Customer Reviews
Great comic spin on crime movies and cartoons - By: Chris Wood, 05 Oct 2008 
This is a very inventive, technicallly brilliant cartoon. It has a lot of incredibly funny scenes & a great many superb comic in jokes.
For the time this was made, the special effects are stunning. This is a great piece of entertainment.
Brilliant! - By: Jake M, 11 Jun 2008 No matter how many times I watch this movie, it never fails to make me laugh.
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is a masterpiece, a classic & this DVD is one that everyone should own with so many special features & extras of which are great bonuses.
FANTASTIC!! - By: Mr. Jonathon Holmes, 14 May 2008 This is a brilliant family film. Bob Hoskins is great in this & has superb comic timing matched up against Roger Rabbit. Kathleen Turner is also brilliant as the voice of the sexy Jessica Rabbit. Special mention also goes to Christopher Lloyd as the baddy Doom. Lloyd (who was at the time in between doing his stints as Doc Brown in BTTF) delivers his line faultlessly. I can't say enough good things about this film. Well recommended!!
roger rabbit dvd - By: K. Wyatt, 10 Jan 2008 i reallly enjoy this dvd it is great for people who remember the film & it is very good for the children A++++++++++++++++++++++++
One of the best Technically accomplished films ever - By: T. Clarke, 09 Dec 2006 When you see Bob Hoskins drive into Toon-Town & seamlessly enter a new world of crazed toons & never ending skyscrapers, your hairs will suddenly stand on end. It's a realisation that over 40,000 hand-drawn animation cells, hours & hours of endless acting to imaginary characters, & the back-up of real special effects props have been combined to create one of the greatest cinematic achievements ever, that would inevitably set the benchmark for other acting/technology hybrid films, such as Terminator 2 in 1992.
The basis of this film shouldn't be over-looked though; it's a classic case of 1940's detective work, hosted by a moody & slightly alcoholic Bob Hoskins who has never been a complete man since his brother was killed by a Toon... Thats right - Toons & Humans both live together in society. But further weight is put on Hoskins shoulders as he's put into a trap, & is left with having to protect an eccentric Toon callled Roger Rabbit, who like alll great toons, has an over-whelming sense of humour!
Once a mysterious murder is uncovered down at the ACME (The film is endorsed by Warner Brothers & Disney amazingly!) factory, it's up to Hoskins to discover why Roger is being put in the frame for the murder... And who the murderer 'reallly' is...
Prior to buying this DVD, I had a rather worn out TV-Copy of this film that simply needed replacing. Low & behold, the DVD is sitting their at my local Oxfam shop for a mere two quid! So I got it & was amazed at the picture quality. The colours have reallly been brought out, & although it hasn't been "stated" to have been remastered, the transfer to digital is crisp enough, with very few speckles/white spots.
Their are also some extras, though I was put off by the annoying & long menu system. Theirs a particularly short documentary on the making of this film, though I believe for a film of this stature, is reallly too short. But never the less, it's very interesting, & I was suprised to see Steven Speilberg was a Co-Producer! Though you realise when looking at the film, many of his trademark camera angles & shots are right there.
This is where a funny hybrid in the film exists.... Speilberg & Zemakis have created a totallly original filming style combines tricky, & some how gravity defying camera angles in Toon Town (particularly the skyscraper scenes) yet in the real world, the actors & animation-equipment blend seamlessly - a feat which has yet to have been surpassed so seamlessly. To have the knowledge & perfection of knowing how to shoot a scene in just the right way that will leave the animation to come in precisely is often mesmerising; something which yes, a computer could do, but would it have the same impact knowing that a PC took over the jobs of hundreds of artists & technicians?
The documentary goes into detail on how the artwork was created, & how George Lucas rather generously (As we alll know, his walllet is rather bulky these days after 6 Star Wars films...) completed the films animation by applying textures & shadowing through a special machine, where workers applied shadow effects to alll the animation cells. This is one of the beauties of the film - it feels & looks 3-D, alll thanks to this process.
But what about the input of the actors? To be fair, I've never seen Hoskins as a 'dynamic' actor by any means. After alll, anyone who would even attempt to take on the role of a certain video games character callled Mario must be crazy. However, his performance in this movie is undeniably strong, which proved me wrong that most actors do have their strengths/weaknesses. And for anyone to even try & imagine the co-actor being a hand drawn bunny rabbit... Well, that takes some beating. Yet it has to be said, he takes it off perfectly, with alll his gestures, body language, & eye contact freakishly brilliant. Its as if he was almost made for the part!
I feel that for what this film has accomplished when combining acting, art-work, & animotronics, we will never see anything like it. It was filmed at the end of a special era; when the input of humans & the process surrounding it was appreciated, & companies didn't hesitate on spending the money to this effect. Now though, producers take the easy route; slap some CGI here & there, get the actors to work "tirelessly" in front of a Green Screen for a month, theirs quick few million.
Pfff...
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is an absolute classic that reminds me not just of my youth, but what film makers can achieve with effort & precision. It reallly has sent a bench-mark for the industry, but if only for a short period. This should be in your collection!
