Who framed Roger Rabbit?

Question

I've watched the film some time ago and don't recall this eponymous question being explicitly answered. They uncover some conspiracies and plots within others but who did frame Roger Rabbit?

Was it Christopher Lloyd's character? Roger's manager? The Denver Broncos? ... err ... wrong universe, sorry.

Anyhow, who's to blame?

Answer 1

The first two. Christopher Lloyd's character, Judge Doom, is the big conspirator organising the whole situation, but it's the head of Roger's studio, R. K. Maroon, who does the actual setup.

He was the one to setup the situation between Acme and Jessica (the patty-cake), and he was also the one to hire Eddie Valiant to take pictures of the meeting. Then later when Valiant meets with Maroon to show him the results, they show Roger the pictures and he runs off to write his love poem, causing him to not have an alibi for the murder.

Judge Doom convinces Maroon to do all of this by agreeing to buy his company, but only if he can also buy Acme at the same time. However it was never Maroon's intention for there to be a murder, he was just hoping to blackmail Acme into selling.

No, you gotta understand, Valiant, I had nothin' to do with Acme gettin' killed. I just wanted to sell my studio. But they wouldn't buy my property unless Acme would sell his. And he wouldn't. So I was gonna blackmail Acme with pictures of him and the rabbit's wife.

Answer 2

Judge Doom framed Roger Rabbit.

Judge Doom wanted to buy ToonTown but Marvin Acme wouldn't sell. Accordingly, Doom asked R.K. Maroon to blackmail Acme. As a result, Doom knew Maroon had shown Roger evidence that Jessica Rabbit was having an affair with Acme. So Doom used the opportunity to kill Acme, hoping everyone would think Roger did it.

Though Acme's murder is not shown in the movie, what happened is confirmed by Jessica Rabbit's dialogue: Judge Doom killed Marvin Acme and framed Roger Rabbit.

JESSICA RABBIT: It was Doom who killed Acme, you know?

VALIANT: Why didn't you tell me?

JESSICA RABBIT: I didn't know who I could trust.

Answer 3

No one explicitly tried to frame Roger for murder, he was simply a prime suspect as he had opportunity and motivation, so as such the title is incorrect.

That said, "How Roger Rabbit proved his innocence" isn't as snappy a title as "Who framed Roger Rabbit".

The plot (as I remember it) goes like this.

Valiant is contracted by RK Maroon to follow Jessica and investigate rumours of an affair. Valiant takes pictures of Marvin Acme and Jessica playing "Patty Cake", Roger sees the pictures and becomes angry.

It turns out RK Maroon wanted to blackmail Acme (Maroon set up the affair with Jessica), but instead Acme is killed (presumably by Judge Doom).

So a literal reading of the - ahem - facts would lead you to say "RK Maroon framed Roger", but accidentally. In reality RK Maroon set in motion a sequence of events expecting a different outcome. The Bad Guy (possibly unknowingly) hijacked those events and Roger ends up "Framed" instead of simply cuckolded.