Highly influential, massively popular, and still wildly misread, ROGER RABBIT was the studio-bequeathed reward for Zemeckis finally scoring a hit with BACK TO THE FUTURE. In addition to the massive financial success needed to pull this off, he also benefited from some nifty legal wrangling by Zemeckis’ buddy, Steven Spielberg, who helped gather a murderer’s row of popular animated IP into one movie. These cartoons however, were used for more than cute little appearances; they were used to help smuggle in an unfortunate reality lurking beneath the colorful cameos, as the titular toons take on the role of second-class citizens, only able to carry low-wage service jobs, and forced to live in a segregated area of Los Angeles called Toon Town. What should be a fun pop-in by Betty Boop, instead turns into a sad lament for the death of an era, despite its over-the-top, literally too-sunny ending. Ideas and themes definitely too dark to get a movie like this green-lit, they are instead buried in the animated characters who become proxies for the minority communities existing just off screen; cartoons and their cartoonish representations of a world out of sync with its citizens. Adding to these real world woes, you have the subplot involving the demolishment of the public transit system, as well as Bob Hoskins, the grounding force of this movie, who is dealing with a severe case of alcoholism, one of the many characters in Zemeckis world who must do battle with their crippling addictions (FLIGHT, WHAT LIES BENEATH, WELCOME TO MARWEN). Despite all this, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT remains one of the most beloved titles in the Zemeckis canon, with enough sugary coating to help digest this surprisingly bitter and brutally large pill.