rungemaille 's review for:

Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf

2.0

mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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The original idea for this story is so good - the narrative style is generally engaging and I love some of the worldbuilding details (the toons mainly communicating via speech bubbles which can interact with their surroundings, for instance, which sadly didn’t make it to the film version). This being said, while I’ve come to expect a base level of misogyny, racism and queerphobia from noir as a genre, especially for stuff written in the 80s, this one aged pretty poorly: using the toons as an allegory for racial discrimination only works to a certain point and has questionable ramifications; there’s a bucketload of misogyny (culminating in Eddie punching out Jessica Rabbit and calling it a “love tap”), and a truly gross transphobic scene two thirds of the way in. While I can see the narrative potential in the series, I think I’ll just stick to the film.