Trail Mix-Up is a 1993 animated short, starring Roger Rabbit, that was shown before the feature A Far Off Place. This is the third and final animated Roger Rabbit short, produced after the 1988 film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Amblin Entertainment.
Plot[]
The short features Roger Rabbit, Baby Herman, and Mrs. Herman at the park setting up camp at Yellowstain Park. Mrs. Herman plans to go hunting and leaves Roger in charge of watching Baby Herman, threatening to hunt the rabbit down if he gets into any trouble since co-incidentally rabbit hunting season opens on that day.
Trouble begins when Baby Herman wanders off in the dangers of the forest and Roger has to go save him, leading to multiple calamities such as Roger panicking at the sight of a bug and spraying so much insecticide (named Mink-Off) that many trees die. Later, Baby Herman follows a bee up to a beehive, and Roger tries to save him. The beehive falls on Roger's head, causing him to get stung multiple times. The bees proceed to chase him, so Roger runs into a lake, where he panics at the sight of a shark's dorsal fin (which is actually controlled by Droopy).
Later, Baby Herman follows a beaver (mistaking him for a dog), and Roger chases after them. Baby Herman follows the beaver up a pile of logs, and Roger follows, only to have the log that Baby and the beaver are on taken to the sawmill. This ends up with Roger being shredded by a sawmill (and the result is thirteen tiny Rogers, which then join again into a regular-sized Roger, who follows Baby Herman (still following the beaver) onto a conveyor belt with logs). It ends up with the logs being thrown down a log flume, eventually landing in a river. The log Roger, Baby and the beaver are on crashes into a bear, who ends up on the log. Then the four fall off a waterfall. Roger's head gets stuck in a twig sticking out of the waterfall, and he catches Baby Herman (holding on to the beaver), and the bear grabs onto Roger's legs. The combined weight rebounds, sending all four flying, landing on a large boulder.
The boulder proceeds to roll down a hill, knocking over a tree trunk (with the same sound effects as a bowling pin), and then flying off a cliff. Eventually, Roger, the bear, the log, the beaver, the boulder, and Baby Herman all land on top of Old Predictable Geyser in that order. Then, Old Predictable Geyser erupts, sending Roger, the bear, the log, the beaver, the boulder, and Baby Herman flying out of the studio, above Hollywood, from California to South Dakota, before crashing into Mount Rushmore, destroying it. Everyone is battered and beaten, and Baby Herman chides Roger for destroying a national monument. Roger then proceeds to stick a flag (made of his pants) in the ground, but this causes the Earth to start deflating like a balloon and fly away.
Cameos[]
The cartoon characters that make cameo appearances in this short include:
- Mickey Mouse
- Tinker Bell from Peter Pan (*)
- Evinrude from The Rescuers (*)
- Genie from Aladdin (*)
- The boy from Off His Rockers (*)
- Droopy Dog
(*) Denotes anachronistic cameos, since the Roger Rabbit short films are set in 1947, as revealed in the title cards, and the characters wouldn't have debuted in 1947.
Much like the previous short, this short feature cameos from Disney characters created after the Golden Age of American Animation, in this case Evinrude from The Rescuers (1977), the Genie from Aladdin (1992), and the unnamed boy from Off His Rockers (1992). Tinker Bell's cameo from Peter Pan (1953) in this short is anachronistic as well, since this short took place in 1947, which is about six years before she officially debuted in 1953.
Trivia[]
- Some of the bees that Roger spits out resemble several Disney characters, including Mickey Mouse, Tinker Bell from Peter Pan, Evinrude from The Rescuers, and Genie from Aladdin.
- When Mrs. Herman throws Roger to the ground, Roger’s tail changes to Jessica Rabbit for one frame, then 2 frames later you can see that his tail is in the shape of Mickey Mouse.
- The title card at the start of the film states that this film was made in 1947, the year Who Framed Roger Rabbit was set in.
- During the scene where Roger and Baby Herman are about to ride the log down the flume, there is a close up on Baby Herman, having Mickeys in his eyes, followed by Roger having skull and crossbones in his eyes. The DVD version does not have the Roger eye gag. Another change in this short is right before this scene where there is a poster of a model on a saw that is blurred.
- When Roger goes into a full-blown panic over a very small bug, the green-fumed insecticide he uses the brand name "MINK-OFF", a reference to Rob Minkoff.
- After Roger is cut up by the giant buzzsaws, there's a wooden leg sticking out from one of the woodchip piles. The leg in question belongs to Pinocchio.
- The log Roger and Baby Herman are riding has a bumper sticker that reads: "We Visited Splash Mountain."
- Maroon Studios as seen from the air is the real-life Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
- This is one of the two Roger Rabbit short films to be rated G by the MPAA, the first being Tummy Trouble.
- Much like Roller Coaster Rabbit, this Roger Rabbit short film ended disastrously. However, unlike the former short, this short's ending is more disastrous; not only do Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman get blasted out of the studio, but they also get injured from crashing into Mount Rushmore (and also losing their clothing in the process) and finally deflating planet Earth.
- This is the only Roger Rabbit short to not have any live actors. We only see silhouettes of the crew.
- Shortly before the credits end, the Earth, still deflating, arrives back, where Roger, Baby Herman, and the bear can be heard screaming, just before they crash into something off-screen.
- As Roger and Baby Herman ride down the flume, if the viewers look closely during the first-person perspective shot, there's a wanted poster depicting the boy from the 1992 short Off His Rockers. Coincidentally, the short (which was paired with the theatrical release of Honey, I Blew Up the Kid) was also directed by Barry Cook.
- When Roger is getting crushed between the falling logs, there's an instance where he appears with his guts spilled out, when he lies on a beach chair, and when he is crushed like chewed-up bubble gum.
- There are three references to the first short from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, "Somethin's Cookin'". At the beginning cookies fall off the refrigerator in reference to Baby Herman's objective in the film. Also, the Suck-O-Lux from that short makes an appearance, however, since Warner Bros. owns the trademarks for "Acme", it is branded "Su-Me" ("sue me") as a joke. At the end, Raoul J. Raoul, the director of the short in the film, is stated to be the governor of South Dakota.
- This short was filmed at Disney MGM Studios in 1992.
- This is the only one of the three Roger Rabbit shorts where Jessica Rabbit does make an impression to Roger within the cartoon, with the infatuated rabbit fantasizing over her as a park ranger, calling her a "babe in the woods" and panting like a dog.
- Jessica's line, "Only you can prevent forest fires", is the slogan used by the Wildfire Prevention Campaign, whose mascot is Smokey the Bear.
- Jessica's voice is much lower in this short, mainly due to Kathleen Turner's smoking habit.
- The end credits music is based on the note written in Music Land.
Voice Cast[]
- Charles Fleischer - Roger Rabbit
- Kathleen Turner - Jessica Rabbit
- April Winchell - Young Baby Herman, Mom
- Lou Hirsch - Adult Baby Herman
- Corey Burton - Droopy
- Frank Welker - Bear, Beaver, "Goombah" Bee
Home video releases[]
VHS
- The Best of Roger Rabbit
Laserdisc
- The Best of Roger Rabbit
DVD
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Vista Series
Blu-ray
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit: 25th Anniversary Edition
Gallery[]