Curve pericolose

The years were good for Roger Rabbit and the animation crew. It was three years since the previous Roger Rabbit cartoon when "Trail Mix-Up" was released, and the animation was quite contrasting compared to the first two Roger shorts. The visuals are almost up to feature-animation quality and are quite crisp and beautiful. Just imagine what Roger Rabbit cartoons would look like if they were made today!

"Trail Mix-Up" has some very inventive and funny gags; like when Roger runs for safety only to have an unbelievably tall tree crash down on him miles away, and when numerous mini-Rogers appear after Roger goes through some buzz saws. This short even features Jessica Rabbit's sexiest appearance out of all the cartoons (and probably the feature too!). Who knew a cartoon character could accomplish such a thing. Man, I feel like the ultimate nerd by writing that! :P

While watching "Trail Mix-Up" again, I had a hard time remembering why I prefer "Roller Coaster Rabbit" to this. All the gags were top-notch and hilarious, with a sexy Jessica Rabbit thrown in, and then we get to the ending. The water-skiing bear was pretty funny, but it all turned too manic and just not all that funny when they returned to the "real world." I don't know what exactly it was, but maybe I just didn't like seeing a national monument be destroyed or to even see Baby Herman harmed. The ending just didn't sit well with me.

Aside from that, this is still a pretty good cartoon. There are plenty of laughs, and it's just a beauty to see.

My IMDb Rating: 8/10

In the last Roger Rabbit short, Roger and Baby Herman go camping in Yellowstain Park. Some rather stressful shenanigans ensue.

It's produced in full Candybox Animation mode, and while I have some issues with the violence starting full bore and continuing throughout, I am willing to forgive all for the sheer structure of the cartoon, and the infinite flexibility of Roger; even Bob Clampett wouldn't have done anything quite that destructive.

Alas, there were no more of these beautiful theatrical Roger Rabbit cartoons. The impulse to produce them is a little vague, but the amazing success of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? Made them seen as something to keep people interested in the proposed sequel. Steven Spielberg, who produced them, loved them, but even for him it undoubtedly seemed less than sensible to keep on producing them when the sequel fell through.

I remember 'Entertainment Weekly' panning this cartoon when it came out for its crudeness and sexiness. I'll agree that the 'dropped a log' line is a bit much but on the whole the cartoon seems to be a foil for Disney animator's frustrations with the 'Disney' way of storytelling. To that end, this is the most violent and faced-paced of the Roger Rabbit shorts with Roger getting threatened by a shot gun, bashed countless times, with a face-ful of bee sting welts, and sliced up by the saw-mill.

The drawings are certainly not top-notch with Roger and Baby looking like distant cousins of their characters in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'. The backgrounds are bright and lively but this certainly is the most forgettable Maroon Cartoon short and possibly why others were not produced. Less an homage to Tex Avery and other 1940's-50's cartoon shorts, it just goes a little too far cramming one rabbit-pummeling gag after another.

After the wonderful film WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, Disney Pictures experimented by making several short cartoons starring Roger Rabbit and they were shown before feature films--much like the original purpose of classic Warner Brothers, MGM and Disney toons. Unfortunately, Disney also chose to pair these amazing shorts with some of the worst films of the era--virtually guaranteeing they would never see the light of day! Today, the only way you can see them is on an out of print videotape entitled "THE BEST OF ROGER RABBIT". It is NOT available on DVD nor does it appear it will be.

In this short, Roger in the great outdoors and as usual, he's watching the troublesome Baby Herman. And, as usual, Baby Herman manages to get into a ton of trouble--leading to an amazing finale! You just have to see it to believe it.

Now as to the quality of this cartoon, it is amazingly violent and insane--even more so than the typical Tex Avery cartoon of the 1950s. Because the characters are so funny, the animation quality so superb and the action so intense, this is one of the greatest cartoon shorts you can find---period. Too bad the powers that be at Disney were idiots who didn't realize they had gold on their hands!

UPDATE 2/09--According to IMDb "This animated short can be found on the Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) Vista Series DVD, released in 2003".

This short was very funny. I like the Droopy scenes. Every Roger Rabbit short has a cameo by Jessica, and this one does too. It is a very funny one. I wish they would make more of these Roger Rabbit shorts, but I can only find three. Oh well do yourself a favor don't miss this one.