#VILLAIN IN WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT FREE#

Or at least, that is perhaps how it could be most readily portrayed in urbanist narratives that champion the small-scale walkability, and community-centered-urban-spirit-of-Jacobs at all cost (a la Richard Florida et al.). A victory for communities over hard-faced capitalism of walkability over the motorcar of common sense over stupidity.

#VILLAIN IN WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT FREE#

And then there’s Roger and Jessica Rabbit, two residents of Toontown who manage to defeat Judge Doom and keep the community spirit of their beloved town free from the major development strategies of the over-bearing forces of the city’s governmental forces. It is therefore very obvious to see the parallels between Moses and Judge Doom, who were both hell-bent on building a freeway through a populated area, and therefore capitalising on the influx of automobile-based investment opportunities that it would entail. At it’s most basic (and rather too simply – read Gratz’s book for a far better overview), Robert Moses, a New York city planner wanted to build an expressway right through the Manhattan area of Greenwich Village, but Jane Jacobs, a local activist, lobbied enough support to eventually stop the plans and maintain the Village in its current guise. Those of us involved in urban studies will be very familiar with the Moses versus Jacobs debate, with Gratz’s 2010 book ‘ The Battle for Gotham’ detailing it most succinctly. With this narrative in mind, it becomes extremely obvious that ‘Judge Doom’ and Toontown are simply comic metaphors for the classic urbanism argument of ‘walkability’, most readily articulated by the battle between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. This short segment highlights one the film’s most overt social critiques, namely that of the automobile dominated city that Los Angeles had become in 1988, and still is to this day (relatedly, you can read about my day-long trip around LA by car in search of the film locations of The Terminator films here, and my ode to UK motorways here). Such a mantra is signposted early on in the film with the main hero ‘Eddie’ sitting on the back of a trolley car proclaiming, “Who needs a car in L.A.? We got the best public transportation system in the world!”

The film therefore is very much a critique on the ‘freeway-ization’ of LA, with overt glorification of the city’s transit-orientated past. It is set in 1947, and essentially, ‘Judge Doom’, the evil protagonist of the film, is plotting to destroy ‘Toontown’ (the suburb of Los Angeles where the animated characters live) and replace with a freeway. One aspect though that often goes unnoticed is the urbanist narrative that runs through the film’s plot. Truly, a masterpiece of Hollywood cinema, and if you are not familiar with the film, you can read a great review of it here. It was technologically innovate, and spliced the detective film-noir genre with the comic, slapstick animation of classic ‘toons of the 1960s and 70s. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) is no doubt a classic film.

Villain in who framed roger rabbit