Over the past few years, I have made numerous posts that have honored the works of one of my favorite animation companies, Rankin/Bass Productions. Rankin/Bass is well-known, of course, for their endless array of holiday classics ranging from the iconic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town to more obscure titles like The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow and Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey. This site’s line of tributes to Rankin/Bass began in 2013 when I did a retrospective on most of their holiday specials. That retrospective notably still stands as one of the most-viewed posts on this site at around 938 views. I then proceeded to do a follow-up post in 2015 that covered three of their specials that I didn’t include in the first post due to time constraints. And finally, this past December, I did a Top 10 list of my favorite musical numbers from Rankin/Bass specials, because as I noted in that post, Rankin/Bass songs are just as iconic as the specials that they are spawned from. But as you could tell from the title of this post, just because it isn’t the holiday season anymore does not mean that we’re done talking about Rankin/Bass. Seeing how Easter has just come and gone (along with the fact that it occurred on April Fools’ Day this year… man, talk about the strangest Easter ever…), I’d figured that it would be fun to tackle the three major holiday specials that Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass produced in the 70’s that were set during Easter. Not only that, but each of these specials features a radically different take on the origins of the holiday’s iconic figure, the Easter Bunny. So, without further ado, let’s delve into the enchanted world of Rankin/Bass once more as we look at their specials that celebrate the tradition that is Easter Sunday.
HERE COMES PETER COTTONTAIL (1971)
First up, we have Here Comes Peter Cottontail, which follows the titular character as he partakes in a contest against the wicked rabbit Irontail to become the new Chief Easter Bunny of April Valley, home of all the world’s Easter Bunnies. This all results in a delightful little animated adventure that ends up covering almost all the major holidays as part of the plot involves Peter and friends using a time machine to try and give away his eggs. The stop-motion animation is solid as always, and just like every other Rankin/Bass special, Maury Laws and Jules Bass produce some catchy songs to go along with it. Some notable highlights from the soundtrack include ‘When You Can’t Get It All Together, Improvise’, sung by the French-accented caterpillar Antoine as a way to convince Peter that he can give eggs to people even if it isn’t during Easter, and ‘If I Could Only Get Back to Yesterday’, which is performed when Peter and Antoine head off in the time machine. Peter himself is a likable protagonist who learns to let go of his bad habit of telling fibs (which is represented visually by his left ear drooping down whenever he says one) and accept the responsibilities of being the Chief Easter Bunny. This special also boasts an excellent voice cast. Casey Kasem (aka the original voice of Shaggy in Scooby-Doo) voices Peter, screen icon Danny Kaye serves as the special’s narrator, a wacky peddler named Seymour S. Sassafras, and the legendary Vincent Price is delightfully over-the-top as always as the villainous Irontail. Really, aside from the special’s framing device becoming a bit too repetitive after a while (i.e. each return from a ‘commercial break’ begins with Sassafras repeating the last line that was spoken before the audience peeks into his special ‘egg viewer’ device to continue the story), Here Comes Peter Cottontail is quite the entertaining stop-motion animated special. Simply put, the same charm that has made Rankin/Bass’ winter-themed works so iconic carried over nicely to this Easter classic.
Rating: 4.5/5
THE FIRST EASTER RABBIT (1976)
We’re switching over to traditional animation for our next special, The First Easter Rabbit. This special was inspired by the iconic children’s book The Velveteen Rabbit as it follows a stuffed rabbit (fittingly named ‘Stuffy’) who is brought to life so that he can become the Easter Bunny. It also holds the distinction of being the only other Rankin/Bass special narrated by Burl Ives aside from, of course, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. And once again, Ives serves as an excellent narrator and vocalist even if this special doesn’t feature that many songs apart from ‘Who’s That Rabbit’. Speaking of ‘that rabbit’, Stuffy is voiced by Robert Morse, who also voiced Jack Frost in the titular Rankin/Bass special that came out three years later. Just like in Jack Frost, he does a nice job in making Stuffy a likable main character even if, in this instance, the character doesn’t really do that much in the plot. This ties into my only real issue with the special in that it’s rather lacking in terms of a narrative. While there are a few villains, namely an ice monster named Zero (voiced by Rankin/Bass regular Paul Frees) and his sentient snowball sidekick Bruce, all they really do is hinder Stuffy and his friends for a while by stealing a special flower that keeps a patch of land in the North Pole known as Easter Valley from getting hit by snow. I don’t know, maybe it’s just the consequence of this being a 30-minute special instead of an hour-long one, but it feels a lot like Disney’s The Aristocats in terms of a sense of overall truncation. Still, for what it’s worth, The First Easter Rabbit is a decent little entry in Rankin/Bass’ canon.
Rating: 3/5
THE EASTER BUNNY IS COMING TO TOWN (1977)
We end today’s post with probably the most surreal entry of the three, a pseudo-sequel to Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Not only does Fred Astaire return as S.D. Kluger, but this special maintains the same formula as its predecessor by having Kluger tell the story of the Easter Bunny so that he can answer the various questions asked by children in letters (e.g. What came first? The chicken or the egg? (it even gets a musical number)). Heck, this story even has a similar premise and similar characters, including a menacing mountain dweller who ends up becoming a good guy and a miserable town where its cruel ruler enforces strict laws that the main character Sunny must constantly work around. Really, aside from being set at Easter instead of Christmas, the only major difference here is that there are moments in the finale that are inspired by the classic children’s story The Little Engine That Could. So yes, it could be argued that this one is a rather blatant rehash of its predecessor. Still, I won’t lie, just like how Santa Claus is Coming to Town provided some fun answers to some of the biggest questions surrounding Santa’s origins, this does the same thing for the Easter Bunny. For example, the main reason why he colors the eggs is shown to have been a way for him to avoid having them being stolen by the ferocious bear Gadzooks (AKA this special’s ‘Winter Warlock’). And as always, the stop-motion animation provides some creative imagery while Maury Laws and Jules Bass’ songs are just as catchy as ever, which include a rendition of the classic folk song ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain’. And once again, Fred Astaire proves to be one of Rankin/Bass’ best narrators even if he’s basically doing the same thing that he did in the previous special. In conclusion, despite it being a rather obvious clone of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town still manages to provide that good old Rankin/Bass charm.
Rating: 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment