''The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town'' is a 1977 American-Japanese

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 Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of en ...

produced by

Rankin/Bass Productions Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City. It was known for its seasonal television specials, ...

, using their "Animagic"

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

. The special reunites the writer Romeo Muller, designer Paul Coker Jr., and narrator

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz, May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "g ...

from ''

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" is a Christmas music, Christmas song written by John Frederick Coots, J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, and first recorded by Harry Reser and His Orchestra. When it was covered by Eddie Cantor on his radio show ...

'', and stars the voices of Skip Hinnant,

Bob McFadden Robert McFadden (January 19, 1923 – January 7, 2000) was an American singer, impressionist, and voice-over actor perhaps best known for his many contributions to animated cartoons. His most popular television cartoon characters included M ...

, Meg Sargent, James Spies and

Allen Swift Ira J. Stadlen (January 16, 1924 – April 18, 2010), known professionally as Allen Swift, was an American actor, writer and magician, best known as a voiceover artist who voiced cartoon characters Simon Bar Sinister and Riff-Raff on the ' ...

. It premiered on ABC in the United States on April 6, 1977. The special includes original songs including two sung by Astaire: "The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town" and "All You Have to Do is Think 'Can Do'".

Plot

S.D. Kluger returns as a train engineer, but still a mailman to answer questions about the

Easter Bunny The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit—sometimes dressed with clothes—bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" origi ...

in the children's letters. The story begins in the small town of Kidville, a community comprising orphaned children (including S.D. Kluger when he was a child) at the foot of Big Rock Mountain. The children enjoy the simple life despite being bothered by Gadzooks the

Bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

who hates everything to do with the holidays including birthdays. One Easter morning, the children find an orphaned baby

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

, raise him as their own, and name him Sunny when they notice how much he likes the warm sun. Now one year old, Sunny makes plans with the children to sell what they make in exchange for what they need, including their eggs, with help from three

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

s called the Hendrews Sisters. Sunny sets off to deliver his eggs. Along the way, he meets a wise, jolly hobo named Hallelujah Jones, who suggests to him that he could sell his eggs in a town that's just called Town. However, upon climbing Big Rock Mountain, Sunny runs into Gadzooks who steals his eggs. After escaping, Sunny makes it to Town which is a dreary, dismal place. There, nobody laughs, everyone dresses in dark clothing, and if any children are born, the whole family has to move away, and beans are eaten for every meal by order of the ruthless Dowager Duchess Lily Longtooth who wants her seven-year-old nephew

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Bruce the Frail to follow in her footsteps. Bruce complains about always having to eat beans and wanting to be a normal child instead of being a king, despite his aunt's objections. Saddened by this, Sunny heads back to Kidville and explains the problem. Hallelujah and the children dip the eggs in various bowls of paint as a way of tricking Gadzooks. He lies to the bear, saying he is on his way to sell colored stones as

paperweight A paperweight is a small solid object heavy enough, when placed on top of papers, to keep them from blowing away in a breeze or from moving under the strokes of a painting brush (as with Chinese calligraphy). While any object, such as a stone, ...

