Netflix pick for 4/28/14 – ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’

Hey kids, here’s another one for you, a movie that us adults remember fondly, and which upon revisiting, holds up remarkably well as a very solid piece of entertainment. “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” is a throwback hard boiled detective film noir movie, with the added bonus of being a movie that features a seamless (especially for its time) blend of animation and live action, as the story is set in a world where cartoons are real beings. Which of course also makes this movie rather silly.

But “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” is more than just silly because they managed to balance out the inherent cartoonish antics and nature of the story with much more dark, adult things; there is an element of danger in this movie, especially with the murder of toons with a substance called the Dip, and lead character Ed Valiant (Bob Hoskins) being an alcoholic driven to drink by the horrendous murder of his brother (they dropped a piano on his head. Right smack on his head). There’s a Femme Fatale (Jessica Rabbit, voiced by Kathleen Turner), and this movie features one of the most disturbing and intense movie villains of all time in the form of the awesomely named Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd).

There is a lot to like about “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” which is both an homage to old film noir movies and the awesome cartoony past of both Disney and Warner Brothers. The animation looks incredible, and the movie even starts with a Roger Rabbit cartoon, which is distinctive for actually looking BETTER than most cartoons of this nature have ever looked. And it is a ton of fun just watching all the ways the cartoons interact with the real world set and props in the movie, like how the bad guy Weasels walk around with real guns, and how Roger Rabbit smashes real plate after real plate over his fake cartoon head. Brilliant stuff, chaps.

Just watch this awesome movie already, you can see it right here on the Netflix.