Framing Roger Rabbit

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is one of those multilayer films that allows kids and adults to enjoy the movie but for different reasons. As a kid, Roger’s slapstick antics, Dum Dums flying through the air with tomahawks, singing swords, and Bennie the cab was the big draw. The slapstick angle continues to tickle my funny bone. But, the reason this movie felt restorative last Sunday went beyond fridges and frying pans.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit hasn’t changed. It’s barely even aged, in my opinion. Me, though, that’s a different story. I’ve changed dozens of times since the first time I met Roger Rabbit and Eddie Valiant. Hell, if I had written this piece a month and a half ago, I’d probably be focused on another aspect of the film. The copious amounts of racy innuendo they managed to sneak in, perhaps. Or how I had never noticed the picture on the dueling desks of Valiant and Valiant starting their careers as circus performers.

A month and a half ago, I didn’t need permission to laugh. I absolutely needed that permission last weekend.

Eddie Valiant is more than a jaded, alcoholic flatfoot. He’s a clown who’s lost the ability- no, the will to laugh. In Valiant’s office, the montage of photos shows us the carefree, amusing, and most importantly respected version Valiant. It’s a stark contrast to the grifter we just watched emotionally destroy a lovable rabbit. He’s fallen into a slum where he routinely has to fend off comments like, “Didn’t you used to be Eddie Valiant?”. And who could blame him after losing a brother to a falling piano?

He’s an unlikely hero pulled into an unwanted adventure with a sidekick he can’t stand. Valiant becomes the straight man to Roger’s funny man in the comedy. He also gets to stand in as the brains of the operation in the quest to exonerated Roger. The stage is theoretically set for Valiant to toughen Roger up, make him a little more streetwise. But that’s not what we get here. In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Valiant is the student, and Roger is the teacher.

Or, more accurately, Roger is Valiant’s lifeline. In a dark and empty theater, Roger says to Valiant, “A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it’s the only weapon we have.” It’s in that movie theater, Valiant makes a turn toward his former self. He gives himself permission to unlock shut doors. Without that choice, he wouldn’t have had the tools to overcome Judge Doom and his flunkies, proving Roger’s point in the end.

In its hour and forty-four minute run time, a man with no control over his life was able to set down the weighty baggage he had been carrying for years. He put aside his greed to do the right thing for someone else. Eddie let go of the crutches he had been using to deal with his anxiety. And he did it all to the soundtrack of “The Merry-go-Round Broke Down.”

I’ve watched this movie a million times. OK, realistically, I’ve watched it twenty or thirty times. Eddie Valiant’s redemption arch isn’t something I’ve just discovered. I’d be woefully unobservant if I had. All that said, his story arch stood out from all of the rest of the story this go around. Like Dorothy at the Wizard of Oz finale, I don’t have to look very far for why.

I can’t think of another story that fits the current situation we have going on right now.

If Eddie can defeat Judge Doom with a comedic flair, then why can’t everyone defeat their Judge Doom? Easier said than done in some cases. But for someone who was looking to escape the news updates and the permeating sense of anxiety for a bit, a shave and a hair cut will do the trick every time.

That’s all Nerd Girls!