Cours toujours mon lapin

Baby Herman causes trouble for Roger Rabbit again when he wanders off into the woods whilst on a picnic. 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 Trail Mix-Up 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 sexy park ranger's uniform (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!)

WITH THIS THE third ROGER RABBIT short subject, there is both a familiarity and new ground covered. Whereas the setting had changed from an urban landscape to the great outdoors, the situational storytelling and gags were by now routine.

OUR STORY OPENS with some great sweeping, panoramic shots of what looks like a combination of the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park. The depth of the shots is reminiscent of those earlier Disney animated films that made use of the Multi-Plane Camera; which rendered a near 3 Dimensional appearance. The flora and fauna portrayed are colorful, lively and definitely non-anthropomorphic.

WE FIND THAT the unseen (except for lower legs)Mother, Baby Herman and Roger Rabbit are arriving at the "Yellowstain" National Park on a vacation camping trip. As is the usual plot device, Mother has to go somewhere and leaves Herman in Roger's charge. Baby innocently follows various birds, animals and insects; leading him into the old saw mill.

WITH THE GRAND finale, we have our guys shot through the air and colliding with the carved side of the Mount Rushmore memorial. The faces of Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt react in typical cartoon style; making them perhaps the first anthropomorphic rocks in cartoon history.

AS HAD BECOME the custom, TRAIL MIX UP boasts of cameo appearances by both Jessica Rabbit (Mrs. Roger) and MGM Cartoon star, Droopy; whose scenes in the ROGER RABBIT Feature were so well received.

ALTHOUGH WE ARE somewhat critical of the repetitive and monotonous application of the same situational gag lead-ins, the overall effect of these new ROGER RABBIT Cartoons was very pleasing. It is a shame that the project didn't continue or be revived; as that could well lead to an all out revival of the theatrical cartoons being produced anew.

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".

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

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.