Who Framed Roger Rabbit

In 1947 Los Angeles, animated cartoon characters, or " toons ", co-exist with humans, often working as film stars. Private detective Eddie Valiant , once a staunch ally of the toons, has become a depressed alcoholic following his brother Teddy's murder by an unknown toon five years prior. K. Maroon, upset about the recent poor performance of his toon star Roger Rabbit , hires Eddie to investigate rumors that Roger's glamorous toon wife, Jessica , is having an affair with Marvin Acme, owner of both the Acme Corporation and Toontown, the animated metropolis in which toons reside.

After watching Jessica perform at The Ink and Paint Club, Eddie secretly photographs her and Acme playing patty-cake . He shows the pictures to Roger, who becomes distraught and flees, refusing to believe Jessica was unfaithful. The next morning, Acme is found murdered and evidence at the scene implicates Roger. Eddie meets Judge Doom , the sinister human judge of Toontown—having bribed the electorate for their votes—and his five weasel minions, the Toon Patrol.

Doom reveals that he will execute Roger using the "Dip", a chemical concoction of acetone , benzene , and turpentine , which can destroy the otherwise invulnerable toons. Roger's toon co-star, Baby Herman, suggests to Eddie that Acme's missing will , which supposedly bequeaths Toontown to the toons, may have been the killer's true motive. Eddie returns to his office and finds Roger waiting. Roger insists he has been framed and Eddie reluctantly agrees to help after finding evidence of Acme's will; he hides Roger in a bar tended by his girlfriend, Dolores.

Later, Jessica tells Eddie that Maroon threatened Roger's career unless she posed for the compromising photos. Meanwhile, Dolores uncovers that Cloverleaf Industries recently bought the city's Pacific Electric railway system and will purchase Toontown at midnight unless Acme's will is found. Doom and the Toon Patrol find Roger, but he and Eddie escape with help from Benny, a toon taxi cab. Sheltering in a local movie theater , Eddie sees a newsreel of Maroon selling his studio to Cloverleaf.

While Eddie goes to the studio to interrogate Maroon, Jessica abducts Roger. Maroon denies involvement in Acme's murder, admitting he intended to blackmail Acme into selling his company as otherwise Cloverleaf would not buy the studio. In the middle of his confession, Maroon is assassinated and Eddie spots Jessica fleeing the scene. Assuming she is the assailant, he reluctantly follows her into Toontown, choosing to discard the last of his alcohol.

After saving Eddie from being shot by Doom, Jessica reveals her actions were to ensure Roger's safety and it was Doom who killed Acme and Maroon. Acme gave his will to Jessica for safety but, when she examined it, the paper was blank. Doom and the Toon Patrol capture Jessica and Eddie, bringing them to Acme's factory. Doom reveals he is the sole shareholder of Cloverleaf.

He plans to erase Toontown with a Dip-spraying machine so he can build a freeway in its place, and decommission the railway system to force people to use it. When Roger fails to save Jessica, the couple is tied onto a hook in front of the machine's sprayer. Eddie performs a series of pratfalls that cause the weasels to laugh themselves to death, kicks their leader into the dip, and then fights Doom. After being flattened by a steamroller , Doom reveals himself as a disguised toon and Teddy's murderer.

Struggling against Doom's toon abilities, Eddie empties the machine's Dip supply, spraying and dissolving Doom. The machine crashes through the wall into Toontown, where it is destroyed by a passenger train . As police and toons gather at the scene, Eddie realizes that Acme's will was written on the blank paper in temporarily invisible ink , confirming the toons inherit Toontown. Having regained his sense of humor, Eddie happily enters Toontown alongside Dolores, Roger, Jessica, and the toons.