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21st Feb '13 11:13:20 PM Xtifr

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->''A note to my clients:''

->''Roger Rabbit and his screwball buddies play fast and loose with historical accuracy. That's the way things happen in Toontown. Take it from a guy who's been there. Relax, hang on, and enjoy the ride.''

-->''Eddie Valiant''
-->''Private Eye''
-->''Los Angeles, California''
-->''1947, more or less''

ScienceFiction writer [[GaryWolf Gary K. Wolf]], having written a number of novels such as ''Killerbowl'' and ''The Resurrectionist'' in his genre of choice, wanted his next work to be something a little different, perhaps something that had to do with his two other great loves: [[PrivateDetective detective novels]] and [[{{Comics}} comic strips]]. Then, one day, when watching children's morning TV for research purposes, he noticed a commercial wherein several animated kids' cereal mascots interacted with live-action children. And thus, the world of ''WhoCensoredRogerRabbit'' was born!

In these novels, human beings who look and act much like you and me live side-by-side with [[FantasticRacism an oppressed minority]] of living, breathing cartoon characters called {{Toon}}s, who look and act exactly as they do on animated cartoons and comic strips but are unable to produce sound, communicating via visible [[SpeechBubbles dialogue balloons]], (though they ''can''--with some effort--suppress their word balloons and speak; Jessica Rabbit does this, which makes her sexier to humans). The series features various recurring characters but otherwise has [[NegativeContinuity a very loose continuity]], to mimic the format of old-fashioned anthology-style cartoons such as the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''.

The series has, of course, [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit inspired a very successful feature film]]. [[http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1625215/story.jhtml Possibly someday to be two.]]

The series consists of:

* ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?''
* ''Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?''
* ''[[IncrediblyLamePun Hare's]] Looking at you, Babs!'' (short story)
* ''Stay Tooned, Folks!'' (short story)

A third novel exists, to be published after the release of the second movie.

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http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CensoredRabbit_4645.jpg
[[quoteright:292:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CensoredRogerRabbit_1652.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:292:Alternate cover]]

In the first book, we're introduced to our protagonist, hard-drinking, [[FantasticRacism Toon-hating]], HardboiledDetective Eddie Valiant, hired by the famous [[NewspaperComics comic strip]] star Roger Rabbit to discover why his employers, Rocco and Dominick [=DeGreasy=], have withheld their promise of giving Roger his own newspaper strip instead of constantly [[StraightMan playing him as a foil]] for their biggest star, Baby Herman. This novel is set in TheEighties and features several odd fantasy elements that those familiar only with [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit the movie]] may find a bit strange, most notably the fact that in this version the Toons are not indestructible, but can create doppelgangers to do their most dangerous stunts for them. The two versions share only five characters: Eddie, Roger, Jessica, Baby Herman and Benny, although the last one appears as Bennie the Beetle rather than Benny the Cab.

----
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/PluggedRabbit_8215.jpg

The second book is a direct sequel to ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' and totally disregards any continuity established in the first book. Like the movie, this is set in 1947 and features Eddie and Roger as an OddCouple-style ensemble, both sharing protagonist status (rather than having Eddie as the clear star of the show and Roger merely as his shifty client, as in the first book). The plot concerns famed Hollywood director David O. Selznick and his attempts to adapt the novel ''GoneWithTheWind'' to film. But who will he cast as Rhett Butler, the male lead? Will it be ClarkGable, Baby Herman, or Roger Rabbit? Selznick ''cannot'' make up his mind about it! We're also introduced to Eddie's sister Heddy, [[InterspeciesRomance who's married to a Toon]], and other brother Freddy, who's been [[BalefulPolymorph mysteriously transformed into one]]. Also involved are the foul doings of an [[EvilTwin evil Roger-lookalike]], the smuggling of a mysterious chemical from South America, and Jessica Rabbit's mysterious pregnancy and her (quite literally) "little" sister.

