10 Legendary Films You Never Realised Were Based On Books
2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? – Based on Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf
Who Framed Roger Rabbit set a new standard for combining animation with live action. The pure craftmanship and love for the form leaks out of every frame of this masterpiece, with Bob Hoskins delivering an outstanding performance even in scenes where he had to act completely by himself on a greenscreen. And although the pure imagination of this film is genre-defining, it actually borrowed its plot from another source.
Who Censored Roger Rabbit largely has the same premise as the film version. A hardboiled private detective investigates the mysterious goings on among living and breathing cartoon characters. But there is one key difference. The cartoons in the novel are comic strip characters such as Snoopy and Dick Tracy, while in the movie they are animated characters like Daffy Duck and Mickey Mouse.
The characters in the movie are also nearly invulnerable, save for exposure to the substance known as ‘Dip’, whereas in the book they can be killed by conventional means.
The iconic Judge Doom, played to evil perfection by Christopher Lloyd, is also an invention of the film. And even thirty-three years later, he’s enough to give anyone, human or toon, a few nightmares.