''Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny'' is a 1972 American

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction f ...

written, composed, shot, edited and directed by Richard Winer to frame

Barry Mahon Barry Mahon, born Jackson Barrett Mahon (February 5, 1921 – December 4, 1999) was an American film director, cinematographer and producer. Early years Mahon was born in Bakersfield, California and attended the Page Military Academy (now Page ...

's Childhood Productions films for a Christmas release. The threadbare plot concerns

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...

' attempts to free his sleigh from the sands of a

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

beach, assisted by local children. Different prints feature one of two films-within-the-film (that take up a majority of the film itself). They are Mahon's previously filmed 1970 adaptations of

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

's ''

Thumbelina Thumbelina (; da, Tommelise) is a literary fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Travelling Companion" in t ...

'' or

Benjamin Tabart Benjamin Tabart (1767–1833) was an English publisher and bookseller of the Juvenile Library in New Bond Street, London. Many of the books in his list were written by himself. In an age of strictly moralizing children's literature, he broke groun ...

's ''

Jack and the Beanstalk "Jack and the Beanstalk" is an English fairy tale. It appeared as "The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean" in 1734 4th edition On Commons and as Benjamin Tabart's moralized "The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk" in 1807. Henry Cole ...

''. Atrocious acting, cheap production values and a meandering long running time have earned a fan following as one of the worst Christmas movies ever made.

Plot

A few days before Christmas, in Santa's workshop at the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...

, Santa's elves lament (via song) about how they make toys while Santa is away. Santa's reindeer return, but without Santa or his sleigh, prompting the elves to wonder (again in song) what has happened to Santa. Meanwhile, Santa has crash-landed on a beach in

Dania Beach, Florida Dania Beach (Dania until 1998) is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 31,723. It is part of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010 census ...

, gotten his sleigh stuck in the sand and been abandoned by his reindeer. Santa sings, bemoaning his troubles, then falls asleep. In his sleep, Santa telepathically summons several local children, who run to him and offer to help. Santa explains that they must find a way to pull his sleigh from the sand, as he cannot abandon it. The kids bring Santa several animals to pull the sleigh, including a horse, a donkey, a cow, a sheep, a pig and a gorilla (really a man in a gorilla suit). Meanwhile,

Tom Sawyer Thomas Sawyer () is the titular character of the Mark Twain novel ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884), ''Tom Sawyer Abroad'' (1894), and ''Tom Sawyer, Dete ...

and

Huckleberry Finn Huckleberry "Huck" Finn is a fictional character created by Mark Twain who first appeared in the book ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1876) and is the protagonist and narrator of its sequel, ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884). He is 12 ...

watch and comment on the action from a distance. When all attempts fail, Santa encourages them not to give up hope, and begins to tell them the story of

as an example. The film then cuts away to instead show Barry Mahon's previously produced film version of ''Thumbelina'', in which a girl visits the now-defunct theme park

Pirates World Pirates World was a pirate-themed amusement park in Dania, Florida, that opened April 8, 1967. Developed by Recreation Corporation of America, it was located on the north side of Sheridan Street between U.S. Route 1 and A1A. With the opening of ...

, hears the story in a

attraction, and imagines herself as the title character. The Mahon film plays in its entirety, complete with its original credits sequence, and runs twice as long as the frame narrative (alternate prints use another Mahon fairy tale adaptation, ''Jack and the Beanstalk'', as Santa's story). Afterwards, Santa again encourages the children to "always believe" and they go off to find help. Santa takes off his coat and again falls asleep. He wakes up to the sound of an antique

fire engine A fire engine (also known in some places as a fire truck or fire lorry) is a road vehicle (usually a truck) that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to an i ...

, which is being driven by the titular Ice Cream Bunny, whom the children's dog Rebel has summoned. The Ice Cream Bunny drives the children through Pirates World to the beach. Santa puts on his coat to prepare to meet them. He thanks the children for their help and accepts the Ice Cream Bunny's offer to drive him back to the North Pole. Santa reminds the children one last time to always have faith as they depart. The children realize that Santa's sleigh is still stuck in the sand. As they wonder what to do, the sleigh abruptly teleports to the North Pole, where it will lie in wait for Santa's return.

Cast

* Jay Ripley, credited as Jay Clark, as

* Charlie and David as fighting kids * Kathy as skateboard girl * Mike as skateboard donkey boy * Kim Nicholas as donkey girl / doll elf * Robin as Rebel's owner * Sandy as boy jumping off roof * Scotty as batter * Steve as catcher ;''Thumbelina'' * Shay Garner as

* Pat Morrell as Mrs. Mole * Bob O'Connell as Mr. Mole * Ruth McMahon as mother * Heather Grinter as the witch * Sue Cable as flower girl * Mike Yuenger as flower prince ;''Jack and the Beanstalk'' * Mitchell Poulos as

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

* Dorothy Stokes as Jack's mother * Renato Boracherro as the giant * Chris Brooks as Honest John * John Loomis * Sami Sims * George Wadsworth

Rifftrax

On December 17, 2010,

RiffTrax RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to mostly public domain feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''M ...

released ''Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny'', with their synchronous commentary, as a "Video on Demand" download. It has since been made available on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

as well by

Legend Films Legend Films is a San Diego-based company founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilizing proprietar ...

as well as an extended in-studio edition. On December 3, 2015, RiffTrax presented a live screening of ''Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny'' in theaters across the United States. For this performance, the alternate ''Jack and the Beanstalk'' version was used. It is considered one of their popular titles.

Home media

The ''Thumbelina'' version was released on VHS by United Home Video, but is different from the theatrical version in that the film ''Thumbelina'' is shown after the Santa portion, rather than during it. The ''Jack and the Beanstalk'' version has not been released on video, but the included film was released on DVD by

Image Entertainment RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 340 ...

in 2002. It was also part of ''Weird Christmas'' on

Fandor Fandor is a film streaming service, dedicated to independent films, documentaries, international titles, and classics, and is a division of the American entertainment company, Cinedigm. Relaunched in 2021, Fandor offers thousands of films, rang ...

.Weird Christmas, Fandor Spotlight - Fandor on YouTube
/ref>

References

External links