Tummy Trouble (1989)

Wonderful character development!

Purely Joyful Movie!

I wanted to but couldn't!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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.

In 1988, producer Steven Spielberg and director Robert Zemeckis made a landmark film that not only served as a love letter to classic cartoons from the 1940s and film noir, but also combined live-action filmmaking and animation. That film was "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", based on the novel "Who Censored Roger Rabbit" by humorist and novelist Gary K. Wolfe. Released under Disney affiliate Touchstone Pictures, it was a huge technical achievement at the time and was a huge success at the box office. The film was, indeed, a big deal, and to this day, the movie holds up well. As a response to the film's success, three Roger Rabbit shorts, also produced by Spielberg were made and released individually to coincide with feature films distributed by Buena Vista. "Tummy Trouble", made one year after the release of "Roger Rabbit", was the first of the three shorts to be released.The film starts similarly to how "Roger Rabbit" began, where Roger (Charles Fleischer) is given the task to look after Baby Herman (April Winchell/Lou Hirsch). Unfortunately things go awry for Roger, as Baby Herman accidentally swallows his own rattle, so Roger takes him to the hospital to get it out. Hi-jinks ensue, including Roger accidentally swallowing the rattle after getting it out of Herman, and being mistaken as the patient. In the end, they do finish the cartoon, but the film doesn't end immediately. The finale becomes a live-action/animation combo like in the movie, and is shown as just another ordinary day of filming a cartoon (which we all know is not how its actually done, but a lot of us wish it did).The short was released alongside the 1989 film "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids", and like the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", it hearkens back to the cartoons that were made back in the 1940s, such as the Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, Popeye, etc. Hell, Tex Avery's Droopy Dog even makes a cameo appearance at some point in the picture. The animation is top notch, fast-paced, and fluent, and there's even some use of early CGI in parts of the film, similar to how it was used in a couple of Disney's prior feature-length pictures like "Oliver & Company" (1988) and "The Great Mouse Detective" (1986, also known as "Basil the Great Mouse Detective" internationally). It was an impressive appetizer of what was to come from the Disney studio, as five months later, Walt Disney Pictures would release the animated movie musical "The Little Mermaid", thus beginning the era known as the Disney Renaissance.Personally, the best way to watch the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is seeing this, and the other two shorts ("Roller Coaster Rabbit" and "Trail Mix-Up") first, because it builds up to whats to come when you get to the movie. The three shorts were first released with the movie on the Vista Series DVD version, but today, it can also be found on the 25th Anniversary edition Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack as bonus features. The next time you put the movie on, give this and the other two shorts a watch.

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.

TUMMY TROUBLE, in my opinion, is an absolutely freaking hilarious gut-buster! I haven't seen it in a while, but I still enjoyed it. It's hard to say which mishap was my favorite. There are so many funny mishaps in this that it's hard to choose. However, I think it was always funny when a mishap occurred, especially in the hospital. I always got hard laughs out of that. If you ask me, it was really funny when the rattle got swallowed, alb. Don't get me wrong, because I'm not for that kind of thing. Before I wrap this up, I'd like to say that I always got hearty laughs out of it, and the animation and drawing were very nice. In conclusion, I guarantee you'll get lots of hearty laughs out of this pure gut-buster.