Hey gang, tomorrow is Easter and I figured I'd give a recapped review on a underrated Rankin Bass Special that was focused on Easter. It's strange how Here Comes Peter Cottontail never airs on television, I guess the networks think Easter specials from Rankin Bass which there are only three of them The First Easter Rabbit, Here Comes Peter Cottontail and The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town aren't worth airing on the Easter holidays. I purchased the DVD a year ago from Target and I sat down today to watch it.
Here Comes Peter Cottontail is about a rabbit called Peter Cottontail who was voiced by the late Casey Kassem (the original voice of Scooby Doo's Shaggy) and he wants to get the job of being the chief Easter Bunny from Colonel Bunny (Danny Kaye) an evil rabbit named Irontail voiced by the late Vincent Price wants the same job and cheats the Easter egg contest that both rabbits had to give all their eggs away in one day by feeding Peter's chicken alarm clock bubblegum which blocks the chicken's crows from making a sound. Because Peter was irresponsible by going to a party and got to bed later, Irontail wins the contest for delivering only one egg and Peter goes back in time in a flying balloon time machine with the help of an eccentric Willy Wonka character named Seymour Sassafras (Danny Kaye) and a talking caterpillar named Antoine. However Irontail has his spider minion rig the time travel machine, the whole premisis has Peter visit different holidays like Independence Day, New Years Eve, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentine's Day, Christmas, Mother's Day and Saint Patrick's Day while trying to get back to Easter. Irontail changes Peter's eggs to green and Peter delivers the eggs to a Saint Patrick's Day parade. He wins the contest and becomes the chief Easter Bunny bringing joy and happiness back to April Valley.
The songs are very memorable, I like If I Could Only Get Back to Yesterday, In The Puzzle of Life and Improvise, but Vincent Price's song The Easter Bunny Always Sleeps is great too.
Danny Kaye voices the narrator Seymour Sassafras, Antoine and Colonel Bunny, he does great impersonations of Peter and Irontail as well and I enjoyed his characters very much. Vincent Price was a great villain and as Irontail you could tell he enjoyed playing a character like Irontail, I remember Vincent Price from The Ten Commandments and also The Great Mouse Detective but here he brings to life an evil rabbit who despises children and gives a great detailed backstory on the reason why he wants the Easter Bunny job in the first place.
I also enjoyed the stop motion and thought this was a much better crossover story than when Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July attempted years later.
Overall if you are looking for a Easter special for your children and grandchildren to enjoy this is highly recommended, the storyline is pretty fast paced, the songs are catchy and memorable as well as the timelessness of how well done this special was. 10/10
