Roger in Nöten

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 to be coming out in the near future.

In this short, Roger is, as usual, watching the troublesome Baby Herman. Not surprisingly, Baby Herman is a real handful and nearly kills Roger again and again as Roger tries to save the kid's life. Things really move into high gear when the baby swallows his rattle and Roger rushes him to the most insane hospital ever placed on film! 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".

Tummy Trouble follows the misadventures of Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer), who is placed in charge of watching Baby Herman when his mother needs to run errands. Herman instantly throws a temper tantrum that results in Roger panicking, even more-so when Herman winds up accidentally swallowing his favorite rattle. In an effort to restore sanity to Herman's home, he must comfort Herman's stomach pain, control his incessant wailing, and restore order to their home, which rapidly descends into array. Also in the picture is a doctor, who tries to help the situation, but only winds up creating a dangerous playground upon which Roger and Herman wreak havoc. The result is chaotic and reckless as can be.

The Roger Rabbit short films possess similar qualities as Tom & Jerry shorts and the Looney Tunes bits that focus on Sylvester the Cat painstakingly trying to outwit Tweety Bird. The result is a brash and hectic parade of visual gags for seven minutes before a fourth-wall breaking sequence at the tail-end of the short. Tummy Trouble showcases this brand of fast-paced, blink-and-you-miss-it humor done right, with enough emphasis on the limitless boundaries of animation to make this a favorable entry in the genre. The beauty of animation is such ridiculousness like what is shown in this short can be conceived so shamelessly, and through a loving blend of chaos and a smoothly introduced (and flawlessly executed) live-action sequence, there's little not to love here.

Voiced by: Charles Fleischer, Lou Hirsch, and Kathleen Turner. Directed by: Rob Minkoff and Frank Marshall.

"Tummy Trouble" is my least favorite of the three Roger Rabbit shorts, possibly because the setting is pretty ordinary. The other two shorts feature more interesting stories in places I like to go (amusement parks and national parks). "Tummy Trouble" is very similar to the opening cartoon in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," in which Roger is running around protecting Baby Herman; only to be the victim of some physical gags that get more and more severe as the cartoon progresses. This isn't to say that I didn't like the comedy displayed in "Tummy Trouble." I especially liked the fall from the sky in which Roger crashes through all the floors in the hospital. I also thought Roger "catching" the elevator was pretty funny.

Also there were some things that stuck out to me while watching "Tummy Trouble." In the beginning of the cartoon when Roger visits Baby Herman in the hospital room, you can see a diagram of the inner body of Mickey Mouse hanging on the wall along with a picture of the doctor that appeared in a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon. I also thought Baby Herman was pretty funny and memorable in his on-screen persona. Then we get to see the Baby Herman we know and love after the cartoon is over. Lastly, I just liked the title card of the cartoon with the wording, "Walt Disney Pictures and Steven Spielberg present…" Wow, you just don't see that too often, and we probably never will again!

My IMDb Rating: 7/10

Baby Herman swallows a rattle while in the care of Roger Rabbit (which is why I never leave a rodent to supervise MY kids) and is rushed to the hospital where all manner of craziness ensues.

I'm not the biggest fan of the Roger Rabbit shorts, finding Roger's voice a little on the irritating side and the relentlessly madcap nature and breakneck speed of the action, something akin to Tex Avery on speed, just a touch too excessive for my taste (I had the same problem with Spielberg's equally insane Animaniacs).

Even though Tummy Trouble doesn't rate as highly with me as it does with other reviewers here on IMDb, I still recommend it if only for the fact that pneumatic Jessica Rabbit appears wearing a tight nurse's outfit (cue wolf-whistles, leg thumping on table, jaw hitting the floor, eyes popping out, and steam erupting from ears!).

(Please excuse the fact that all the reviews I have written for the Roger Rabbit shorts are almost identical—since all three cartoons follow exactly the same formula, I thought I would save myself some time!)

As "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was the first movie that I ever saw in the theaters - although I was four years old, so I didn't really understand it - "Tummy Trouble" was fairly interesting. I would imagine that some of what happens to Roger here might happen to people going in for operations; I mean, some of the stuff in that hospital did look fairly menacing.

One thing about which I'm still curious is whether or not Roger Rabbit existed before "WFRR". When I read Wikipedia's article about him, it sounded as if he got created specifically for that movie; I had always assumed that he had existed at least since the 1940s. Does anyone know for sure? But I digress. This is a pretty funny cartoon.