The first short story is very rare, but the second is available for free at [[http://garywolf.com/ the author's website.]]

----
!!This series contains examples of:

* AffectionateParody: of {{Comics}}, WesternAnimation, and FilmNoir
* TheAlcoholic: A trait of Eddie's carried from the movie to the sequel.
* AllJustADream: The entire plot of the (no-longer-canon) first book is {{retcon}}ned into Jessica's dream in the second book.
* AmbiguouslyHuman: Crossovers, Toons that can pass for human.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:The ending of the second book]].
* AuthorAvatar: That's Mr. Wolf portraying Eddie on the cover.
* BagOfHolding
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: [[spoiler: The genie will grant you your wishes, in a technical sense. Roger wanted to be famous - fine, but he'll always be a second banana.]]
* BittersweetEnding: The first book.
-->[[spoiler: I looked up at the sky. It was one of those rare days when the Earth revolves a little faster and shoos away the smog. You could see a long way, but not half as far as Roger had gone.]]
* [[BizarreAlienBiology Bizarre Alien (in this case, cartoon) Biology]]
* ByTheBookCop: Toon police Captain "Clever" Cleaver.
* CanonImmigrant: [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Doris and Benny the Cab]] make cameo appearances in the second book, and Teddy Valiant is also mentioned.
* CantGrowUp: Some Toons age normally, but others can't--Baby Herman, for example.
* CargoEnvy: Jessica's cigarettes tend to inspire this.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Roger Rabbit, in all but his first-book incarnation.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The [=DeGreasy=] Brothers, and millionaire Hollywood exec "Big Bull" Topman.
* DangerouslyGenreSavvy
* DarkerAndEdgier: Roger. And how.
* DeadpanSnarker: Eddie.
* DeconstructionCrossover: Quite possibly, the UrExample.
* DetectivePatsy: [[spoiler:Roger]] tries to do this to Eddie in the first book. In the final chapter, Eddie admits that the plan would have worked were it not for two things that [[spoiler:Roger]] had no way of seeing coming - [[spoiler:an unraveling art forgery scam causing unexpected witnesses to be present at the murder scene, and Roger's teapot containing a homicidal genie.]]
* DisneyCreaturesOfTheFarce: In the second book, Roger wakes Eddie up when he summons a few Disneyesque birds to sing outside the bedroom window. Eddie isn't amused.
* DrowningMySorrows: Eddie's response to pretty much any problem that comes up. (Admittedly, he drinks a lot anyway.) In the second book, Roger tries it after [[spoiler:he finds out that Jessica is philandering]], and Eddie notes that there are whole bars meant just for catering to this kind of difficulty.
* DyingClue: Toons create word balloons when they speak (unless they consciously choose not to). A word balloon containing Roger's final words is found at the scene of the crime, but it's ambiguous without knowing the way the words were said.
** In the sequel, the same thing happens when [[spoiler:Enigman]] dies.
* EvilPlan: Well, this ''is'' a parody of detective stories...
* EvilTwin: Dodger Rabbit.
* ExpospeakGag: Delancey Duck gets one in the second book.
* {{Expy}}: Poopdeck the Pirate, an incidental toon character. He is described as having "ape-arms," getting his strength from spinach, and playing jolly sea shanties on his corncob pipe. Hmm... [[{{Popeye}} sounds awfully familiar.]]
** Arguably, Roger himself is an {{Expy}} for Bugs Bunny.
*** Though Bugs is mentioned in the book as taking a part from Roger as the March Hare in Alice in Wonderland.
** 'Poopdeck' Pappy is also Popeye's real father in the Popeye comics. Maybe less an expy and more the LawyerFriendlyCameo?
* FamilyThemeNaming: In the second book, Eddie's siblings are named Teddy, Freddy and Heddy. Heddy, said to have taken after her mother as far as theme-naming goes, named ''all three'' of her sons after their dad.
* FantasticNoir: Possibly the TropeMaker.
