In the film version, Roger is a cartoon character or "toon" living in Hollywood during the Golden age of American animation.

After Roger is framed for the murder of a famous Hollywood producer and the owner of Toontown, Marvin Acme, he seeks out Valiant to help clear his name.

In the film, the voice of Roger is performed by comedian Charles Fleischer, who was known for electing to wear an actual rabbit costume on the set to get into the role over the entirety of production.

Wolf was watching Saturday morning cartoons as research for new book ideas, when he noticed cereal commercial mascots such as Tony the Tiger and the Trix Rabbit.

Wolf found it amusing that these commercials had real children interacting with cartoon characters casually and without question, and he decided to explore the concept in book form, eventually combining pulp fiction and true crime elements, and eventually creating the character of Roger Rabbit in the process.

[13] Before Richard Williams came on board for the film project, early animation tests for Roger gave him a simple and stylized look of a skinny white bunny with a purple nose.

[15] When the film went into full production, Roger was redesigned in a fashion to take elements from all the major cartoon studios of the period, the philosophy behind the new characters, in general, being a combination of Disney's elaborate animation style, similar characterization to Warner Bros. characters and capable of performing Tex Avery-inspired gags.

as a tribute to all the other famous cartoon characters with speech impediments, which was inspired by Huntz Hall's Sach Jones in The Bowery Boys.

[19] To facilitate Bob Hoskins' performance as Eddie Valiant, Fleischer wore a Roger Rabbit costume on the set to get into the role over the entirety of production, and "stood in" behind camera for most scenes.

His white stomach, nose, toes and palms on a light brown body made him resemble someone who had just walked face first into a freshly painted wall.

He is an amalgamation of various classic cartoon characters, taking: Mickey Mouse for his gloves; Bugs Bunny for his rabbit form, cheeks and ears included; Goofy for his baggy overalls; Porky Pig for his bow tie; Droopy for his head and red hair; and Wile E. Coyote for his expressions.

He loves to make others laugh and is good friends with the other Toons, especially Baby Herman (his Maroon Cartoons costar) and Benny the Cab.

He believes that if someone doesn't have a good sense of humor they're better off dead and gets upset over having to sit through things such as newsreels that he perceives as boring.

Valiant also goes to the Rabbit's house and finds Roger's corpse lying over the banister, soaking in a pool of his own blood.

Valiant then encounters Roger's dopple, who begs the toon-hating detective to prove his innocence and clear his name.

In the 1988 Disney/Amblin Entertainment film, he is re-envisioned as a character in 1940s animated cartoons and a resident of the fictional Los Angeles enclave, Toontown.

Despite being produced by Disney, these shorts contained a heavy slapstick style similar to Warner Bros. Looney Tunes or Tex Avery cartoons, and MGM character Droopy cameos in each one.

Before long, Eddie, Coop, Roger, and the ever-glamorous Jessica Rabbit are embroiled in a mystery that could destroy Toontown.

In the story, Roger and Jessica are thrown out of work when Maroon Cartoon Studios resorts to cheaper animation.

While Jessica Rabbit, Baby Herman and Benny the Cab all appeared in the stories, Eddie Valiant was seldom seen, replaced by a new detective character named Rick Flint.

Other new characters introduced were Lenny, a toon plane who was Benny's cousin, and Mel, who was Roger's sentient mailbox.

In movement, the Roger Rabbit dance is similar to the running man, but done by skipping backwards with arms performing a flapping gesture as if hooking one's thumbs on suspenders.