Zemekis and Williams also blend two genres together. “Roger Rabbit” is not only a cartoon, but a sophisticated detective mystery. The script, based off Gary K. Wolf’s book, starts with Eddie Vailiant (Bob Hoskins), a down-on-his-luck, borderline-alcoholic private investigator. He’s hired to do petty snooping like taking pictures of Roger Rabbit’s wife, Jessica, who very well might be the hottest catroon ever, and playing patty-cake with Marvin Acme, owner and mayor of Toontown, a metropolis populated solely by cartoons.

When Acme ends up murdered, all fingers point to Roger. Long story short, Valiant ends up helping innocent Roger clear his name, but not without butting heads with the über-evil Judge Doom and his band of maniacal, laughing weasels. There’s also Acme’s missing will that determines the owner of Toontown in case of Acme’s death.

But the story goes deeper than that. Vailiant’s brother was killed by a Toon (he dropped a piano on his head). So you could understand why Eddie has a hard time dealing with Roger’s craziness while he copes with his loss. Hoskins’ best scene as Eddie is when he describes his brother’s death. He reveals his hidden emotion and opens himself up to Roger.

Up until this point, Toons are impervious to pain, fatigue and death. This changes when Judge Doom invents “the dip.” A mixture of turpentine, benzine and acetone, “the dip” actually kills Toons. As Doom demonstrates in the film, which is a scene that haunted my dreams as a child, he takes a harmless little Toon shoe and slowly lowers it into the vat of death. He intends to do the same to Roger when he’s captured and tried.

Lloyd plays Doom with so much villainy, we forget that he played the lovable Doc Brown from “Back to the Future.” But keep in mind, he prosecutes cartoons. This means that he uses the “shave and a haircut” trick more than detective skills.

Plot turn after plot turn, scandal after scandal, “Roger Rabbit” really stacks up on suspense. But it definitely isn’t lacking comedy—c’mon, it’s half cartoon! A lot of the movie’s laughs come from lampooning Toons and their behavior. When Eddie asks for a Scotch on the rocks (and he means ice), what does his Toon waiter bring him? A Scotch with rocks in it! We also get to see our favorite classic cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Porky the Pig, Goofy and many others. “Roger Rabbit” is also the first time Warner Bros. and Disney characters appear on-screen together.

Can the sinister Judge Doom and his nightmare-inducing “dip” get the best of Roger? Will Eddie find his brother’s killer? Will Acme’s final testament  turn up, saving Toontown and all its inhabitants from eviction? And can Eddie find out who did, in fact, frame Roger Rabbit?  Tune in next Saturday morning for the exciting conclusion to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” – or just rent it from the video store!