* FantasticRacism: Toons are heavily discriminated against; one scene in the first book has Eddie and Roger having difficulties finding a good meeting spot, since bars are either human-only or toon-only, resulting in a {{Deconstruction}}. It is also revealed that in this world, toons have fulfilled the roles that certain non-white minorities have fallen into in ours, such as building the railroads.
* FemmeFatale: Jessica Rabbit.
* FourFingeredHands: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in the second book; apparently, it's more common than not for Toons to lose fingers in dynamite accidents.
* GoshDangItToHeck: Ferd, Eddie's brother-in-law in the second book, constantly delivers speeches that would qualify as [[ClusterFBomb Cluster F-Bombs]] if he didn't replace said F-bombs with ''really weird'' nonsense words ''beginning'' with "f". Not surprising, since he ''is'' a [[CloudCuckooLander Toon]].
* HalfHumanHybrid
* HardboiledDetective: Eddie Valiant
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Any of the movie stars appearing in the second book.
* HistoricalFiction
* HotSkittyOnWailordAction
* HumanityEnsues: A major plot point in the second book is a substance called "[[AppliedPhlebotinum Toon Tonic]]", which can [[spoiler:transform humans into Toons and vice-versa. Roger brews himself some and becomes a red-haired, pale-skinned, large-eared man, adjusting rather awkwardly to changes such as [[FourFingeredHands the fact that he now has five fingers]] and no longer produces speech balloons]].
* HurricaneOfPuns: Plenty. For instance, in "Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?", the narration of the scene in which Eddie Valiant visits Delancey Duck's office is overflowing with duck puns.
* ILied: The rare ''heroic'' version, by Eddie [[spoiler: when he dunks the genie in a salt water fish tank, which is lethal to it, ''after'' the genie conjured up a false but realistic confession note by one of the [=DeGreasy=] brothers claiming he'd killed Roger.]]
* InterspeciesRomance: Of course, Roger's and Jessica's romance only ''looks'' like one; Toons take radically different shapes, but they're a species unto themselves. A more straight example would be Jessica's affairs and flirtations with various human characters. [[spoiler:In the second book, Eddie's sister Heddy is married to a Toon and they have three children]].
* JackassGenie
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Eddie Valiant and Baby Herman.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: several famous cartoon characters
* LivingOnBorrowedTime / YourDaysAreNumbered: Roger's doppelganger can only last 72 hours, at most. [[spoiler: Ironically, his death is a TearJerker even after we learn he was a murderer and trying to frame Eddie for it.]]
* MeaningfulName: Frequently.
* MassiveMultiplayerCrossover: Many luminaries of both live-action and animated film make appearances in the series. Some notable examples include [[GoneWithTheWind Clark Gable, David O. Selznick, Vivien Leigh,]] Carole Lombard, Alfred Hitchcock, [[DisneyAnimatedCanon Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse]], ComicStrip/DickTracy, {{Superman}}, HagarTheHorrible, [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.]]
* MorallyAmbiguousDucktorate: Delancey Duck.
* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Roger's BerserkButton. Unfortunately, not only is Jessica Rabbit a porn star [[spoiler: when not enchanted by a genie to love him and be a good wife]], but she ''loves'' doing porn.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The founders of the ''Toontown Telltale'': Sleazy, Slimy, Dreck and Profane.
* OddCouple: Roger (cheery, silly, and naive) and Eddie (serious, no-nonsense, and street-smart), in the second book and the movie.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Baby Herman, who resembles an infant but is, in fact, thirty-six years old.
* OnlySaneMan: Tadbitty Stifles, a hapless human dramatic actor and part-time bodyguard to Big Bull Topman's wayward son.
* OurFounder: the founders of the ''Toontown Telltale'', a gossip tabloid.
* PassFail: [[spoiler: The [=DeGreasys=].]]
