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(More customer reviews)Another stop-motion Animagic hit from the holiday entertainers, of Rankin/Bass Studios, the kings of holiday TV specials. This 1 hour show was released for the first time on April 6, 1977 on ABC television network. The storyline is very similar to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", from the same studio - and by that I meant that part of the story explains all the traditions of Easter and how they began, such as why we eat chocolate bunnies, or why we color eggs. The show opens with a newsreel showing kids asking these questions. Fred Astaire reprises his role as the singing mailman S.D. Kluger and gives a great voice performance but he has a bigger role this time. He has traded in his snowmobile mail truck for "the little engine that could", voiced by Robert McFadden. In the story we go back in time to the beginning of the children's Easter traditions to answer these questions, to a hidden town called "Kidville". There is a scary bear named Gadzooks who hates holidays, and he is similar to the Winter Warlock character. A rabbit named "Sunny" grows up to be the Easter Bunny and bring joy to children, making great friends and allies along the way. He is voiced by Skip Hinnant, who voiced "Pogo" in a special from another studio. He befriends a lonely young King, named Bruce, who is being controlled and bullied by his tyrannical Aunt Longtooth.
We have come to expect good music in these holiday specials and they did not disappoint. There are 6 songs total with music by Maury Laws and lyrics by Jules Bass including the catchy, "Someone's Got to be First", along with "Big Rock Candy Mountain", the inspiring "Somebody Will Love You, If You Do", and "The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town Today". Fred Astaire sings "All You Have to Do is - Think Can Do". There is a hilarious song by the Hendrew Sisters, "What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?". This very colorful special has terrific character designs by Paul Coker, who did the same for most of the studios products. The look of the film is, well, very Easter... They just did a great job capturing what the visuals should be for the kids.
This show is the 3rd and last of the Easter themed holiday shows made by the studio. In 1971 they made an hour long Animagic TV special for ABC, "Here Comes Peter Cottontail", about the selection contest for the Easter Bunny, and it actually travels through time to all the holidays. In 1976 they made a half hour traditional cel animation special "The First Easter Rabbit" for NBC. As you know, Rankin/Bass Studios brought us such beautiful holiday TV classics such as Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Year without a Santa Claus, `Twas the Night Before Christmas, Nestor the Long Eared Donkey, The Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Mouse on the Mayflower, Cricket on the Hearth, the Stingiest Man in Town, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, and more. They also made non-holiday films such as the Hobbit, and Flight of Dragons. It is incredible that one company was responsible for all those TV specials, 95% of the ones we see every year. Their work includes traditional hand drawn cel animation, stop-motion Animagic, and live action. Little Golden Books Publishing owns the rights to almost every show the studio made, and have done a commendable job re-mastering them and releasing them on DVD. I hope this comes out on a restored DVD too; I have bought all the other Rankin/Bass that has been released on DVD.
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The Easter Bunny is Comin’ to Town is a Rankin and Bass holiday classic (originally produced in 1977) featuring stop motion animation and narrated by the legendary Fred Astaire. The feature is a fun, playful, retro 50-minute Easter story with an uplifting message that teaches kids about the origins of Easter traditions such as Easter Egg Hunts, Egg Rolling Contests and Easter Bonnets. The Deluxe Edition is fully re-mastered with all-new EC and special
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