The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town

I'm one of many people who loves Rankin-Bass's Christmas specials, but most of their non-Christmas works sadly seem to be lesser known, and The Easter Bunny Is Coming to Town is no exception. I've been a fan of it for all my life, but for the longest time, I didn't know Rankin-Bass made it. This isn't one of the best RB specials/movies, but not one of the worst ones either. I like Peter Cottontail better. The story is narrated by SD Kluger (voiced by Fred Astaire), the same mailman who narrates Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, and he has come back to tell the story of Sunny the Easter Bunny.

If you've seen this before, you know that this is the Easter Bunny's origin story. One of the best things about it is that it reveals a number of secrets about the Easter Bunny and Easter traditions that have been kept for God knows how long, like why we color Easter eggs, why the bunny hides them, how Easter toys came to be, how jellybeans and chocolate bunnies came along, why people sometimes wear Easter clothes (even though I hate wearing fancy/formal wear and never wear traditional Easter clothing), and more. Obviously, nearly any "burning" questions one may have about the bunny or Easter are answered here. It's not afraid to have some religious elements like Easter's bible story.

The premise is interesting, but not just because the origins of Easter traditions are revealed. Only kids live and work in Kidville, the main setting. A lot of kids in Kidville have jobs, like a firefighter, a police officer, a chef, a teacher, a mailman (young SD Kluger. That's how he knows the story), and many more, which makes the premise compelling and original. They run their own shops, make their own laws, and maybe even stay up as late as they want. That's every kid's dream, or is it?

The characters are highly likable and engaging! My favorite character is Chuggs the train. He is a funny character, especially when he repeats things in a similar fashion to when The Little Engine That Could says, "I think I can! I think I can! I think I can!" (e.g., "Easter's coming! Easter's coming! Easter's coming!" or "Lots of trouble! Lots of trouble! Lots of trouble!"). He also reminds me of Thomas the Tank Engine, and his train friends somewhat resemble Thomas's friends. Enough said.

The songs are good. The titular song, "The Easter Bunny Is Coming to Town," surprisingly isn't the same tune as Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, though it has a similar but slightly different beat. "You Think Nobody Loves You, But They Do" is my favorite. Why? It is a soft, sweet, and relaxing song, and it has a heartfelt message: love yourself, and it's not true that nobody loves you, hence the title.

Overall, this is a good special/TV movie! It's perfect for Easter, but it is not without its flaws. 1) This is somewhat of a rehash of Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. However, some changes to the plot have been made, which makes up for this problem. 2) The ending is rushed: the main villain, Queen Lily Longtooth, is angry about everyone in Town (yes, her land/town is just called Town) having kids and celebrating Easter for a minute, and then she redeems herself right away and magically starts to love Easter. 3) When the flashbacks fade away at the end, SD Kluger is shown as an adult again, and the rest of the characters are shown with him, but the other kids from Kidville are still kids for some reason. These items are why I give this an 8/10.

As with Santa Clause is Coming to Town this is a cute follow up on how to tell origins of traditions in connection to a traditional holiday. It touched my heart ever since it came out as The First Easter Rabbit did when it came out one year prior to this one.The kids make a cute rendition in Kidville and Lily Supplies a good Villainess more or less equivalent to The Burger Meister,Meister Burger with her soldiers and all.I agree that this Easter special brings out the kid in all of us as do both "Here comes Peter Cottontail" and "The First Easter Rabbit" do. Sunny Bunny is very cute both as a baby bunny as well as a big bunny.Gad Zooks the bear is equivalent to both The Abominal Snowman in Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer and the winter warlock in Santa Clause is Coming to town of which brings to mind in part how the late Fred Astaire did come back to narrate this special. Truthfully, Stephen "Steve" G. Baer a.k.a."Ste" of Framingham,Ma.USA.

Super religious and no substance. Nothing really makes sense in it! Also feels like a rip off of Santa Claus is coming to town. Also a rip off of Thomas the tank engine. No wonder I've never heard of it til now. One of their worst productions.

Rankin/Bass have been responsible for some of my favourite childhood memories and I am very fond of a vast majority of their stuff now. The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town is not one of their best, but at least it is not another Cricket on the Hearth. The ending is very rushed and abrupt, maybe a longer length may have helped. But much more than makes up for that. The visuals are bright, colourful and highly accomplished, while the sweet and whimsical score and songs also appeal. The writing has many funny and heartfelt moments, and I equally loved the cute, zippily paced and well-meaning story. There are some good values and even some religious elements that don't feel out of place or heavy-handed. The characters are highly likable and engaging, and while I did miss Paul Frees the voice acting especially from Fred Astaire as the warm and loving narrator is terrific.

In conclusion, well worth the look and charming. 8/10 Bethany Cox

For the longest, I've been trying to find the Rankin-Bass special that featured and included a town called Kidville, where all its inhabitants are children and hadn't been successful. I remember catching those scenes of this special some years back on cable. It's no wonder I didn't know that they were part of this special, which I found out after watching it over a week ago on Youtube. I must've missed the title when I first saw those scenes evidently and I don't even remember ever seeing the special in full before then.

My thoughts about this special. I was going to give it the highest rating possible until I read the review by the member who gave it three stars. She made some, I guess, sensible points on why it isn't as great as most reviewers of this, and some others outside of this site, may make it out to be. The amount of stars I give it are between the lowest that have been given (or given so far) by the aforementioned female reviewer (my amount a little higher that hers) and the highest that have been given (my amount a little lower than the others). One reason I chose to give no less stars than six is because I like the Kidville concept. Another is it's great to see the mailman, S.D. Kluger, make a recurring appearance here, but there are several, other similarities that will remind viewers who have already seen the Christmas special, Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, even right down to the title. There may be even more similarities than differences that would've set it apart more from that X-mas special. I just found out it's supposed to be a semi-sequel. In that case, I could overlook that, but then again, more sequels to originals should have more distinctions and be better. There still may be some flaws in this that I may have missed and probably never would've thought much of had the more negative reviewer not pointed them out, like how the villains attempted to stop the yellow train from reaching town and that another, better way could've been made for the villains to attempt. I presume I just have mixed feelings about it. However, I've now decided that the previous two, Rankin-Bass Easter specials are much better than this one, considering this is a semi-sequel. I don't really, completely dislike it, but simultaneously, I don't like it as much as the other two Easter specials and find them more superior. It's still nice and alright. One other thing I'll say is the religious references were a surprise.