''The Adventures of the American Rabbit'' (released in the UK as simply ''The American Rabbit'') is a 1986

animated film Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

directed by Fred Wolf and Nobutaka Nishizawa. It was released by

Clubhouse Pictures Atlantic Entertainment Group, also known as Atlantic Releasing Corporation, was an independent film production and distribution company founded by Tom Coleman and Michael Rosenblatt in 1974. History Their initial releases were mostly geared t ...

Plot

The story begins just after the birth of Robert Rabbit (

Barry Gordon Barry Gordon (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and political talk show host. He was the longest-serving president of the Screen Actors Guild, having served from 1988 to 1995. He is perhaps best known as the original voice of Donatello ...

). As his parents and friends welcome him into the world, a mysterious old

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

who walks with a

cane Cane or caning may refer to: *Walking stick or walking cane, a device used primarily to aid walking *Assistive cane, a walking stick used as a mobility aid for better balance *White cane, a mobility or safety device used by many people who are b ...

greets young Rob and disappears. The old rabbit shows up a few more times throughout Rob's childhood, always disappearing after making comments or inquiries about his talents and attitude. One day, when Rob's parents become endangered by a falling boulder, he sprints toward them and changes into a striped and star-spangled

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

on golden

rollerskates Roller skates, are shoes or bindings that fit onto shoes that are worn to enable the wearer to roll along on wheels. The first roller skate was an inline skate design, effectively an ice skate with wheels replacing the blade. Later the "quad ska ...

. The old rabbit reappears and tells Rob that he is the American Rabbit, capable of changing into superhero form when he sprints and changing back to normal when he says his own name. Rob decides to try to keep his superpowers a secret and moves to the city. He finds a job as a piano player at the Panda Monium, a

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

run by a

panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white animal coat, coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is ...

named Teddy and a female rabbit named Bunny O'Hare. The club is harassed by a gang of

jackal Jackals are medium-sized canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word "jackal" has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-backed ...

s who run a

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

-style protection racket. When Teddy refuses to buy insurance from them, they return on their motorcycles during a White Brothers show and wreck the club. Bunny and Teddy organize a march and rally the next day, and Walt (

Kenneth Mars Kenneth Mars (April 4, 1935 – February 12, 2011) was an American actor. He appeared in two Mel Brooks films: as the deranged Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in '' The Producers'' (1967) and Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in ''Young ...

), the Jackals' well-dressed boss, orders them to ride their motorcycles in the march. They cause a distraction while Walt's

buzzard Buzzard is the common name of several species of birds of prey. ''Buteo'' species * Archer's buzzard (''Buteo archeri'') * Augur buzzard (''Buteo augur'') * Broad-winged hawk (''Buteo platypterus'') * Common buzzard (''Buteo buteo'') * Eastern ...

destroys the cables that support a bridge the marchers are crossing, but the American Rabbit stops the bridge from collapsing. Teddy then announces his plans to do a cross-country tour with the White Brothers, which will allow him to raise enough money to rebuild the Panda Monium. An irritated Walt orders the Jackals to kidnap a

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...

(

Lorenzo Music Gerald David "Lorenzo" Music (May 2, 1937 – August 4, 2001) was an American actor, producer and writer. Music began his career in the late 1960s as a writer and a regular performer on the controversial CBS variety show ''The Smothers Brothers ...

) named Ping Pong and turn him against the American Rabbit. They take him to a secret lair in the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

and threaten to drown him unless he fights the American Rabbit for them, but Rob discovers that Ping Pong is missing. He sends Teddy, Bunny, and the White Brothers rafting down the river and is captured by the Jackals, but manages to turn into the American Rabbit and rescue Ping Pong. Rob and his friends then travel to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, where they plan to play at a couple of clubs. Walt and the Jackals trap them on a boat and set it on fire, but Rob becomes the American Rabbit and gets everybody off the boat before it explodes. Bunny is worried when she does not see Rob, but the American Rabbit promises to search for him and learn more about the fire. He follows Walt and the Jackals and overhears them talking about heading to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, where their master plan is afoot. The American Rabbit dives back into the water, where he transforms back into Rob and swims to shore. He suggests that the tour group go to New York, where Teddy has some connections who can provide them with new instruments. Meanwhile, Walt and the Jackals capture a chocolate-making

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

and his son and rent the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...

for a day. They rig it with dynamite, and Walt threatens to blow up the visiting public if they refuse to serve him. The American Rabbit discovers the dynamite, follows Walt's voice to his hiding place, and clobbers him. Walt's clothes are the only thing that remain; it is revealed that "Walt" is actually the buzzard, Vultor. Perching on the detonator for the dynamite, he forces the American Rabbit to fly around the Statue of Liberty and deliver an announcement to the public: Vultor and the Jackals are in total control of the city, those who oppose them will be killed, and those who obey them will be rewarded with chocolate. Greatly ashamed by his failure to defeat Vultor and protect the city, Rob fades from the public eye. With the American Rabbit out of the picture, Vultor and the Jackals begin to enact their laws on New York. However, the people turn on the Jackals when they fail to keep their promises and maintain order, and Teddy, Bunny, Ping Pong, and the White Brothers free the moose and his son. Vultor curses the Jackals, dismissing them as traitors when they tell him how frustrated the people are, and swears to destroy the American Rabbit (and the city) with his doomsday switch. Rob, still humiliated by his earlier defeat, catches a taxi and tells the driver that he is a failure. The taxi driver turns out to be the elderly rabbit from the beginning of the film, who offers Rob some advice: "You can't win 'em all, but you can make a power play of your own." Rob notices a poster for

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...

