There are many good films released around the world every year. Masterpiece celebrates the best of the very best: genuinely superb works of cinema that come with FictionMachine‘s very highest recommendation. If we had our own Criterion Collection, these are the films we would want it to include.

There is a scene, partway through Robert Zemeckis’ 1988 comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, in which irascible private detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) has been unwillingly handcuffed to the film’s titular cartoon fugitive (Charles Fleischer). As Eddie grumpily tries to sever the handcuffs with a hacksaw, Roger smoothly removes his half of the cuffs so as to hold the table steady. The moment Eddie notices, Roger’s back in the cuffs. ‘You mean,’ Eddie growls, ‘you could’ve taken your hand out of that cuff at any time?’

‘No, not at any time,’ replies Roger, ‘only when it was funny.’

I am going to stretch out on a limb and suggest this is one of the finest jokes in the entirety of 1980s screen comedy. It’s not just hilarious – Roger’s slipping in and out is classic animated humour – or even doubly so – the ‘only when it was funny’ gag is gloriously absurd. It also sets up more background logic to a movie in one joke than lesser works do across their full running time.

I promise that is the only joke I’m going to ruin by explaining it.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, based very loosely on a Gary K. Wolf novel, offers a blend of detective story, animated comedy, and industry satire. Set in 1947 Los Angeles, it posits that cartoon characters aren’t merely drawn inventions of artists but actual living, breathing people. They live in their own district, Toontown, and are variously feted, blackmailed, and buttered-up like their human equivalents. Valiant is hired by animated studio head R.K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern) to prove Roger’s voluptuous wife Jessica (Kathleen Turner) is having an affair with Toontown owner Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye). When Roger is framed for Acme’s murder, he and Eddie go on the run from the ominous lawman Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd).

One of the film’s best achievements is the manner in which it gives the ‘toons’ (as they are called) their own set of physics inspired mainly by Warner Bros’ Looney Tunes shorts. Not only that, but those physics and the ones of the human world are demonstrated to interact poorly. Eddie mourns his dead brother, for example, who was murdered by having a piano dropped on his head. Nowhere does the film stop to explain this weird logic behind the story, save for one line: ‘only when it was funny.’

Many films over the years have tried to combine live-action and animation, including Anchors Aweigh (1945), Mary Poppins, The Incredible Mr Limpet (both 1964), and even more recent works like Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022). Not one of them has the thought, consideration, and extended production techniques brought about to achieve Roger Rabbit.

Zemeckis’ film also manages to extend its weird sense of realism by incorporating actual cartoon characters in cameos and across the background. It’s mostly characters owned by Walt Disney (which distributed the film) or Warner Bros, but even unrelated figures including Woody Woodpecker and Betty Boop make appearances. For any fan of these popular characters, there is a wonderful joy in watching Donald and Daffy Duck play duelling pianos, or Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny going skydiving.

None of this would ultimately work, however, if it did not have human actors capable of selling the idea of interacting with a toon. The above-mentioned cast all do superbly, as does Joanna Cassidy as Eddie’s long-suffering girlfriend Dolores, but if the film belongs to anyone it is Bob Hoskins. He is onscreen for most of the film, and spends most of that interacting with characters that simply were not there on the set with him. Every time Eddie grabs Roger by the ears, or punches a weasel, or gets thrown out of a club by an angry gorilla bouncer, Hoskins has provided all of the groundwork to bring each scene to life. The film makes great use of Hopkins’ improvisational and clowning skills, gained during an early career co-starring in the Ken Campbell Roadshow. In all honesty he deserved to win awards for his performance here.

So many different things have to go right for a film like Roger Rabbit to work. The screenplay. The effects. The camera techniques. The performances. The animation. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? rockets from start to finish in a manner that not only seems tremendously innovative, but effortless as well. As this occasional column is designed to say: this one’s a masterpiece.