NOTE: Please do not take any of the little nitpicks in this review (or any of my other reviews, for that matter) seriously. I write these reviews in the hopes of making people laugh. Those nitpicks are really just dumb little observations that I'm attempting to make jokes out of, not complaints that add to whether or not I like something.
1971 saw the release of Rankin-Bass' Here Comes Peter Cottontail.
Based on a 1957 novel called The Easter Bunny That Overslept, the special told the story of a bunny named Peter Cottontail (voiced by Casey Kasem) and how he became the Easter Bunny and defeated an evil rabbit voiced by Vincent Price. It's not one of Rankin-Bass' more well-known specials, but if nothing else it's re-aired on channels like CBS and Cartoon Network, and it's been released on DVD a couple times over the years.
I'm not one hundred percent sure why, in 2005, they randomly decided to give the special a direct-to-video sequel. But they did.
And that sequel was the creatively and rather confusingly titled Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie. This movie was the creation of three different companies: Alligator Planet, Classic Media, and Kapow Pictures. It was directed by Mark Gravas, who also worked on Yakkity Yak. Unlike the first one, it's CGI-animated because I guess they didn't have the budget for stop-motion (or maybe they just thought kids were more likely to watch a CGI film than a stop-motion one).
The movie has mixed reviews on IMDB and is incredibly obscure. Unlike the other CGI-animated sequel to a Rankin-Bass special, it hasn't even been able to coast by on being an easy target for internet reviewers to poke fun at. I could only find one review of the film on YouTube. It doesn't have a Wikipedia page. It's one of those movies that just... EXISTS. And since Easter is in a few days, we're going to watch it!
After the opening credits, we see the film's narrator, Seymour S. Sassafrass. While he shares the name of the narrator of the original special, I'm not one hundred percent sure if this is indeed the same guy. Mainly because they look nothing alike.
This is how Seymour S. Sassafrass looks in the original special:
And this is what he looks like in the movie:
As you can see, there is zero resemblance. So either Seymour got plastic surgery or this is his brother or an impostor or something. He's also voiced by Christopher Lloyd as opposed to Danny Kaye.
Anyway, the Mad Hatter... I mean, Seymour introduces himself to the audience and talks about how it's spring, and how soon Peter Cottontail will be hopping down the bunny trail. A nearby bee has never heard of Peter Cottontail, so Seymour takes out a book filled with clips from the original special - which is a nice touch, but also makes it more obvious how little this film's art style resembles that of the special.
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| By the way, please forgive the really bad quality of the screencaps. I couldn't find a higher-quality version of the film. |
Seymour reminds the audience that Peter saved Easter from the clutches of an evil Vincent Price-voiced rabbit named January Q. Irontail. Then he brings up Peter's son, Peter Cottontail Junior, who saved the world from a permanent winter long before the cast of Frozen did it. The bee pops Seymour's balloons, sending him falling into a river of pink lemonade. He tells us that we're now in April Valley, where all the bunnies are getting ready for Easter.
Next we see a whimsical-looking factory that would make even Willy Wonka's look normal by comparison, where Peter Cottontail is supervising. Much like Seymour, Peter looks nothing like he did in the original special. He's also voiced by Tom Kenny as opposed to Casey Kasem. He is joined by Antoine, the French caterpillar from the original special, who is also voiced by Tom Kenny now.
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| Interesting fact: at some point in the original special, Antoine became a butterfly. No explanation is given as to why he's a caterpillar again in this film (maybe the wings were just too hard to animate?). |
Peter's assistant, Elroy (David Koechner), tells him that productivity is up. But, oh no! There's a fire under the nougat-making machine! Peter puts it out, then demands to know who was responsible for this fire occurring. We also get our first funny joke in the movie - the other rabbits don't know what nougat is, which momentarily distracts Peter.
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| Hard to believe Elryo has the same voice as Dag from Barnyard... |
Peter eventually deduces that his son is responsible for the fire, and he storms out of the factory to go chew him out. "Uh oh! Sounds like Junior's in a little bit of trouble!" Seymour says. Uh, yeah. We can see that for ourselves, Mr. Sassafrass.
Then we actually get to see Junior for ourselves. He's one of those "inventor whose inventions never work" characters, like Flik from A Bug's Life. He, too, is voiced by Tom Kenny. In fact, he kind of sounds like SpongeBob.
