Not since Who Framed Roger Rabbit has animation and live-action been married so well as with Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers. The film even shares the same universe as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, taking place in modern times while Roger's story was in the 1940s. There are a number of parallels between the two films, which is no coincidence. The filmmakers have cited Roger Rabbit as its main inspiration.
While talk of a sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit has been rumored for a long time, the new Chip 'n' Dale movie may have just paved the way for it. Finding the right balance between cartoon characters and real-life performers is tricky. Robert Zemeckis' approach to the beloved 1988 genre-bender was a brilliant blend of film noir and loony 2D animation that was given a rare opportunity to mix both Disney and Warner Bros. characters.
Based on the much darker 1982 novel by Gary K. Wolf, Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, the movie took the blueprint of the novel and constructed a carefully balanced tone that walks a line between a fantasy-inspired family film and many horrors of mankind's domain. The rules of the world are also fascinating, and with Chip 'n' Dale bringing 3D animation to the table as a kind of cosmetic surgery, Roger Rabbit 2's potential just became increasingly more dynamic and likely.
Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers features a brief cameo of Roger Rabbit at the beginning of the film. While intended as a hat tip to the animation/live-action hybrid forbearer, it can easily be interpreted that we are in the same universe. While an IMDB page does exist for Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2, there is no further information available. Some years ago, there was an effort to reintroduce Roger Rabbit in a series of shorts featuring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck called The Stooge, but the concept never took flight.
Perhaps now is a time to reconsider how Roger Rabbit can potentially get reintroduced, considering the success of Disney+ as a platform and how well received the new Chip 'n' Dale film was. Let us speculate on what a sequel to Roger Rabbit might look like and affirm why now is an excellent time for it.
Themes in the Roger Rabbit Novel
One of the darker elements removed from Gary K. Wolf's original version of Roger Rabbit was a blatant commentary on racism in America in the forties and fifties. Toons are not recognized as equal citizens and are made to drink from their own labeled water fountains, use separate bathrooms, etc. While removing this element makes sense for the original film's tone, it could be worth revisiting for the sequel.
The issue of racism in America has taken on many new forms, the word has been weaponized, and its definition has become less specific. Roger Rabbit 2 could potentially make a metaphor for many contemporary issues around identity politics and racism. Humans that identify as toons and vice versa could also bring a lot of relevancy to modern sensibilities. The novel also went much further with the sexual undertones of Jessica Rabbit, including a whole seedy adult film subgenre involving humans and toons.
This would probably never be appropriate for Disney+ but may have served as inspiration for the cult film, Cool World, directed by Ralph Bakshi, that Paramount Pictures put out a few years after the success of Roger Rabbit. The PG-13 movie deals almost exclusively with the ramifications of human and toon mating.
Exploring the Impact of a Modern World in Toon Town
Eddie Murphy could potentially get another shot at a starring role in a sequel to Roger Rabbit. He was initially approached for the role of Eddie Valiant but regrettably turned it down. Should the sequel take place in the modern era, the writers could easily tap back into the freeway ambitions that motivated Judge Doom. His goal was to develop a highway that would have plowed through Toon Town, which is essentially Hollywood, and develop the surrounding area to service greedy corporations.
The film takes inspiration from the history of LA. From the early 1890s, the Pacific Electric Railroad connected the townships of Glendale, Santa Monica, Long Beach, and Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles. Roger Rabbit 2 could explore the impact of transportation and other technologies on Toon Town. What impact did the internet have on Toon Town? Perhaps after their birth, toons became less social with one another. Is there less empathy in Toon Town as a result? Has there been an increase in violence since the internet gave birth to social media and other echo-chamber forums where toons gather online?
With clever, intelligent, and brave writing, Roger Rabbit 2 could do what Ralph Breaks The Internet probably should have.