CineFix - IGN Movies and TV | The Cinema of Community-Building | Who Framed Roger Rabbit With Director AV Rockwell @CineFix | Uploaded 1 year ago | Updated 1 day ago
An animated whodunnit. A vulnerable drama about race and class in New York City. At first glance, Robert Zemeckis' Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a far cry from AV Rockwell's feature debut A Thousand and One. Yet Rockwell joined us to share just how the iconic caper resonated with the themes of her Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning film.
What the two have in common is an overwhelming protectiveness over community. The Toons of Roger Rabbit sequester themselves, facing ogling or exploitation or even outright hostility from their human counterparts. Community displacement and destruction looms as the central conflict of its climax and what starts as a murder mystery ends as a treatise on the evils of gentrification.
For Cinefix, Rockwell dives into a specific scene that embodies these themes: the moment protagonist Eddie Valiant enters Toon Town. Greeted by jocular song, bombarded with saturated color, the moment overpowers the senses. Just as vibrant is the neighborhood itself. It's layered and breathing and imperfect, but a home nonetheless. It's the threat against Toon Town that fascinated Rockwell, who describes how wonderfully the film asks what it would mean to destroy something so alive. Watch to hear our deep dive into this scene, and explore the sanctity of community building in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
An animated whodunnit. A vulnerable drama about race and class in New York City. At first glance, Robert Zemeckis' Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a far cry from AV Rockwell's feature debut A Thousand and One. Yet Rockwell joined us to share just how the iconic caper resonated with the themes of her Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning film.
What the two have in common is an overwhelming protectiveness over community. The Toons of Roger Rabbit sequester themselves, facing ogling or exploitation or even outright hostility from their human counterparts. Community displacement and destruction looms as the central conflict of its climax and what starts as a murder mystery ends as a treatise on the evils of gentrification.
For Cinefix, Rockwell dives into a specific scene that embodies these themes: the moment protagonist Eddie Valiant enters Toon Town. Greeted by jocular song, bombarded with saturated color, the moment overpowers the senses. Just as vibrant is the neighborhood itself. It's layered and breathing and imperfect, but a home nonetheless. It's the threat against Toon Town that fascinated Rockwell, who describes how wonderfully the film asks what it would mean to destroy something so alive. Watch to hear our deep dive into this scene, and explore the sanctity of community building in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
