MOVIE REVIEW : Disney’s ‘Roller Coaster Rabbit’ Pays Homage to ‘40s Cartoons

“Roller Coaster Rabbit,” Disney’s new “Maroon Cartoon” (with “Dick Tracy,” citywide), reunites Baby Herman, Roger and Jessica Rabbit in a funny, fast-paced homage to the Hollywood cartoons of the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Roger has become a slightly wiser, if not brighter, rabbit. When Mom tells him to mind Baby Herman while she has her palm read at a carnival, he begs her not to leave him in charge--remember what happened last time? But Mom gently persuades him: “You’ll do it or it’ll be rabbit stew for dinner!” Predictably, disaster ensues the minute she turns her back.

The film combines the lavish look of Disney’s early “Silly Symphonies” with the slapstick lunacy of the best Warner Bros.’ cartoons. The action is similarly madcap but during the ‘40s, director Rob Minkoff and his crew never could have gotten away with that one anatomically suggestive gag about a huge bull and a balloon. They’ve also tucked in a few inside jokes: A faded poster in the background reads “See the Little Mermaid!”

“Tummy Trouble,” the first Roger short, plunged the audience into a frenetic world where the comic mayhem never let up. “Roller Coaster Rabbit” is funnier because it’s more skillfully paced.

Instead of bombarding the audience with nonstop gags, the cartoon gradually accelerates to its no-holds-barred climax, a hair-raising ride on a roller coaster that makes Magic Mountain’s Viper look like a playground slide. A combination of drawn and computer animation gives this sequence a dizzying realism that will have the more timorous members of the audience clutching their seats.

Unhappily, “Roller Coaster Rabbit” may be the last cartoon for Roger until the sequel to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” appears, probably in 1992 or 1993. In a recent telephone interview, Walt Disney Studios Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg said: “We have a couple of ideas for other cartoons we’re working on, but we haven’t decided whether or not to continue producing them--that’s something we have to decide with Amblin.”