The Easter Bunny is Comin' To Town

Now we get to the third and last of the Easter Trilogy, The Easter Bunny Is Comin’ To Town.

The host is Fred Astaire one last time, playing the same mailman from Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town. Instead of traveling by snowmobile, he travels by train with Chugs the Yellow Train That Could.

A town of Kidsville found a baby bunny they named Sunny. He grew up into a one year old full grown rabbit (Rabbit ages is different from people, of course. He’s voiced by Skip Hinnant of Fritz the Cat.). Kidsville plan to deliver eggs from the Hendrew Sisters. (Andrew Sisters. Get it, people over 45!) Sunny goes to a nearby town(s), but there was an interference with Kidsville’s threat, a bear named Gazooks (Smokey the Bear’s Dad?), but he got to the nearby town of Town. (I heard they got great Wine wine at good Tavern tavern.)

Town is ruled by mostly Duren of Dutch, Lilly Longtooth, and the king Bruce the frail, who was too young to rule due to being 7 years old and is miserable.

Sunny brings the first colored easter eggs to Town thanks to a hobo named Hallelujah. King Bruce knight Sunny as the official Easter Bunny. Similar to Burgermeister, Lilly bans the eggs of any shell. Sonny created Jelly Beans and more Easter Eggs, but Gazooks threw away 1/3^rd of the baskets far away. (Yet somehow counts as threw away all of them, or Gazooks threw away the rest off-screen as we don’t see the teacher kid and baker kid holding them the next scene. I don’t get it either.) Suddenly, kids started the Egg Hunt from the result of Gazooks, and the jellybeans were never seen again as Jellybeans Hunt wouldn’t last long. Sunny created the first Easter Outfit for Gazooks as he appreciates the gift as his heart grew few sizes bigger.

As the people of Town grow to celebrate Easter with the kids, Lilly finds this most unorthodox as she sends the guards to as they chant without mixing them up, “Get the children! Get the rabbit!”

The following week, Sunny created a chocolate bunny for the guard, stuff animals for King Bruce, an Easter Parade in Somberto…I mean Town. Sunny was going to rely on Gazooks to carry the load of Easter stuff, but was tripped by Lilly’s guards and was out of the film until the end. So Hallelujah brought up his old co-workers to build a railroad at Big Rock Candy Mountain for a train. (Association with Candy Apple Island filled with medium size Ape.) 

Will Lily foil their plan? Does anyone aside from Irontail ever stop a holiday in a film lately other than Pitch?

The stop-motion animation has improved slightly. The characters design has gotten softer, the pupils for the most have some color (mostly blue), and the lower lips stood out more. I kind of miss the designs of how simple the facials of earlier films, but evolution of the design is essential as long it harm the ideal and film, unlike that “sequel” where their style doesn’t fit into any films. I forgot how striking the color blue is in this film as it helps to focus on the character with it or the background. Sunny is pretty much the stop-motion version of Stuffy, even wearing a similar vest that Peter Cottontail wore. No, this is not another prequel to Peter Cottontail, even if they said Sunny is now the first Easter Bunny. Just like my theory earlier, Sunny is the first bunny, but at Town as part of the territory. Though with Fred Astaire, it just raises more questions with the continuity, especially with the same Santa Claus.

The main issue is this Easter Bunny is Comin’ To Town is a remake of the First Easter Bunny, and a spin-off with the same story as Santa Claus Comin’ To Town. A holiday figure (shot in a nice sunrise scene) discovered by kid size forgotten side character, he wants to spread joy into a gray town (say what you want for New Jersey, we kept our plants while both Sombertown and Town didn’t) lead by a stick in a mud. They have a giant scary figure, but have kindness won him over. They have ways to get around with unlikely transportation, and Fred Astaire is involved.

It has some charm, but not as much as Peter Cottontail. It has a relaxing pace with music and Fred Astaire helps, but not as much as Santa Claus Comin’ To Town. Hallelujah, Chugs the train, and the guards are nice side characters, but the kids don’t stand out.

Lilly is mainly Burgermeister, minus the pain or reason why these colorful things are bad, thus making her as she is a bitch. Though now that I think of it, is she the inspiration for Kyle’s mom from South Park?

“Times have change, our kids are getting worst. They won’t obey their parents, they just want to fart and curse…”

-                                                                           Sheila Broflaski from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

If you want an Easter film that tells the origin different without relying on earlier film, then there’s Easter Fever. The Easter Fever I’ve found recently, and placed in the #3 of my favorite Easter film (#4 if you count Greatest Story Ever Told.). It tells their story different and shows the impact what the Easter Bunny made as he’s about to retire, and the rarest moment when we have a female Easter bunny that isn’t the Cadbury Mascot.

I did watch it a lot when I was young as it was recorded on a VHS I still mostly own with G1 My Little Ponies’ second episode, Frosty’s Winter Wonderland, Leprechaun’s Christmas Gold, and The Year Without Santa Claus. I had nostalgia some the film and still have some soft spot for the film. However, as I watch it in release order with the other Easter films before, it seems less special. So for me, this will be #4 or #5 for my Easter book, unless there are better Easter films out there to have Easter Bunny is Comin’ to Town to be rank lower.