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| Why does every character have one eyeball that's bigger than the other? |
Junior is showing his friends Chuck (Dee Bradley Baker) and Sophie (Terri Douglas) his newest invention, a catapult. Pretty sure that's already been invented, but THIS catapult is supposed to help them deliver eggs more efficiently. Alas, it's not working right.
Peter shows up and starts nagging Junior about how he wasn't watching the nougat vat. "Why does it seem like everywhere you go, trouble is always hopping behind you?" he asks before listing off a bunch of Junior's other failed inventions. Then for whatever reason he brings up Irontail and how his evil trickery almost ruined Easter forever. Except that has nothing to do with Junior's problems. Junior's inventions might be faulty but at least he has good intentions. He's no Irontail. Peter also conveniently leaves out the fact that Irontail might not have succeeded in briefly becoming the Easter Bunny if he hadn't stayed up most of the night partying and as a result overslept.
Peter continues to nag, nag, nag about Junior being "irresponsible" or whatever and then leaves. "Ugh, he just doesn't get it!" Junior complains. Then we get a Disney Acid Sequence.
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| Maybe Luna from Bear in the Big Blue House can help Junior out with his problem. |
After the Disney Acid Sequence, we see the world outside of April Valley, which is currently "wrapped in winter" as Seymour puts it, and kids everywhere are more than ready for spring. And who's responsible for winter being a thing? Why, none other than Jackie Frost (Molly Shannon), the movie's main antagonist.
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| No Elsa jokes, please. |
Then we cut back to Peter talking to his wife (Jill Talley), who I assume is supposed to be Donna from the original special but is just called "Mama Cottontail" in the credits. She points out to Peter that he wasn't any more "responsible" than Junior is when he was Junior's age.
As you can see, Peter is a very annoying character in this movie. I don't recall him being this much of a complainer in the original special.
Peter gets the idea to put Junior in charge of cleaning the Clock of Spring, one of the four "clocks of the seasons" that Father Time made. Without the four clocks, there wouldn't be four different seasons. And the most important part of the clock is the Spring of Spring. Get it? Spring of Spring?
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| You can tell it's extremely important because it's glowing. |
After telling Junior not to upgrade the clock or tinker with it in any way, Peter gives him the key to the clock. Little do Peter and Junior know that there's a bat listening in on their conversation. That bat is Montresor, who (for those of you who haven't seen the original special) just so happens to be the sidekick of Irontail. This can't be good...
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| If I had a nickel for every time an animated villain voiced by Vincent Price had a bat sidekick, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. (Hey, I finally got to use that meme!) |
Montresor (Greg Berg) flies to the icy fortress of Jackie Frost (remember her?), who's complaining to her penguin minions that she hates the sun and how it's always melting her "masterpieces". Then she launches into a musical number. Is it a good song? No. Also, that doesn't sound like Molly Shannon doing the singing. Maybe they just autotuned her too much. Was autotuning even a thing in 2005?
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| I bet there's a lot of inappropriate drawings of Jackie on DeviantArt. |
A mysterious cloaked figure says that perhaps he can help Jackie make it winter all year round. It's none other than January Q. Irontail (Roger Moore)… who now looks a bit like Frankenstein's Monster.
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| I mean, unlike with the other characters there was clearly some sort of attempt to make him look at least a LITTLE like he did in the original, but his square-shaped head is really distracting me. |
"What if I told you that I have a way to make sure that spring never comes again?" he asks. What's in it for him? Revenge on Peter, of course. He starts telling Jackie about the Clock of Spring...
…and then we cut back to Junior, who's testing out his catapult again. Irontail, Jackie, Montresor, and the penguins show up poorly disguised as regular bunnies (by which I mean Irontail wears a fake tail, Montresor has socks on his ears, and Jackie and the penguins are wearing fake bunny ears). While Irontail distracts Junior, the rest of his little gang steals the spring. You know Peter's gonna blame Junior for this when he finds out, but I dunno, maybe the thing to take away from this is that leaving just one bunny to guard something really important isn't such a good idea?
Irontail offers to finish polishing the clock for Junior so he can attend the "Calendar Day Ceremony". And then Junior gives him the key to the clock. Junior, you fool.
