Review: who censored roger rabbit by gary k wolf

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lemming
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Review: who censored roger rabbit by gary k wolf

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was pleasantly surprised to find this book for my Kindle as I've been curious to read it since I learned of its existence, but while I enjoyed it, I can see why it has remained out of print even though it inspired a well-known movie - it's not for the same audience as the movie. The audience for the movie were probably similar to the Pixar crowd nowadays - in search of enough movement and colour to keep very young kids interested yet also requiring enough subtlety and sophistication to engage the parents. But it's hard to say who Gary Wolf was writing for - fans of hard boiled crime fiction who also have the ability to completely suspend their disbelief? I say "completely" because even when you accept a world where comic strip characters are real, talk in speech balloons, and are photographed to create comics, it does not really prepare you for the plot device used to resolve the mystery - it's one of those endings that leaves you feeling the story did not play by its own rules. It's possible the unlikely plot twists and strained metaphors ("I sank a well into my bottom drawer, and struck more bourbon") are deliberately over the top for the sake of humour, but whether the joke holds up for the length of a short novel depends on your taste.

Even so, I did enjoy the uncompromisingly darker tone. No "dip" is required to dispatch toons; they get shot dead and bleed. In this version of the story Jessica Rabbit really is "bad", not just "drawn that way" and unlike in the movie there is no need to mess around with freeze frame to see her without her underwear. While Roger himself has some of the same overly helpful, goofy nature that was a big part of his personality in the movie, he also manages to solve elements of the case on his own, makes allusions to Socrates, solves chess problems and like all the other characters in the book, seems to be hiding something.

I've read about on-again, off-again plans for a sequel to the movie, and given the current trend towards going back to the roots of a series and creating reboots and re imaginings rather than straight sequels, it would be very interesting to see someone forget trying to compete with the latest Disney/Pixar masterpiece and create a mature audience Roger Rabbit that stayed closer to the book, maybe with a better ending but still aiming for a niche market of adults who grew up with Roger and are ready for a darker, more complex story.

One can dream.
Latest Review: "Broken Land, A Brooklyn Tale" by John Biscello
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