Live action and animation blend seamlessly in yarn of private eye Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) taking on the case of tortured "toon" Roger Rabbit, who's convinced his curvaceous wife Jessica (huskily voiced by Kathleen Turner) is having an affair. Eddie's investigation, which quickly expands to include blackmail, murder, and conspiracy, takes him back to the place he'd hoped to avoid due to a painful incident in his own past: Toontown.

On release, Robert Zemeckis's colorful, thrilling joy-ride broke new ground in the merging of live action and cartoons, but what keeps this movie special is its manic pacing and goofy, anarchic spirit. The film is so dazzling that adults and children alike will quickly fall under its hyperkinetic spell, and come back to staid reality only with the closing credits. Populated by a host of cartoon characters, familiar and unfamiliar, the film is also a tribute to movies, and the private eye genre in particular. A blast.