Experimentation Analysis: Who Framed Roger Rabbit

A good strategy for success in any career or endeavor is to use tried and tested methods. Art and media are no exception. If you want to tell a decent story, or make a decent movie, there are certain shapes that the plot can take that almost always work. There is nothing wrong with that. If something works, then there’s no shame in making use of it. But when we step out of the typical, sometimes amazing things can happen.

Experimentation often starts with a “what if” question, especially in storytelling. The initial question in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” is not very difficult to deduce. What if cartoon characters were real? There are a lot of ways you could potentially go with this question. The creators of this film chose to invent a setting where the “toons” are simply part of society.

The initial question leads to a changing of the rules. The potential ramifications of the “what if” must be taken into account. If we are to believe the animated shorts we’ve seen, cartoon characters are mentally unstable, capable of defying the laws of physics, and virtually indestructible. If they were set loose on society and allowed to mingle freely with normal human beings, chaos would ensue. This is taken into account brilliantly in the film. For example, most toons don’t actually live among the humans, but in a place called Toon Town. This limits their contact with normal humans, and accounts for the fact that there isn’t utter chaos in the world. The difference between toons and normal humans is also made clear. You can do whatever you want to a toon and they can just get up and walk away from it, but humans can’t take nearly as much punishment. The main character’s brother was killed when a toon dropped a piano on him. There’s also some suggestion that the toons can’t step out of character. Jessica Rabbit says, during one scene, that she’s not bad, she’s just drawn that way.

Rules are important to successful experimentation. This seems counter-intuitive, especially since experimentation is about changing the rules. During the early days of any media, everything is experimentation because no one has made a standard yet. But once there is a standard, and there are common methods, then experimentation must be about diverging from those rules to try something new. It must be about breaking boundaries, such as the distinction between cartoon and live action. Without those boundaries there, breaking them wouldn’t be notable. Experimentation is also about setting boundaries, and finding new things that work well. You make up your own rules and you see where they take you, and then you decide which ones worked and which ones didn’t. I’m certain there was a lot of trial and error in the creation of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

Sometimes experimentation doesn’t produce something successful in the minds of the audience. However, I think it’s always important. Even if what the artist tried doesn’t work, they tried something new, and the people who try new things are the ones who will shape the future of media for children and for adults. “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” keeps some of the formula for a typical movie, but bends, breaks, and comments on it as well. It is a great example of successful experimentation.