You may remember Who Framed Roger Rabbit as a beloved animated film from your childhood,
but if you watch it as an adult, you might be shocked at its explicit content.
"So I took a couple'a dirty pictures, so kill me."
"I already got a stiff on my hands, thank you."
From the movie's colorful language to its varied pop culture references, to the bodacious
Jessica Rabbit, here are some fascinating things about Who Framed Roger Rabbit you only
notice as an adult.
Pervy Herman
As kids we may have known something wasn't right about a cartoon baby smoking a giant
cigar, but the sexual predilections of Baby Herman may have gone over our innocent little
heads.
"My problem is I got a 50-year-old's lust and a three-year-old's dinky."
Baby Herman might look sweet, but that's just a part he plays in the movies; Herman is a
total perv.
When we first meet him, he takes a peek up a crew member's skirt, and when Herman goes
to see Eddie, Herman slaps his lady friend on the butt.
Not exactly the kind of things you'd want kids to emulate.
Pattycake
When Eddie captures Jessica Rabbit and Marvin Acme playing "pattycake" in her dressing room,
he thinks he's struck gold to convince Roger that his wife is cheating on him.
"Pattycake, pattycake, pattycake!"
Later, the pictures show that Jessica and Marvin really were playing pattycake, but
judging by Roger's reaction, they may as well have been playing bury the carrot instead.
Whether or not pattycake is the toon equivalent of sex, if you were under the age of 12 when
you saw this movie, hopefully the entire bit would've been lost on you.
Bad rabbit
As Jessica Rabbit says,
"I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way."
And in one case, that's definitely true.
On the original Laserdisc version, when Jessica and Eddie are in a high speed chase and thrown
from the taxi, there's a moment where her dress reveals a little more than you'd expect
in a kids' movie.
But of course, nothing about Jessica Rabbit is exactly "family friendly."
"Nice booby trap."
Alcoholic Eddie
Eddie Valiant spends much of the movie in Dolores' bar, and when he's not there, he's
back in his office, drowning his sorrows.
Eddie's brother, who was also his partner, was killed by a toon, and it's obvious that
Eddie is self-medicating his pain with the help of booze.
Watching the movie as an adult, it's obvious that Eddie is a full-blown alcoholic.
But the movie at least tries to warn its younger audience members about the dangers of alcohol.
When Roger is given a drink after discovering Jessica's infidelity, the results are pretty
messy.
Probate problems
In the scene where Eddie's trying to get his handcuffs off, Eddie suggests that Dolores
go downtown to check the probate on Acme's will, a word Roger clearly misinterprets.
"My Uncle Thumper had a problem with his probate and he had to take big pills and drink lots
of water!"
Chances are you had no idea what a prostate was when you were a kid.
Apparently neither does Roger.
Inhuman Doom
The infamous shoe-melting scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit is one of the most traumatic
cinematic moments of our childhood.
Thanks to Christopher Lloyd's terrifying performance, Judge Doom goes down in the history books
as one of the scariest movie villains ever.
It's hard to spot through his glasses—and he has some animated help at the end of the
movie—but hardcore fans of the film may have noticed that Lloyd does something inhuman
in every scene he appears in: he never blinks.
Terrifying.
Invisible Harvey
When Judge Doom storms the bar looking for Roger, one of the patrons seems like he's
about to give up Roger's hiding spot.
And then he does this:
"Say hello, Harvey."
It's a pretty random joke… unless you get the reference.
The man at the bar was referring to Harvey, a 1950 comedy about an invisible rabbit starring
Jimmy Stewart.
And it just so happens that the main character is an alcoholic like Eddie who spends most
of his time in a bar.
Singing Sword
Looking for a weapon in the final showdown with Judge Doom, Eddie grabs a prop out of
a box in the warehouse: the singing sword.
"Oh, I know it's strictly taboooo!"
Older viewers probably recognized the sword as none other than Frank Sinatra.
But that's not the only pop culture reference packed into this short bit at the end of the
film.
Eddie's last name, Valiant, is a reference to the Prince Valiant comic strip of the late
1930s and 40s—in it, Prince Valiant's weapon of choice is… you guessed it, a singing
sword.
Hand-drawn racism
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is packed with adult themes, one of the biggest of which is its
depiction of racism in Hollywood.
Cartoons are definitely being treated as second-class citizens, especially under the reign of Judge
Doom, who is overtly racist against animated figures.
In the movie, the toons work as performers and waiters at the club where Jessica sings,
but the only patrons are humans.
In the end, Roger Rabbit's achievements in animation are only bolstered by this extended
metaphor on racism and segregation.
It's fascinating to re-watch the movie as an adult while keeping this metaphor in mind.
"The best part is, they work for peanuts."
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