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
