Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is by far one of my favorite movies, if not the favorite movie. Nearly 40 years after its release and there has still been nothing like it created since.
Of course there have been plenty of movies that have incorporated live-action with animation, and there have even been some that have used two-dimensional characters before as well, but no one has been able to capture the magic quite like Roger did!
So imagine my surprise when I happened to come across a copy of this novel, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? the book for which the movie had been (loosely) based off -- I had no idea! 😃
Yes, I had been pleased as punch to discover the existence of this book!
Now, reading it?... Not so much...
In the book, the story immediately opens with Roger Rabbit hiring private detective, Eddie Valiant, to investigate a case. Roger claims that the cartoon company that employs him -- the DeGreasy Brothers -- refuse to let him out of his contract, and Roger wants Valiant to find out what's going on...
Valiant uncovers that Jessica Rabbit, Roger's soon-to-be ex-wife, has actually left Roger for his boss, Rocco DeGreasy. When he goes to confront Roger on this, Valiant is shocked to discover him dead in his home!
"While I couldn't ressurect the bunny, I could at least do the honourable thing -- find out who censored Roger Rabbit, and why."
Valiant quickly searches the crime scene. He discovers that Roger had been shot with a .45 caliber. He also finds a separate gun, a .38 -- also recently fired -- in one of Roger's bedroom drawers. Later on, Valiant is surprised to learn that there was another murder victim that same night: Rocco DeGreasy.
When Valiant returns to his office -- Roger is there! Or, more specifically, his doppelganger. (Toons are able to do that, create duplicates of themselves for short periods of time). He helps Valiant on the case, with the first unusual clue being Roger's missing teakettle...
As the case progresses, the same teakettle is brought up not once, but twice! Once by Dominik DeGreasy, Rocco's brother, and a second time by Jessica Rabbit...
Well, Valiant happens to come across the kettle during his investigation. He eventually ends up taking it to Dominik, who says the magic words for a genie to abruptly appear from the teakettle (which is actually a magic lamp!). The genie shoots Dominik dead with the same gun that was used to kill Roger Rabbit!
The entire picture finally becomes laid out for us... Roger had acquired the magic lamp during an acting part in Alice In Wonderland. He would unknowingly say the magic words, "may your dreams come true" while singing along to "When You Wish Upon A Star.
It was the genie who had made Jessica suddenly fall in love with Roger. It was the genie who had given Roger his fame in the cartoon business.
However, during the genie's third appearance, he decides to kill Roger because he despises toons?... I dunno.. In the end, Valiant threatens the genie for a wish -- indisputable evidence via suicide note that Dominik killed his brother then Roger -- before drowning the genie in Dominik's saltwater fish tank. (Again, I dunno...).
The story ends with Valiant going home and confronting Roger. Not only was he the one who had killed Rocco DeGreasy, but he had deliberately created a doppelganger to fabricate a false alibi in order to pin the whole thing on Valiant. It ends with Roger's doppel finally disintegrating...
"He winked an eye instead, and the rest of him crumbled to dust. I opened my apartment window and let the draft have Roger's remains."
So uhhhhhh yeah! 😅 Obviously this is a huge difference from the movie! And uhhhhh personally, I hated it! 😅😅
The entire reason why I love Roger Rabbit is for its completely zany, unhinged, chaotic universe!
Despite the fact both medias deal with very mature and dark themes -- murder, infidelity, etc. -- the movie was still able to keep with the cartoons' crazy nature, while the book tried making toons more like us. And personally, it just didn't work.
Like, I do credit the book for trying to be zany; the toons' speech described as word bubbles gave the author opportunities to be silly (explosive dialogue could quite literally drop like bombs! 💣💥), and the author portrayed the toons' impossible anatomy (a toon's body folding up like an accordion). But because he tried making toons as human as possible, the magic simply wasn't there.
I also idolize the relationship between Roger and Jessica in the movie, and it is one that, again, accurately reflects the zany nature of toons. Nobody could suspect that Jessica actually loves Roger -- she's a drop-dead gorgeous, humanoid toon, while he's a goofy rabbit! 🐰 And yet, she does... The two are madly in love with each other, and what's more, Jessica attributes her affection for Roger as due to the fact he makes her laugh.
They represent toons beautifully; I honestly consider them my #1 power couple!
In the book, because Roger's marriage to Jessica is a result of superficial magic, the spell eventually wears off and love is no longer there. Jessica then spends the entire novel degrading Roger, calling him a no-talent rabbit, shrieking that she never loved him, acting completely repulsed by him... Because Roger doesn't realize their love was fake, cooked up by a genie, he is heartbroken by Jessica's unfiltered truth, especially considering Roger is the opposite -- he loves her to death! 🥺 The whole thing broke my heart, and I hated it...
The final reason why the movie trumps the book... Roger is a character you can love. Despite the fact he acts completely loopy and does questionable things, he is still a toon who lives by his word. Despite being a kooky toon, Roger is someone you can trust.
The same cannot be said for book-Roger. I went through the novel pretty much suspecting that Roger had killed Rocco DeGreasy, which is already extremely uncharacteristic of such a fun-loving toon, but to then try and pin it on a private detective simply doing a job he had hired him to do? A detective who tried his best to defend Roger, despite his dislike for toons, and still looked out for Roger because he was his partner, at that? By the time Roger finally disappears for good, I just felt immense pity for him and my heart broke all over again...
Aside from that, there are still some major differences that set the movie apart from the book -- and the movie was able to do more in only an hour and a half! 😂
For one thing, there is the satisfying character development of Eddie Valiant. He is someone with a past and a reason for why he despises toons (the murder of his brother at the hands of a toon). It becomes the entire reason for why his life descends into depression. The movie is able to build off it, until Valiant comes out on the other side a stronger man.
For another, the villian archetype, portrayed by Judge Doom, is top-tier 👌 A toon who masquerades as a human, whose sole purpose is to eradicate Toon Town. A toon who is so absolutely disgusted with his own kind that he was the first one to destroy the once indestructible toons! On top of that, he is the killer that Valiant has been searching for for several years, and we all receive catharsis once Doom's reign of terror finally comes to an end...
