Who Censored Roger Rabbit?: Difference between revisions

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{{quote| ''A note to my clients:''}}

[[Science Fiction]] writer [[Gary Wolf|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: [[Private Detective|detective novels]] and [[Newspaper 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 ''[['''Who Censored Roger Rabbit]]?''''' was born!

In these novels, human beings who look and act much like you and me live side-by-side with [[Fantastic Racism|an oppressed minority]] of living, breathing cartoon characters called [[Toon|Toons]]s, who look and act exactly as they do on animated cartoons and comic strips but are unable to produce sound, communicating via visible [[Speech Bubbles|dialogue balloons]], (though they ''can''--with—with some effort--suppresseffort—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 [[Negative Continuity|a very loose continuity]], to mimic the format of old-fashioned anthology-style cartoons such as the ''[[Looney Tunes]]''.

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

In the first book, we're introduced to our protagonist, hard-drinking, [[Fantastic Racism|Toon-hating]], [[Hardboiled Detective]] Eddie Valiant, hired by the famous [[Newspaper Comics|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 [[Straight Man|playing him as a foil]] for their biggest star, Baby Herman. This novel is set in [[The Eighties]] and features several odd fantasy elements that those familiar only with [[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?|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 four characters: Eddie, Roger, Jessica, and Benny, although the last one appears as Bennie the Beetle rather than Benny the Cab.

The second book is a direct sequel to ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'' 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 [[Odd Couple]]-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 ''[[Gone Withwith the Wind]]'' to film. But who will he cast as Rhett Butler, the male lead? Will it be [[Clark Gable]], Baby Herman, or Roger Rabbit? Selznick ''cannot'' make up his mind about it! We're also introduced to Eddie's sister Heddy, [[Interspecies Romance|who's married to a Toon]], and other brother Freddy, who's been [[Baleful Polymorph|mysteriously transformed into one]]. Also involved are the foul doings of an [[Evil Twin|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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* [[All Just a Dream]]: The entire plot of the (no-longer-canon) first book is [[Retcon|retconnedretcon]]ned into Jessica's dream in the second book.

* [[And the Adventure Continues...]]: {{spoiler|The ending of the second book}}.

* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: {{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.}}

{{quote| {{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.}}}}

* [[By the -The-Book Cop]]: Toon police Captain "Clever" Cleaver.

* [[Canon Immigrant]]: [[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?|Doris and Benny the Cab]] make cameo appearances in the second book, and Teddy Valiant is also mentioned.

* [[Cargo Envy]]: Jessica's cigarettes tend to inspire this.

** In the sequel, the same thing happens when {{spoiler|Enigman}} dies.

* [[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 (comic strip)|sounds awfully familiar.]]

** 'Poopdeck' Pappy is also Popeye's real father in the Popeye comics. Maybe less an expy and more the [[Lawyer -Friendly Cameo]]?

* [[Family Theme Naming]]: 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.

* [[Four -Fingered Hands]]: [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in the second book; apparently, it's more common than not for Toons to lose fingers in dynamite accidents.

* [[Gosh Dang It to Heck]]: Ferd, Eddie's brother-in-law in the second book, constantly delivers speeches that would qualify as [[Cluster F Bomb|Cluster F-BombsBomb]]s if he didn't replace said F-bombs with ''really weird'' nonsense words ''beginning'' with "f". Not surprising, since he ''is'' a [[Cloudcuckoolander|Toon]].

* [[Half -Human Hybrid]]

* [[Humanity Ensues]]: A major plot point in the second book is a substance called "[[Applied Phlebotinum|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 [[Four -Fingered Hands|the fact that he now has five fingers]] and no longer produces speech balloons}}.

* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: 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.

* [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold]]: Eddie Valiant and Baby Herman.

* [[Lawyer -Friendly Cameo]]: several famous cartoon characters

* [[Living Onon Borrowed Time]] / [[Your Days Are Numbered]]: Roger's doppelganger can only last 72 hours, at most. {{spoiler|Ironically, his death is a [[Tear Jerker]] even after we learn he was a murderer and trying to frame Eddie for it.}}

* [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]]: Many luminaries of both live-action and animated film make appearances in the series. Some notable examples include [[Gone Withwith the Wind|Clark Gable, David O. Selznick, Vivien Leigh,]] Carole Lombard, Alfred Hitchcock, [[Disney Animated Canon|Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse]], [[Dick Tracy (comic strip)|Dick Tracy]], [[Superman]], [[Hagar the Horrible]], [[Looney Tunes|Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.]]

* [[Morally -Ambiguous Ducktorate]]: Delancey Duck.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Tadbitty Stifles, a hapless human dramatic actor and part-time bodyguard to Big Bull Topman's wayward son.

* [[Porky Pig Pronunciation]]: Roger Rabbit stammers his p's, a quality given to him in [[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?|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.)

* [[Really Gets Around]]: Jessica.

* [[Species Surname]]: 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--Dodgercharacters—Dodger Rabbit, Carbuncle Chameleon, Delancey Duck, etc.--in the tradition of Golden Age cartoons.

* [[Super Drowning Skills]]: Delancey Duck can't even remotely swim. He mentions that just because [[Donald Duck|Donald]] and [[Daffy Duck|Daffy]] can do it doesn't mean all ducks can.

* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]]

* [[Who Dunnit to Me?]]: The first book, ''and HOW''.

[[Category:Who Censored Roger Rabbit?]]

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