Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, and written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, based on Gary K. Wolf's 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?. It stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Stubby Kaye, and Joanna Cassidy, with the voices of Charles Fleischer and Kathleen Turner. Combining live-action and animation, the film is set in an alternate history Hollywood in 1947, where humans and cartoon characters (referred to as "toons") co-exist. It follows Eddie Valiant, a private investigator with a prejudice against toons who must help exonerate Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer), a toon framed for murder. Walt Disney Pictures purchased the film rights for the story in 1981. Price and Seaman wrote two drafts of the script before Disney brought in executive producer Steven Spielberg and his production company, Amblin Entertainment. Zemeckis was brought on to direct and Canadian animator Richard Williams was hired to supervise the animation sequences. Production was moved from Los Angeles to Elstree Studios in England to accommodate Williams and his group of animators. While filming, the production budget began to rapidly expand, and the shooting schedule ran longer than expected. The film was released through Disney's Touchstone Pictures banner on June 22, 1988. It received acclaim from critics, who praised its visuals, humor, writing, and performances, with critics and audiences considering it to be "groundbreaking". It grossed over $351 million worldwide, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 1988. It brought a renewed interest in the Golden age of American animation, spearheading modern American animation and the Disney Renaissance. It won three Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects and received a Special Achievement Academy Award for Williams' animation direction. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot Humans and cartoon characters, "toons", regularly interact in animated shorts and films, and reside in an area of Los Angeles known as Toontown. Private detective Eddie Valiant once worked closely with toons alongside his brother Teddy, but sank into depression and alcoholism after Teddy was murdered by a toon. In 1947, R.K. Maroon, head of Maroon Cartoon Studios, is concerned about the recent poor performances of one of his stars, Roger Rabbit. Maroon hires Eddie to investigate rumors about Roger's voluptuous