Cours toujours mon lapin

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.

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!)

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.

By 1993, the cultural footprint and relevance of the smash-hit Who Framed Roger Rabbit? had faded from the mind of the public, which explains why Buena Vista decided to attach Trail Mix-Up, the third and final short film involving the Roger Rabbit character, to a A Far Off Place, a relatively low-key, small-budget studio release that had mediocre returns. In addition, by this point, the sheer magic and originality of blending live action and animation was a novelty that went by the wayside, so the only thing that was left for Roger Rabbit to try and remain relevant was to concoct a short that went back to the basics in terms of what it emphasized; in Trail Mix-Up's case, it's the juvenile qualities of Roger Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit's assets.

The short opens with Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer), Baby Herman, and Mrs. Herman (April Winchell) setting up camp at a local park, with Roger in charge of looking after Baby Herman, because he has a track record of doing so well at such a task. As one expects, Herman winds up wandering into the forest, and scaredy-cat Roger has few skills that aid him in surviving in a woodsy setting. This is where the busty, gorgeous, and unabashedly sexualized Jessica Rabbit (Kathleen Turner) flaunts into the picture. She's the forest's local ranger, as she shakes her bust and wiggles her petite waist and perfect round rump in order to "help" Roger find Herman before more danger faces him. But not before Roger can have his face flattened like a pancake and be shredded by a sawmill.

Trail Mix-Up, while sporadically funny and still admirably full of energy like the two shorts that preceded it, essentially admits defeat and shows why Roger Rabbit faded out of relevance in the public. With new, ground-breaking animation just two years on the horizon and a cry for more story-based shorts and films that didn't settle for cute dinosaurs and rambunctious rabbits, the reckless Roger, the fearless Herman, and the buxom Jessica Rabbit just didn't seem to hold the kind of ground in the 1990's as they previously held in the 1980's. The good news is that this kind of material doesn't find itself dated in terms of content, and is still just as amusing today because of its slapstick and setups as it was when it was released. Whether it directly calls for future projects, I can't say, but it does work to suggest that this serves more as a "see you later" with an unclear meaning or span of time for that last term.

Voiced by: Charles Fleischer, April Winchell, and Kathleen Turner. Directed by: Barry Cook.

Having recently got one of my all-time favourite films 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' on DVD, all three Roger Rabbit shorts were included as bonuses. And what great bonuses they were, thoroughly enjoyable in their own way, go perfectly with the film and almost as good.

The final Roger Rabbit short 'Trail Mix Up' (sad that there wasn't more) is perhaps my least favourite of the three, despite its more expansive setting and like 'Roller Coaster Rabbit' being closer to the wild manic spirit of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' than 'Tummy Trouble'. It is still however very, very good indeed, with its only mark against it being that all the gags in the other two cartoons worked whereas the ending falls flat a little. The basic story is not that special, if you remember the hilarious made-up short that started 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' you have the basic story structure for all three Roger Rabbit cartoons except in different settings.

What stops things from being predictable, repetitive and tired is the increasingly intensely frenetic physical comedy/violence (Roger always getting the worst of it), the wonderfully relentlessly madcap pacing that reminds one of a slightly faster paced Tex Avery cartoon (while occasionally feeling a touch rushed) and writing that's never less than very amusing and at its best hysterical (like with the tree, the numerous Roger Rabbits and the bear).

Anybody familiar with 'Animaniacs', 'Pinky and the Brain' and 'Tiny Toons', or who grew up with them, and only saw the Roger Rabbit cartoons recently like me, will love the vibrancy of the colours, the detail of the backgrounds and fluidity of the movements in 'Trail Mix Up'. The music is rousing and energetically orchestrated, Roger and Baby Herman work wonders together and the voice acting is fine. Jessica Rabbit of all the three cartoons is also at her sexiest.

Overall, very, very good final Roger Rabbit cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox