History Awesome / WhoFramedRogerRabbit

** He doesn’t just ''win'', he pulls a heroic hat trick! He saves Roger, Jessica, and all of Toontown from being [[CruelAndUnusualDeath Dipped]], inflicts that very fate on the sadistic bastard [[HoistByHisOwnPetard who invented the stuff]], and [[YouKilledMyFather avenges his brother]] in the process. All with a single ExtendoBoxingGlove.

-->'''Judge Doom:''' Several months ago, I had the good providence to stumble upon this plan of the city council's. A construction of epic proportions. They're calling it a freeway.\\

'''Judge Doom:''' Of course not. [[VisionaryVillain You lack vision.]] I see a place where people get on and off the freeway. ''On and off, off and on, all day and all night!'' Soon, where Toontown once stood will be a string of gas stations, inexpensive motels, restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food, tire salons, automobile dealerships, and wonderful, ''wonderful'' billboards reaching as far as the eye can see! ''My God, it'll be beautiful.''

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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mickey_mouse_bugs_bunny.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Two of the biggest [[WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse cartoon]] [[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny characters]] ever interacting with each other? How is that not awesome?]]

* Judge Doom deserves a mention too. He is probably the only villain (well, other than WesternAnimation/InvaderZim and ''anyone'' voiced by Chris Latta) who can pull off a high-pitched squeaky voice and make it sound '''legitimately threatening'''.

*** Due to that, he had the key piece of evidence, the "love letter," and also a small bit of less important evidence, namely that Marvin Acme had special ink in his pen.

!!Meta
* Creator/BobHoskins deserves some major props for his phenomenal acting. He's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_VnHAy1Vdc TALKING TO AIR]] for about 95% of the time, but you honestly believe that the cartoons are there with him. A crowning example is Eddie walking through the Maroon Cartoons' lot, pausing to observe all of the cartoon antics going on around him. ''None of which is actually there '''and you can't tell.'''''
-->'''Robert Zemeckis:''' You can't lose sight of the fact that the thing that makes the animation interaction work is ''his'' side of the performance. It's him believing that the rabbit is really there. All the special effects in the world wouldn't work without his performance.
** What's even more amazing is how he straddles the line between realism and cartoonish exaggeration, which is a testament to his skill and the wisdom of casting him in the first place.
* Another star of the movie is simply the SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome. Never before has animation been so convincingly and brilliantly fused with live-action footage (''hardly any computers, mind you'') making cartoons actually look like they physically occupy space in reality. It really set the bar for live-action/animation hybrid films even today. And not just the animation effects, but the practical effects that had to go into all the real-world objects that the toons would touch, push, and even pick up and carry. And all of it had to be either covered by the animation or hidden from the camera entirely.
** The filming of the car chase alone deserves mention. It was filmed with Bob Hoskins inside of a custom built vehicle resembling a go-kart. The wheel Bob had was made of rubber and bendable to make it cartoony, while the kart itself was driven by a second driver sitting below him and close to the road; all of which was drawn over later. For certain shots Bob was replaced by a drawn counterpart, but they go by so fast you would never know unless you freeze frame them (Such as when they're in the alley and Roger spins the car the other way).
** The scene where Eddie is trying to saw off the handcuffs keeping Roger attached to him is another standout example. The cuff that's supposed to be attached to Roger is being held up via a mechanism inside the box that can be shifted as Roger "moves" and when Roger slips in and out of the cuff, you can see it animated for only a very brief moment. When Roger holds the box still for Eddie, it's either Hoskins himself or something else holding it in place.
*** That cuff scene is more important for another element. The RunningGag of that scene is that Eddie keeps banging his head against an overhead lamp as he and Roger struggle against each other. The swing lamp causes the light to keep shifting and casting light all over the room throughout the entire scene, meaning the animators had to match up the light and shadows on and around Roger when they add him later. Most people in the audience wouldn't notice, and no other collection of artists would have likely cared to put in such a minor, inconsequential, agony-inducing detail, [[DoingItForTheArt but this team did it anyway]]. Such dedication and attention and care to detail has an unofficial name: Bumping the Lamp.
** There are so many small things done to sell the reality of toons: In the scene where Roger tries to sit in Teddy's chair ''he leaves fingerprints in the dust.''
* If you know anything about the legal nightmare of Disney and WB allowing their characters to be used in the film, it's a clear miracle that the movie was made at all. In particular, the two companies' properties had to share ''exactly'' the same amount of screen time, which is so smoothly integrated that you'd never notice unless you're looking for it.
* The film's audio commentary reveals a delicious point: [[TheUnblinking Never do you see Doom blink]]. Creator/ChristopherLloyd came up with the idea and they loved it as it turns out Doom's "eyes" are just fakes to cover up his toon form. Just try to go several minutes without blinking and see how hard it is.
* Hats off to the film for kickstarting the {{UsefulNotes/The Renaissance Age Of Animation}}, and saving animation in general as we know it. Without this film, any cartoon released after 1988 probably wouldn't have existed.
* The pan over Eddie’s desk is considered by numerous people in the industry as one of the greatest pieces of character exposition in film history, telling us everything we need to know about Eddie without a word of dialogue (albeit with the assistance of Delores having just let us know about his brother’s death). Then you add in that within this single shot, the crew had to hurry to get Bob Hoskins’ jacket off and alter the view out the window so it looked like daytime, all without ever letting their shadows appear in frame.
* [[spoiler: Judge Doom]]'s Toon Eyes, once they're revealed, deserves a mention because of how simple the design yet difficult the effect to pull it off as smoothly as it did [[SpecialEffectsFailure with only one exception near the end]]. Animating a fully animated {{Toon}} believably in live action is one thing, but it took a lot of skill to not only sync the eyes/hand with the live actor's movements to make it believable, still have the time to have the same polished animation as the rest of the {{Toon}} characters.