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| Only bunnies are allowed to live in April Valley, it seems. Chicks? Pfff. Not "Easter-y" enough to have that privilege. |
The "Calendar Day Ceremony" is apparently a big celebration of the first day of April. Peter tears the "March 31st" page off the calendar... but the next page doesn't say "April 1st". It says "March 32nd". Peter starts tearing off more pages, only to find pages reading "March 33rd", "March 34th", "March 35th", etc. all the way up to "March 483rd"... but if there are only 365 days in a year, shouldn't that actually be "March 274th"? Then again, I've never been very good at math...
Storm clouds start rolling in as Peter assumes Junior is at fault for what's going on. Instead of simply asking Junior if he might've done anything to make the clock stop working, he angrily shouts Junior's name as Junior is running off. Because that's sure to get an answer out of him. Junior runs back to the clock to find that the spring is gone, so he leaves his parents a note and heads off to make things right. Peter says he was too hard on Junior. No, you THINK?
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| Why does Antoine look like a giant gummy worm? |
Peter and Antoine head out to find Junior, but as they're crossing the bridge, it's suddenly struck by lightning and split into two (must be one fragile bridge), leaving Peter stranded on one side. Couldn't he just jump across? I mean, he's a rabbit. Anyhow, Antoine vows to find Junior and bring him home, and then we cut to Jackie and Irontail... having a dance party? Uh...
Jackie realizes that even if they've gotten rid of spring, they still have summer to worry about. Wait, didn't stealing the spring of spring make it March forever? If so, wouldn't that mean summer won't come? I'm confused. Irontail suggests that they stop summer and fall from coming, too, then gives us his backstory... which was actually already told in the original special, but here we get it in flashback form. Once upon a time, Irontail had an actual tail as opposed to his "platinum posterior", but then a kid accidentally lopped it off with his roller skates. Apparently, his name before that was "Fluffy". Honestly, "January Q. Fluffy" isn't as cool a name.
Meanwhile, Junior literally runs into a robin voiced by Kenan Thompson. His name is Flutter.
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| I like his acorn hat. |
The robin's mother (Niecy Nash) tells him that he's in Summer Hill, then orders the Kenan Thompson robin to show Junior where the Clock of Summer is. But when they arrive at the clock, they discover that Irontail and Jackie have already stolen the "sun of summer" from inside, which means summer won't come. And just think of all the movie sequels we'll miss out on if summer doesn't come!
Back in April Valley, the cold weather is making preparations for Easter difficult. The chickens can't lay eggs, the chocolate is frozen solid, and the nougat... well, it's nougat. Antoine is still searching for Junior, and then we cut to a family of mice - a father mouse (Patrick Fraley), a mother mouse (Mona Marshall), and a daughter mouse, Munch, voiced by Miranda Cosgrove.
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| An American Tail this ain't. |
The mice are scattered by a hungry cat, but Munch manages to get away... right before being snatched up by a hawk (also Patrick Fraley). Fortunately, Junior and Flutter manage to save her. Despite the fact that they have to, y'know, save the world from permanent winter, our heroes then proceed to stop and try to get an apple down from a tree. What happened to "time is of the essence"?
We cut to Antoine arriving at the summer clock, giving us a scene that tries to be funny but isn't (Tom Kenny doing a French accent can only carry you so far). Then we cut to Junior, Flutter, and Munch making it to the autumn clock and catching the bad guys in the act of stealing the "leaf of fall". Junior pelts them with pinecones, allowing Flutter and Munch to grab the spring, sun, and leaf. So the day is saved, right? No - because then Irontail is all "Hand them over!" and instead of running for it, Junior just stands there and refuses to hand them over, giving Irontail the opportunity to swipe them out of his paws. Idiot.
And for whatever reason, Junior doesn't just tackle Irontail while he's standing there bragging, nor do Flutter and Munch do anything. The villains leave, then our heroes start blaming each other for their failure. But then they arrive in...
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| ...an acid trip, apparently. |
No, this is Colorland, a magical place where every color of the rainbow comes from. And guess who else is there? Why, none other than Seymour S. Sassafrass, who tells them of Jackie and Irontail's plan and gives them a way to get to their eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil lair - a bubble they can ride in that never pops. SpongeBob would love this guy.
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| "A very merry unbirthday to you!" |
We get another song as Junior, Flutter, and Munch float through outer space in the bubble. Then they run into...
THIS terrifying thing! Seriously, what IS that? It looks like a cross between H.R. Pufnstuff and a jellyfish. It introduces itself as the "East-By-Southwest Wind" (David Koechner) and we get an unfunny scene of him "warming up" before blowing Junior, Flutter and Munch on their way.
