VOTD: Comparing 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' To The Book On Which It's Based

Nearly 28 years after hitting theaters, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? remains an impressive marvel of motion picture as a groundbreaking mesh of live-action and animation in a way that nobody had ever really seen before. But did you know that the film was actually based on a book that was drastically different from what we see in the movie?

Robert Zemeckis' film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was based on a 1981 novel called Who Censored Robert Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf (you can pick it up right here if you're curious), and when you compare the movie to the book, you'll see quite a number of changes, including a lack of Judge Doom and his weasels and the presence of a much more conniving Jessica Rabbit. A 13-minute video essay dives deep into the differences between the Who Framed Roger Rabbit book and movie, and you can watch it below.

Here's the Who Framed Roger Rabbit? installment of What's the Difference from CineFix:

One interesting stylistic detail is the exclusion of speech bubbles coming from the toons whenever they would talk. That's something that would have gotten annoying pretty quick, though it likely would have allowed for some good visual gags as well. But considering how much work already had to be done to mesh live-action and animation, adding another visual effect probably would have been pretty overwhelming.

If you're into some more trivia and details behind the scenes of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, you can check out footage from an unmade version of the movie featuring Paul Reubens and also a deleted scene from the movie that explains why Eddie Valiant was shirtless in a scene when Jessica Rabbit stopped by his office.