* The fact that WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and WesternAnimation/BugsBunny evidently go parachuting together in their spare time.

* Eddie Valiant killing the weasels by doing nothing but act like a toon -- that is, doing silly dances, rhyming, and abusing himself in order to make them DieLaughing. Hell, the entire climax probably counts as a [=CMoA=].

* Props to Eddie in the climax. He duels Judge Doom, revealing him to be a psychotic murderous toon, which to an ordinary person is [[ToonPhysics effectively invincible]], and ''wins''.

* Creator/BobHoskins deserves some major props for his phenomenal acting. He's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_VnHAy1Vdc TALKING TO AIR]] for about 95% of the time, but you honestly believe that the cartoons are there with him. A crowning example is Eddie walking through the Maroon Cartoons' lot, pausing to observe all of the cartoon antics going on around him. ''None of which is actually there ''' and you can't tell.'''''

** [[spoiler: Judge Doom]]'s Toon Eyes, once they're revealed, deserves a mention because of how simple the design yet difficult the effect to pull it off as smoothly as it did [[SpecialEffectsFailure with only one exception near the end]]. Animating a fully animated {{Toon}} believably in live action is one thing, but it took a lot of skill to not only sync the eyes/hand with the live actor's movements to make it believable, still have the time to have the same polished animation as the rest of the {{Toon}} characters.

** Marvin Acme sprayed him with his fountain pen, causing a small ink stain that disappeared.

* Even if it didn't work out, Roger barging into the Acme warehouse with a gun to try and save Jessica and Eddie from Doom's clutches is pretty impressive. Considering he knew full well that Doom wanted to kill him, that took guts. It's especially impressive, even if it led to a punchline when Greasey dropped a [[{{Pun}} ton of bricks]] on him, Roger Rabbit not showing his previous fear of the judge and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calling him out on his hypocrisy and abuse of power]] is satisfying given how just earlier Doom spouted about abandoning the job to get rich off the destruction of Toontown his own home and race showing just how hollow his authority over the law actually was.

* Eddie Valiant killing the weasels by doing nothing but act like a Toon -- that is, doing silly dances, rhyming, and abusing himself in order to make them DieLaughing. Hell, the entire climax probably counts as a [=CMoA=].

* The chase between Benny the cab, the cops and the Toon patrol.

* Even if it didn't work out, Roger barging into the Acme warehouse with a gun to try and save Jessica and Eddie from Doom's clutches is pretty impressive. Considering he knew full well that Doom wanted to kill him, that took guts. It's especially impressive, even if it led to a punchline when Greasey dropped a [[{{Pun}} ton of bricks]] on him, Roger Rabbit not showing his previous fear of the judge and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calling him out on his hypocrisy and abuse of power]] is satisfying given how just earlier Doom spouted about abandoning the job to get rich off the destruction of Toon-Town his own home and race showing just how hollow his authority over the law actually was.

'''Roger Rabbit:''' That's it, Doom! Give me another excuse to pump you full of lead! So you thought you could get away with it, didn't you? Ha! We Toons may act idiotic, but we're not stupid! We demand justice! Why, the real meaning of the word [[TemptingFate probably hits you like a ton of bricks!]]

* The film's audio commentary reveals a delicious point: [[TheUnblinking Never do you see Doom blink]]. Creator/ChristopherLloyd came up with the idea and they loved it as it turns out Doom's "eyes" are just fakes to cover up his Toon form. Just try to go several minutes without blinking and see how hard it is.