Roger in Nöten

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.

This is classic, it is a double feature with the HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS movie. Alright, so Honey I Shrunk The Kids is a good movie, but THIS is even better. I got the movie at a garage sale just for this cartoon. This is 7 minutes of nonstop hilarious action, with Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman. It has all the classic cartoon gags you love, and is definitely Roger Rabbit's best cartoon. Also, the ending to this cartoon is brilliant and also pretty funny. This is a must see for cartoon fans, and even people who don't like cartoons. Get Heny O Shrunk The Kids not for that movie, but for "Tummy Trouble." It is a laugh riot!

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".

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

I first saw this cartoon when I rented the film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. The Disney studios decided to show this brief cartoon before the movie actually started and I must say, it was absolutely funny. I thought Steven Spielberg did such a brilliant job producing this funny segment along with cool action sequences.