Who Framed Roger Rabbit's Jessica Rabbit is getting a new look and revamped backstory for the Disneyland attraction Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.
The Orange County Register reported these changes will include making Jessica a private eye on the hunt for the Toon Patrol Weasels, the criminals behind a sharp rise in crime in Mickey's Toontown. “Jessica Rabbit has determined it is past time for her to throw her fedora in the ring by starting her own private investigation service,” reads her new Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin backstory. “Watch out weasels, your reign of terror is over.”
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin opened at Disneyland in 1994 and is based on the 1988 live-action/animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, itself loosely adapted from Gary K. Wolf's satirical 1981 mystery novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the movie takes place in a version of 1940s Los Angeles where cartoon characters or "toons" live side by side with people. An uncredited Kathleen Turner voices Jessica, a human toon and nightclub singer whose husband, the cartoon rabbit Roger, is framed for murdering Marvin Acme, Toontown's wealthy owner.
An Oscar-winning classic, Who Framed Roger Rabbit has long courted controversy over its risqué elements, including its highly sexualized portrayal of Jessica. An earlier iteration of Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin similarly drew criticism for a scene featuring Jessica tied up in the trunk of a car. This depiction of Jessica as a damsel-in-distress clashed with her role in the film, where she actively helps the detective Eddie Valiant in his efforts to clear Roger's name. It has since been replaced ahead of the ride's newly announced overhaul.
Disneyland's Car Toon Spin is far from the first attraction at the park to undergo a major change to make it "more relevant." The Pirates of the Caribbean ride has seen the removal of several problematic elements from the original version of the attraction, like a scene where a group of captive women are auctioned off to the pirates. Jungle Cruise was similarly renovated recently, resulting in the removal of the ride's racist caricatures of Indigenous people and the addition of a new storyline involving a diverse group of skippers.
Big changes are also coming to Splash Mountain, which was designed after Disney's infamous 1946 live-action/animated film Song of the South, but is being repurposed as a ride themed around the studio's 2009 animated feature The Princess and the Frog. However, despite being announced in June 2020, it appears those alterations will go into effect after the updates to rides like Car Toon Spin.
Source: The Orange Country Register, Twitter
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