* PorkyPigPronunciation: Roger Rabbit stammers his p's, a quality given to him in [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit the film adaptation]] so he would be more like the characters from the golden age of animation. After this, the author carried over the quality onto his subsequent written work, as well as some of his more {{Cloudcuckoolander}}-ish tendencies. (He was originally written as paranoid and neurotic, but still very sharp-minded.)
** Roger's [[EvilTwin cousin]] Dodger stammers his b's instead. This is the only distinguishing quality between them, other than the fact that Dodger combs his hair to the side, which according to Roger makes them totally different.
* PrivateEyeMonologue
* PunnyName
* PurpleProse: The first novel was a parody of 1940's potboilers, so it's filled to the gill with cheesy metaphors.
* ReallyGetsAround: Jessica.
* RogerRabbitEffect
* {{Shapeshifting}}
* {{Sidekick}}: Roger isn't sure if he's Eddie's sidekick or if Eddie is ''his'' sidekick. ([[YouKeepUsingThatWord He seems to use "sidekick" merely as a term of endearment]].)
* SpeciesSurname: Before meeting Jessica Rabbit, Eddie assumes that she's a Toon rabbit. Turns out that "Rabbit" is her married name via Roger Rabbit and she's a humanoid Toon. The trope is also frequently used for background characters--Dodger Rabbit, Carbuncle Chameleon, Delancey Duck, etc.--in the tradition of Golden Age cartoons.
* SpeechBubbles: They literally appear above the toons as physical objects. One bubble becomes a piece of evidence in Roger's murder.
* SuperDrowningSkills: Delancey Duck can't even remotely swim. He mentions that just because [[DonaldDuck Donald]] and [[DaffyDuck Daffy]] can do it doesn't mean all ducks can.
* SympatheticMurderer: [[spoiler: Roger, in the first book.]]
** [[spoiler: Well, he was going to frame Eddie Valiant for the murder, so your sympathy can only stretch so much.]]
* TalksLikeASimile: Eddie Valiant
* TheyWalkAmongUs: The Toons.
* ToonTown: The titular district, home to the Toon community. Offhandedly mentioned in the first book, a key setting in the second.
* ToothyBird: Delancey Duck in the second book.
* UglyGuyHotWife
* UnusualEuphemism
* UrbanFantasy
* VerbalTic: Eddie's sister Heddy (and, it turns out, his brother Freddy as well).
* [[spoiler: VillainProtagonist: Roger was the original murderer, and had intended to frame Eddie Valiant. Unfortunately, a genie killed Roger before he could finish his plan.]]
* VillainousCrossdresser: Sid Sleaze.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Eddie and Roger.
* WhodunnitToMe: The first book, ''and HOW''.

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17th Dec '12 8:47:39 PM JAF1970

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1st Nov '12 10:02:38 PM tyciol

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29th Jul '12 12:30:33 PM ChaoticNovelist

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The second book is a direct sequel to ''WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' and totally disregards any continuity established in the first book. Like the movie, this is set in 1947 and features Eddie and Roger as an OddCouple-style ensemble, both sharing protagonist status (rather than having Eddie as the clear star of the show and Roger merely as his shifty client, as in the first book). The plot concerns famed Hollywood director David O. Selznick and his attempts to adapt the novel ''GoneWithTheWind'' to film. But who will he cast as Rhett Butler, the male lead? Will it be ClarkGable, Baby Herman, or Roger Rabbit? Selznick ''cannot'' make up his mind about it! We're also introduced to Eddie's sister Heddy, [[InterspeciesRomance who's married to a Toon]], and other brother Freddy, who's been [[BalefulPolymorph mysteriously transformed into one]]. Also involved are the foul doings of an [[EvilTwin evil Roger-lookalike]], the smuggling of a mysterious chemical from South America, and Jessica Rabbit's mysterious pregnancy and her (quite literally) "little" sister.

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