bigger bunch of maroons than even I thought. The supporting cast, almost half of which is human, is also very good. Christopher Lloyd is wonderfully evil as the dread Judge Doom. Joanna Cassidy, as Valiant's lady friend, holds her own even though she can be seen at least once biting her lip to keep from laughing.
Don't *you* try that or you'll need stitches in your lip. Listen. Log out now and head for the theatre. Expect long lines. Word of mouth on this film is going to be incredible. See it in a theatre with a big audience -- it's a terrific audience participation film. Of course, there is so much going on, and the laughter is so frequent that you'll have to go see it again and again to catch what you missed the first time.
Awww, too bad.
--Craig
...{ucbvax,sun}!pixar!good
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