Do the linear “Big 3” networks still air the Rankin/Bass specials anymore? I know they still show the big one, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but I’m talking about all those “B team” ones they did like The Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph’s Shiny New Year, Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July, and Here Comes Peter Cottontail? I know people freaked out when Apple bought the Charlie Brown specials and yanked them off linear, but this all started way before streaming.

By Paul Mavis

The mechanics of streaming lends itself to destroying the time-honored tradition of families sitting down and watching, year after year, a rerun of a beloved holiday title. But the second parents could buy these holiday specials on VHS, traditionalists lost the war. Why chance missing Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town on the one night the old man’s got bowling and the misses is helping at the church bazaar, when you could just pop the tape in for little Johnny the morning before (while you did something else)?

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Certainly the concept of “anticipation” was eliminated with home video. Kids at recess didn’t need to ask each other if they were going to watch The Year Without a Santa Claus that night—they were going to watch it whenever the hell they wanted to. And as for the “specialness,” the uniqueness of the once-a-year holiday event of catching a Rankin/Bass outing, well…that was shot, too. Repetition killed that (when we bought it on VHS, my one daughter watched The Little Drummer Boy every single goddamn day for 19 months straight—how could ABC compete with that?).

Remember all that this Easter Sunday when you flipping through your TV Guide, your Zenith Space Command remote safely on the arm of your Barcalounger, while you’re trying to decide between watching Here Comes Peter Cottontail at 7:00pm on ABC, or catching NBC’s Wild Kingdom in the hopes that 1) Jim Fowler would finally get eaten by a lion, and 2) that, immediately following that hilarious nauseating spectacle, there’d be something fun on The Wonderful World of Disney (yep…a foggy TV reviewer is spinning senselessly back in time, unsure of what is past and present. And not caring).

As you may remember from countless viewings over the years, Here Comes Peter Cottontail details how Colonel Wellington B. Bunny (voice of Danny Kaye) decided to retire as head of April Valley, passing along his duties as chief Easter Bunny to Peter Cottontail (Casey “Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the Stars!” Kasem). However, evil Irontail (voice of Vincent Price), a bunny who wears a prosthetic iron tail after his real one was damaged when a child roller-skated over it, challenges Peter’s nomination.

Irontail insists that the rules of April Valley demand that whoever gives away the most Easter eggs on Easter day shall rule April Valley. The Colonel agrees and the contest is on.

Unfortunately, Irontail sabotages Peter’s alarm clock (he feeds bubblegum to the rooster), and Peter, who partied the night before instead of getting his rest, sleeps straight through Easter. Irontail wins the contest, and rules April Valley.

But Peter finds a friend in our host and narrator, Seymour S. Sassafras (Kaye again), who lends Peter his Yester-Morrowmobile, a time machine, piloted by French inchworm Antoine (Kaye again), that will enable Peter to go back to Easter and compete against Irontail. But Irontail isn’t going to give up that easily….

One of the better Rankin/Bass efforts, Here Comes Peter Cottontail boasts several lovely songs by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins, including the country-flavored If I Could Get Back to Yesterday (sung with just enough lazy swing to soften its rather sad message), the contemplative The Puzzle of Life, the jazzy little Be Mine Today, and of course, the iconic title song.

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The story, based on The Easter Bunny That Overslept by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich, with a screenplay by Rankin/Bass vet Romeo Muller, is fast-paced and fun (I particularly like Peter’s visits to other holidays), and its valuable message to little children is spelled out clearly: never tell a fib and tend to duty before pleasure (you might have to explain that last point to the under 30 crowd).

The voice work is impeccable, as always, for a R/B effort, with Danny Kaye lively (and even a little funky) on the songs (I go back and forth on Kaye, between revulsion for something like Hans Christian Andersen, and delight, for his masterpiece, The Court Jester). Kasem is fine, as always as youthful, enthusiastic Peter, and vets Paul Frees, Joan Gardner, and Iris Rainer all do good voiceover work, as expected.

Special mention is needed for Vincent Price, in his only R/B appearance, hamming it up delightfully as Irontail (how did R/B only snag him once for their specials?). The “Animagic” work for Here Comes Peter Cottontail is, admittedly, a little sketchy in spots, and some of the backgrounds are surprisingly sparse (were they cheapening up because the ratings were down?). However, the models are certainly cute enough, and as with most R/B productions, there’s a lightness of touch here, a jovial, buoyant quality to the scripting and the songwork, that’s distinctively their own.

PAUL MAVIS IS AN INTERNATIONALLY PUBLISHED MOVIE AND TELEVISION HISTORIAN, A MEMBER OF THE ONLINE FILM CRITICS SOCIETY, AND THE AUTHOR OF THE ESPIONAGE FILMOGRAPHY. Click to order.

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