So this is A Thing That Is Actually Happening: Disneyland makes Toontown ride ‘more relevant’ with Jessica Rabbit as central character. You are reading that correctly. Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin is getting an update and we’re getting Jessica as a private investigator.
““Jessica Rabbit has determined it is past time for her to throw her fedora in the ring by starting her own private investigation service,” according to the new Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin backstory. “Watch out weasels, your reign of terror is over.””
Now, if you’ve actually ever watched the movie–and paid some damn attention!–you’d know that this is pretty much in line with Jessica’s character. In the third act of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jessica was the one risking her safety to both try and protect her husband and clear his name. While in Toontown, she was the one who saved Eddie Valiant’s life. She’s a helluva lot more than a simple damsel in distress and Disney is trying to reflect that.
But that hasn’t stopped the assmad “fans” from throwing multiple tantrums.
There are people on Twitter claiming that “Disney doesn’t understand her character”–funny, as SHE’S DISNEY’S CHARACTER–or that the “PC police” have struck or her trenchcoat is “baggy”.
Let’s be totally blunt here: this all boils down to “bOoBiEs gO jIgGLe” in these people’s minds. That’s it. They never saw Jessica as an actual character. To them, she was merely eye candy, put there for their titillation. Her character can’t change because to them, she has none.
Would these same “fans” complain about Mickey Mouse’s character radically “changing” because he’s not steering a steamboat? I mean, Mickey has changed jobs and appearances multiple times, but we don’t hear a lot of complaints about it.
Characters are not static. They can and do change. It’s true for every franchise and property. Don’t believe me? Compare G1 Bumblebee to 2007’s take on the character. There are differences and some fairly major ones. But at the core, it’s still Bumblebee either way!
Characters change. They get updates. It happens. What worked thirty years ago might not necessarily work today. The recent changes to this Disneyland attraction is a reflection of that. The original concept has been updated because things change. That’s a fact of life. And if a property can’t change, then the chances are very high that it will be left by the wayside.
There’s been a long enough drought when it comes to Roger Rabbit anything. I’m fine–hell, I’m better than fine!–with this. But then again, I always saw Jessica as more than a pretty face, so that might be part of it.
Iacon East 