Disney’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit ride is making Jessica Rabbit a private eye as part of a reboot of the Disneyland attraction. Jessica Rabbit from Robert Zemeckis’ Academy Award-winning film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), is a well-known animated sex symbol. That makes the famously busty femme fatale an unusual character in the otherwise family-friendly world of Disney Animation. The Jessica Rabbit featured in Disneyland’s Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin ride is now getting an update.
In the PG-rated film, which was groundbreaking for combining live-action with animation, cartoon star, Roger (voiced by Charles Fleischer), suspects that his wife Jessica (voiced by Kathleen Turner) is being unfaithful to him, so the studio hires detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) to investigate. When Marvin Acme is found dead, Roger is accused of murder, and detective Valiant is the cartoon rabbit’s only hope to prove his innocence. Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin is a dark ride inspired by the film, and is located in the Mickey’s Toontown section of Disneyland. In the 4-minute ride that originally opened in 1994, visitors would catch a ride in a taxi and follow Roger Rabbit and Benny the Cab as they raced through Toontown to rescue Jessica from the villainous Weasels.
According to Uproxx, which reported the story via the OC Register, Disneyland is updating rides that have become culturally outdated. Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin is the latest attraction to undergo a major renovation to remove problematic scenes—joining Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise. “Some scenes in Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin featuring Jessica Rabbit are being updated to be more relevant and reflect a new twist in the character’s story,” the OC Register reported. The revamped storyline turns Jessica into the newest private eye in Toontown on the lookout for Weasels responsible for a rise in crime. Car Toon Spin originally featured Jessica as a kidnapping victim tied up in a car trunk, but she has been removed and replaced with barrels of “Dip.” Until the renovation is complete, the following poster will be displayed in the ride’s queue:
Disney is ostensibly making the changes because it believes the Jessica Rabbit character embodies the “damsel in distress” stereotype, which may be seen by some as insensitive. Therefore, she has been transformed into a trench-coat-wearing private investigator who uses her intelligence to solve a problem in Toontown. Jessica Rabbit is now more empowered—and far less scantily clad.
Disney’s update of the ride is getting a lot of attention, both positive and negative. Some people are happy that the classic attraction is getting an update. They like the idea of Jessica Rabbit as a private eye, and believe the new narrative better connects the ride to the surrounding land. On the other hand, some fans are upset that the reboot ignores the original story. They maintain that Jessica Rabbit was not a “damsel in distress,” and she held her own in both the film and the original ride. At the very least, all of the publicity surrounding the renovation is bringing renewed interest in the ride, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Disneyland.
Source: Uproxx