Multi-Media Week Review I: The World of Roger Rabbit

Who Censored Roger Rabbit: You’re probably familiar with the movie, but how much do you know about the book that inspired it? If all you know is the movie, you might as well unlearn it. Who Censored Roger Rabbit is a completely different story. At the outset, we meet Roger and Eddie. He’s not the surviving half of a pair of detectives. He’s a solo act and only slightly drunk. He comes across more like a Bogart character, and he never has quite the emotional responses to toons that his movie counterpart has. Roger isn’t quite who you’d expect from the movie either. He’s silly to be sure, but not off the walls wacky. He’s actually quite intelligent and well spoken…or as well spoken as you can get when you speak in word bubbles rather than actual sounds. He hires Eddie to investigate some “contract” irregularities between himself and his employers, the DeGreasy comic “syndicate.” As you can imagine, the DeGreasy brothers are essentially an organized crime ring. The story takes the normal first steps of any detective story. Eddie interviews around. Jessica Rabbit, used to run with Rocco DeGreasy before marrying Roger and has returned to him. Both Jessica and the DeGreasys deny that Roger had any talent, but others, such as Carol Masters who photographs the toons in action (to make comic strips, not animations) says he’s enormously talented. Some quarrels come up regarding Roger getting his own strip, or his contract being sold to another comic company that would give him his own strip. And from there things just get weird. The DeGreasys turn out to be very human like toons, just like Jessica. Rocco is murdered. Roger is the prime suspect, or would be if he wasn’t murdered too. Toons are adept at making temporary copies of themselves )dopplegangers) that they use for stunt doubles, and Roger’s prodigious talent allows him to create one that lasts for several days and accompanies Eddie on the investigations. And when you find out the real reason for all the intrigue you’re seriously not even going to believe it. It has nothing to do with Rocco and Roger’s competition over Jessica (who got her start in pornography!) nor contracts nor money. It’s safe to say that when the real reason first comes up you’ll dismiss it for being stupid.

And yet it works. The whole book is an awful lot of fun and I don’t want to give away anymore than I have already because I think probably a number of you might really be interested in reading it and I wholly encourage you to do so. Although copies are pretty much impossible to come by in print these days (even several years ago when I got it I needed to hunt around on Amazon Marketplace) it is available as a Kindle file now, and probably in other formats as well. As it should be. It’s a good book with a niche audience that provides a slow, steady demand. The story is definitely darker than the movie, and it has more..questionable content. Toon doctors who make pamphlets on VD and whatnot. It also highlights the human-toon dichotomy more than the movie did. There’s a whole extra layer to the Roger-Jessica-Rocco triangle when you think the Degreasy’s are human because interspecies relations like that are… frowned on. Seriously though, this thing is 2 bucks for a digital version. Buy it. But just ‘cuz your eight year old loved the movie doesn’t mean they should read this. It’s a fun, somewhat light read for adults or, given that I grew up in a time before YA was a big thing, it’s the sort of silly adult novel that makes for a good transition from MG.

Arbitrary Confection Rating: Nougat. Soft and chewy. You don’t think you want it, and after you’re done you’re not sure what was so special, but it’s good going down.

The Movie: You know what? In the interest of space, I’ma do this quick because I shouldn’t even have to review it. When I become the overlord, it’s just required viewing. It’s fantastic and if you haven’t seen it you’ve lived a deprived life, presumably under a rock, in a cave somewhere outside of existence as we know it. Eddie Valiant is played by Mario Mario/Smee’s Me Bob Haskins and he’s so good at it I really want to praise the actor, but I’ve only ever seen him in those three things. And the Super Mario movie was awful, and clearly Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of Captain Hook was the centerpiece of Hook, so yeah, this is Haskin’s best role. Still, a performance like that is far more than most actors could ever hope for. Roger is a “hero” for the every man (being completely incompetent) with a lot of brilliant one liners. “Yeah! Check the probate. Why my uncle had a problem with his probate and he had to take these big pills and drink lots of water.” Come to think of it, just because it was the first VHS I ever owned (I think it was a Christmas present in 1989, which would make me fourish) doesn’t mean the movie’s really much more innocent than the book. Jessica Rabbit is sultry, but a loving devoted wife rather than a manipulative bitch this time around so hooray for family morals I guess. Baby Herman has a bigger role. Gotta feel bad for Eddie’s Love interest Delores. She does a lot of stuff but doesn’t get much screen time. There are cameos out the ass from famous cartoons. And Christopher Lloyd is creepy as shit as Judge Doom (do you notice he never blinks in the entire movie?) assisted by his crew of cartoon weasels. The only bad thing about this movie is no reflection on the movie at all. The only bad thing is that it clearly inspired the insipid 1992 Live Action-Animated-Hybrid-Mystery-Drama crapfest known as “Cool World.” So if you ain’t seen it, do it NOW. Seriously. Right now. I’ll wait.

Arbitrary Confectionary Rating: Chocolate Chip Cookie. May not be your personal favorite, but absolutely everyone likes it and there’s a reason for that. And if no one with a peanut allergy (a child) is hanging around, you can toss in Reese’s Pieces or bits of toffee (snort and giggle at jokes above their heads) and stuff too and it just becomes awesome.
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Also, I think I saw somewhere that it's women's History Month. So think about your favorite historical women and celebrate how you choose. I chose to get food poisoining. I was up all last night in terrible pain. Maybe it's just because it's the second night in a row without sleep, but I can't for the life of me figure out how it was supposed to celebrate women. I'll let you know if I figure it out. Meanwhile, if this post is poorly edited, you know why.