The characters are all relatable, even through their greed and double crossing. I’m under the impression that they all come from leading dull, gray and boring lives they want to leave behind. So I understand why it is they’re all so eager to find that great big dubya and get away from it all.

Winters is the big guy that everyone shits on until he blows his top. The gas station scene has to be seen to be believed. Shawn is on a permanent high as his hippie/beatnik character. Every comedian gets to do what they do best. Tracy, of course, also gets to remind us why he’s one of the best.

One of my dads favorites.

Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Buddy Hackett, Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Terry Thomas, Peter Falk, Dick Shawn and too many cameos to list (Three Stooges, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, Don Knotts.) My favorites are Winters and Shawn.

Director Stanley Kramer was known for stark social dramas (Inherit the Wind, the Defiant Ones, On the Beach.) This was done on a bet that he couldn’t do a comedy. So he set out to make the biggest comedy possible and got many of the biggest stars of radio, stage and screen.

When a group of strangers learns of $350,000 is “buried under a big dubya” the race is on to find the loot after the diplomatic attempt to split the dough fails. Little do they know they’re being watched over by Captain T.G Culpepper (the always watchable and likable Spencer Tracy.)

I would LOVE to introduce him to Charlie Chaplin, Groucho, Laurel and Hardy and Abbot and Costello. It’s hard to get him to sit still for ten consecutive minutes 🤣😂

My ten year old nephew LOOOOOVES Home Alone.

We should be worshipping them as gods.

Absolutely!

Does it have sex jokes? Yes? Does it have frightening imagery? Oh yes. And that’s what sticks with grown up me. It knows that kids can handle way more than a lot of adults think. It respects them and also gives them plenty of silliness that they (and I) can laugh at.

Fleischer as Roger is fun and over-the-top but there’s also a soul there. The politics of the 30s (segregation, prohibition etc.) are lightly poked fun at as is capitalism. This is thanks to a script by Jeffery Price and Peter S. Seaman based upon the book Who Censored Roger Rabbit by Gary K. Wolf.

As with any film noir there’s a sultry femme fatale. Kathleen Turner lends her smoky tones to Rogers rather, shall we say, buxom wife Jessica Rabbit. The adult jokes regarding her figure even 8 year old me could figure out and laugh at. I like films that don’t feel like they have to pander to kids.

I love that movie 😁 Classic sci-fi. I have it on DVD as a double feature with the Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.

Lloyd is just the opposite. I love how his coat blows in the breeze even indoors (a tribute to the Queen in Snow White.) As the maniacal Doom, he takes delight in offing a cartoon shoe in his lethal to toons invention, Dip. Forget Mufasa and Bambis mom: THIS SCENE IS FUCKED UP!!!!

As an adult, in spite of the villain being so obvious, I love how seriously the film treats the mystery aspect of the story. Eddie has lost his sense of humor and, like Nicholson in Chinatown, has to confront the demons of his past. Hoskins plays it straight and never winks at the camera.

Naturally as a kid I didn’t dabble in film noir so I was more intrigued by how the amazing Hoskins was able to physically interact with Roger, Droopy, Betty Boop, Dumbo and the multitude of other characters so realistically. It’s still a landmark of special effects. But time changes everything.

Thanks to a past tragic incident, Eddie has a prejudice against toons and now spends his time wallowing in booze and taking sleazy pictures. But Eddies sense of justice isn’t entirely dead and he takes the case, crossing the obvious villain Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) and confronting his past.

Private detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) lives in a 1930s Los Angeles where humans and cartoons live side by side. When lovable cartoon star Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer) is framed for murder he turns to Eddie to clear his name but gets the coldest of cold shoulders.