CARTOON REVIEW : Frenetic Gags Back With Roger Rabbit, Baby Herman in ‘Trail’

“Trail Mix-Up,” the new Disney cartoon short screening with “A Far Off Place,” reunites Roger Rabbit, Baby Herman and the voluptuous Jessica Rabbit in a new series of misadventures in the not-so-great outdoors.

During a camping trip to Yellowstain National Park, Mom (in high-heeled hiking boots) goes a-hunting, leaving Baby Herman in Roger’s care. Predictably, pandemonium ensues as Herman blithely crawls from the brink of one disaster to another, leaving Roger to pick up the pieces.

The frenetic bunny confronts a swarm of angry bees, a destructive beaver, a thick-witted bear and a roller-coaster ride down a flume and into a murderous Rube Goldberg-esque sawmill.

Director Barry Cook accelerates the pace of the gags as the film progresses, and by the time Roger and Baby Herman land in the sawmill, the images are whizzing by at a breakneck speed that makes MTV look sedate. There’s plenty of cartoon mayhem and wild, Tex Avery-style takes: At one point, Roger’s eyes pop out of his head, leaving grooves in the dirt.

Made by a crew of 220 artists at the Disney animation studio in Orlando, Fla., “Trail Mix-Up” boasts lusher backgrounds and more polished animation than other recent studio cartoons. Its one real weakness is the plot.

“Trail Mix-Up” is the third Roger Rabbit short in four years, and they’ve all followed the pattern established in the opening sequence of the 1988 blockbuster “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”--only the individual gags and the setting have been changed.

It’s time the Disney artists found new story lines for these characters.