, which spurs him back into action. He uses his telekinetic powers to generate a force field from his hands to stop the flow of the water that runs New York's hydroelectric turbines, cutting the power to the city and deactivating the doomsday switch. A furious Vultor faces the American Rabbit for a final showdown, but the Rabbit chases him into a blizzard and refuses his offer to join forces. Vultor makes one last attempt to kill the American Rabbit by diving at him, but misses and plunges to his death. The American Rabbit returns as Rob to see his friends, and gets a kiss from Bunny O'Hare.

Voice cast

as American Rabbit/Rob/Punk Jackal *

Laurie O'Brien Laurie O'Brien (born February 16, 1951) is an American actress who started her career in Los Angeles in 1982 with her role in ''Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann''. She is best known for voicing Baby Piggy on the 1980s Saturday morning cart ...

as Bunny O'Hare *

Bob Arbogast Robert "Bob" Arbogast (April 1, 1927 – March 21, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster, voice actor, and television host. Early life and education Bob was born in Bellingham, Washington, the only child of Lewis, a champion tennis player, st ...

as Teddy/Penguin 2 * Ken Mars as Walt/Vultor the Buzzard *

Pat Fraley Patrick Howard Fraley (born February 18, 1949) is an American voice actor and voice-over teacher, known as the voice of Krang, Casey Jones, Baxter Stockman and numerous other characters in the 1987 ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' animated tele ...

as Tini Meeny/Rob's Father *

Russi Taylor Russi Taylor (May 4, 1944 – July 26, 2019) was an American voice actress. She is best remembered as the official voice of Minnie Mouse from 1986 to 2019, and was notably married to voice actor Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse, until his ...

as Rob's Mother/Lamb * Bob Holt as Rotten Rodney, Jackal Biker Leader/Penguin 3 *Norm Lenzer as Brutal Bruno, Assistant Head Jackal *

as Ping Pong * Hal Smith as Mentor/Mad Marvin, Sergeant-At-Arms Jackal/Too Loose *John Mayer as Horrible Hugo, Road Captain Jackal/Penguin 1 *Lew Horn as Dip/Additional Voices *Maitzi Morgan as Lady Pig/Old Woman Rabbit * Fred Wolf as Fred Red

Production

An American/Japanese co-production between Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (now Fred Wolf Films Dublin) and

Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' ''GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' ''Mazinger Z'', ''Galaxy Express 999'', ''Cutie Honey'', ''Dr. Slump'', ' ...

, ''The Adventures of the American Rabbit'' was based upon the poster character of the same name created by pop artist Stewart Moskowitz. The artist's characters were adopted as the mascots for many major Japanese companies, hence the film's backing by Japanese investors and the participation of the aforementioned

. Legendary animator

Shingo Araki was a Japanese animation artist and character designer. Career He developed an interest for drawing at age five. He graduated in Aichi Prefecture. In 1955, at age sixteen, he debuted as a cartoonist in the "Machi" magazine. He then joined Mushi ...

was among the animation staff working on the film. The screenplay was written by Norman Lenzer, from the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

television movie ''

The Point! ''The Point!'' is the sixth studio album by American songwriter and musician Harry Nilsson, released in late 1970. It was accompanied by an animated film adaptation directed by Fred Wolf, which aired in early February 1971 on the ABC-TV netw ...

''.Beck, Jerry (2005), p. 6. It was co-directed by Fred Wolf and long-time Toei Animation director Nobutaka Nishizawa.

Release and reception

The film was among the first to be released by Clubhouse Pictures, a division of independent distributor, Atlantic Releasing, which specialized in children's entertainment. It was not well received by critics or audiences through its original run. The film made $291,126 during its opening weekend from 242 screens and ran for two months, grossing $1,268,443. Charles Solomon of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' said, "Both the writing and the animation in ''The Adventures of the American Rabbit'' are so inept that the viewer expects the governor to interrupt the film and declare the theater a disaster area!" MGM Home Entertainment released ''American Rabbit'' on DVD in February 2005. It was presented in fullscreen (as opposed to its original widescreen release) and contained no extras.

References

Sources

*Beck, Jerry (2005). ''The Animated Movie Guide''. . Chicago Reader Press. Retrieved April 7, 2007.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adventures Of The American Rabbit 1986 animated films 1986 films American children's adventure films American children's animated fantasy films Atlantic Entertainment Group films 1980s English-language films 1980s fantasy adventure films Animated films about rabbits and hares United States-themed superheroes American independent films Japanese children's fantasy films American superhero films Toei Animation films Japanese animated fantasy films 1980s Japanese films 1980s superhero films Japanese superhero films British independent films Japanese independent films 1980s American animated films 1980s British animated films American fantasy adventure films British animated fantasy films British fantasy adventure films British children's adventure films British children's animated films British children's fantasy films British superhero films Japanese fantasy adventure films 1980s children's adventure films 1980s children's animated films 1980s children's fantasy films Animated films about animals 1980s British films