They make it to Winter Ridge, where Jackie's evil lair is located. Fortunately, Irontail and Jackie are too busy outfitting Irontail in a robe (for some reason) to notice them sneaking around trying to get to the spring, sun, and leaf. Munch starts eating through the ice that it's contained in, and Irontail is apparently flirting with Jackie. Ew. Alas, Montresor spots them and we ourselves another fight scene.
By the way, I just now realized how weird it is that a bunny in the same size as a robin and a mouse. Is Junior just really, really small?
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| A bat and a robin, huh? They'd make an excellent crime-fighting duo. |
At one point, Jackie accidentally freezes Montresor. Seeing as Christopher Lloyd voices a character in this movie, I think I should be allowed to make an "I WAS FROZEN TODAY!" joke.
Our heroes send a chandelier crashing down on Irontail and Jackie, giving them the chance to escape just as Irontail suddenly becomes super-strong and lifts it off them. Then... do you remember that scene in the first Ice Age movie where they're riding around inside the ice caverns? Remember how much fun that looked? Well, the movie rips off that scene, reminding me of a much better animated film that I could be watching.
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| "Captain, iceberg ahead!" |
Junior, Flutter, and Munch have gotten away with the spring, sun and leaf, but they're not out of the woods yet. They make it to the Clock of Winter just in time for Irontail and Jackie to catch up with them and pelt them with a giant snowball. Fortunately, Junior has an idea. He sneaks into the clock and snatches the... ice shard or whatever it is inside that keeps it working, resulting in some sort of ice tornado forming and filling the sky with dark blue clouds.
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| Yeah, I don't know either. |
Junior tells Jackie and Irontail to give them back the spring, sun and leaf and he'll give them back the ice shard. Jackie offers to just give them the leaf. "Not a chance! It's all or nothing, Freeze-Dry!" Junior snaps. Munch then proceeds to start gnawing on Irontail's foot. It's things like these that make her my favorite character in the movie.
Eventually, Jackie and Irontail start fighting, and they wind up knocking the spring, sun and leaf into a chasm - and then THEY fall in too. Fortunately, Flutter flies down and saves the spring, sun and leaf, and then they return the ice shard to the Clock of Winter. Now they just need to figure out how to get back home.
Ask and you shall recieve - the creepy wind thing shows up again, with Antoine riding on his back.
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| "Ho ho ho! I am, how you say, a Deus Ex Machina!" |
So they return the leaf to the Clock of Fall and Munch meets back up with her parents. Then they put the sun back in the Clock of Summer and Flutter meets back up with his mother - and newly-hatched little brother. And then Junior and Antoine make it back to April Valley, where Peter puts the spring back in the Clock of Spring, freeing April Valley from having a permanent winter. Junior meets back up with his parents.
What's the Verdict?
Whoops, turns out the movie isn't over yet. Jackie and Irontail show up... wait, how the heck did they survive falling into that chasm? No, seriously, HOW? Well, anyway, Jackie starts firing ice blasts everywhere, and eventually Junior defeats her by reflecting one back at her, encasing her legs in ice. Irontail tries to run off, but Jackie is all "Oh no you don't!" and zaps his head. Everybody cheers, Peter realizes that Junior's inventions might have some use after all, and the penguins carry Jackie and Irontail's frozen corpses away. Seymour finishes the story, and we end on a rock and roll cover of "Here Comes Peter Cottontail".
Okay, So NOW What's the Verdict?
This was mediocre. It's hardly the worst movie I've ever seen, but it doesn't have a lot going for it. The animation's not very good, the jokes aren't funny, most of the characters are dull, the redesigns they gave the characters are ugly, and it really had no reason to be a Peter Cottontail sequel. They could've just made it an entirely new movie with an entirely new cast of characters and it wouldn't have made a difference. I suppose you'd have to write out Irontail, but aside from that? Nada. The voice actors are all doing their best with the script they've been given, but even the talents of Tom Kenny and Christopher Lloyd can't help the film rise out of the pit of mediocrity that it's stuck in. I recommend watching the original special instead. It just has more charm.
I'm still not sure how this movie came to be. Maybe Mark Gravas just really liked the original special and wanted to do something with the characters? I don't know... say, what are we looking at next time?
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