Bobo bidon

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 first Roger Rabbit short 'Tummy Trouble' does a very good job cooking up material that's funny and imaginative in a setting as ordinary as a hospital, whereas the other two cartoons had more expansive settings that allowed the humour to run wild even more. 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 crashing through the floors, in the operating theatre and the elevator).

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 'Tummy Trouble'. The live-action sequence at the end like in tribute to 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' was an inspired touch. The music is rousing and energetically orchestrated, Roger and Baby Herman work wonders together and the voice acting is fine.

Overall, great first Roger Rabbit cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox

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".

PERHAPS IT WAS done to see if we could bear witness to a sort of Renaissance of the Theatrical Cartoon Short, or maybe it was just made in order to ca$h in on the popularity of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?. In either case, we're happy that the short and subsequent cartoons were produced.

SOME HAVE EXPRESSED disappointment at the ROGER RABBIT/BABY HERMAN Cartoons by stating that they were not like the ROGER RABBIT feature film. To them we must remind them that the cartoons are not on the same level budgetarily or otherwise. The cartoons are just that, cartoons. They exist in order to give a little variety to the program.

BEYOND THE REALM of being a warm-up and laugh getter for the movie audience, we must realize that there is yet another dimension to these latter-day animations. In addition to the usual aspects of a cartoon's having funny characters, snappy hip dialogue, over the top sight gags and a lively soundtrack featuring both appropriately chosen music and befitting sound effects; we have yet another complex element here.

WE MUST KEEP in mind that for whatever reason they were made, their genesis was steeped in satire and parody. Whereas the ROGER RABBIT Feature was (among other things) a satire of the Hollywood and indeed the whole American scene, the resulting shorts were driven by their need and purpose of parodying the work of icons of the animation art such as: Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, Ub Iwerks, Tex Avery, Fritz Freleng, Bob Clampett, etc., etc., etc........

AS FOR OUR opinion, both Schultz and myself highly approve and wish that the series would continue.

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!)

"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