s. Befuddled by Sunny's lie, Gadzooks lets him go, demanding he bring him eggs. Sunny makes it into Town again, passing out his eggs to all the townspeople, including King Bruce who crowns him the Easter Bunny, Royal Knight of the Rainbow Eggs. He and Sunny initiate a traditional ritual of eating the eggs. Disappointed in her nephew, Lily chases Sunny out, outlaws eggs, and sends him to bed without supper. After Bruce tells Sunny (who apologizes for getting Bruce punished about the eggs) that he knew his supper would be more beans, Sunny promises to bring him very special beans next Easter. The following year, Sunny, Hallelujah, and Herbert the Baker make the first Easter jelly beans. However, upon their way to Town to deliver them, Gadzooks, still angered by Sunny's lie and thinking his eggs are colored stones again, flings them far, far away. All hope seems lost until all the other children hunt the eggs up in bushes and trees and Sunny decides that he'll always hide them. Next Easter, Sunny sets out, only to get caught by Gadzooks who chases him to Kidville, where everybody has pitched in to make him a brand-new Easter outfit made by the Kidville tailors. Touched by their gesture of kindness, Gadzooks becomes their friend. Meanwhile, back in Town, the townspeople become interested in the Easter eggs Sunny hides, King Bruce and his servants enjoy eating the jelly beans, and the children are loved by all the townspeople. But Lily, outraged, sends her guards out to arrest them. Sunny and the children leave just in time, and promise to return next year. Next Easter, Sunny has the candy maker come up with a secret weapon of his own for their next visit. Hallelujah suggests Sunny should do something for Bruce so he can stand up to Lily, which Sunny agrees to and goes to the Kidville seamstress and pillow makers for this idea. On their next visit to Town, after causing the guards to trip on the rolling Easter eggs, Sunny hops into a paper bag, where the guards discover that they captured a chocolate bunny, thus being let into Town where Sunny brings Bruce stuffed animals to give him courage every night when he is lonely. Just as Bruce is about to give Sunny permission to come to Town whenever he wants, Lily arrives to stop him. Bruce tells her that he outranks her, but finds it difficult. Afterwards, Lily tells her guards to do anything they can to stop Sunny from coming to Town. The following year, Sunny and friends plan to have Gadzooks help them bring all the Easter treats to Town. However, Lily's guards cause the bear to trip and break his big toe. Everyone is saddened that injured Gadzooks can't help, but Hallelujah suggests that they build a railroad over Big Rock Mountain from Kidville to Town. After the railroad is built, Sunny and his friends go to the train yard to hire a locomotive to carry all the goods. However, since the big engines in the roundhouse are too important to help, they hire a rusty little switch engine named Chugs and paint him yellow. Meanwhile, Lily orders her guards to do anything they can to stop the train from getting to Town. They spread melted butter on the rails, causing Chugs to slip, but Hallelujah pours jelly beans on the butter, providing extra traction and allowing them to climb the hill, thus foiling Lily's plan. Soon after, they all make it to Town where everyone is happily celebrating. But Lily is upset, thinking Bruce will banish her forever. However, he and Sunny give her an Easter flower named after her called a

lily ''Lilium'' ( ) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large and often prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are ...

. Afterwards, everyone, including S.D. Kluger celebrates with a train ride on Chugs.

Cast

– S.D. Kluger * Skip Hinnant – Sunny *

– Chugs, Old Man * Meg Sargent – Dowager Duchess Lily Longtooth * James Spies – King Bruce the Frail *

– Gadzooks the Bear, Newsreel announcer, Blue engine, Red engine, Town guard * Gia Anderson – Child * George Brennan – Child * Stacy Carey – Child * Laura Dean – Child * Jill Choder – Chicken #1, Chicken #2 * Karen Dahle – Linda the

Teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

, Chicken #3 * Ron Marshall – Hallelujah Jones, Green engine, Brown engine, Town guard * Michael McGovern – Herbert the

Baker A baker is a tradesperson who baking, bakes and sometimes Sales, sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery. History Ancient histo ...

Crew

* Producers/Directors – Arthur Rankin Jr.,

Jules Bass Julius Caesar Bass (; September 16, 1935 – October 25, 2022) was an American director, producer, lyricist, composer and author. Until 1960, he worked at a New York advertising agency, and then co-founded the film production company Videocraft ...

* Associate Producer – Masaki Iizuka * Writer – Romeo Muller * Music/Lyrics – Maury Laws, Jules Bass * Design – Paul Coker Jr. * Animagic Supervisor – Akikazu Kono * Sound Recorders – John Curcio, Dave Iveland * Sound Effects – Tom Clark * Music Arranger/Conductor – Bernard Hoffer

Songs

* The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town - Fred Astaire * Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? - The Hendrews Sisters * Someone's Gotta Be First - Skip Hinnant * You Think Nobody Loves You, But They Do - Ron Marshall and the Hendrews Sisters * The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Ron Marshall * Train-Yard Blues - Bob McFadden and the Hendrews Sisters * All You Have to Do is Think "Can Do" - Fred Astaire and the Cast

Production details

* ''The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town'' was the last Rankin/Bass television special for

, who also played narrator S.D. Kluger in the previous holiday special, ''

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" is a Christmas music, Christmas song written by John Frederick Coots, J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, and first recorded by Harry Reser and His Orchestra. When it was covered by Eddie Cantor on his radio show ...

'' (1970). It is also a semi-sequel to the earlier special — Santa Claus is only mentioned once in the special and as such, it shares many similarities with the earlier special (Sunny as Kris Kringle, the Kidville kids as the Kringles, King Bruce as Jessica, Hallelujah Jones as Tante Kringle, Gadzooks as the Winter Warlock, and Lily Longtooth as Burgermeister Meisterburger). This Easter TV special was also Astaire's second time starring in a production about the holiday, following the 1948

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

musical ''

Easter Parade The Easter parade is an American cultural event consisting of a festive strolling procession on Easter Sunday. Typically, it is a somewhat informal and unorganized event, with or without religious significance. Persons participating in an East ...

''. * This was the third and final Rankin/Bass special about Easter. The first two were '' Here Comes Peter Cottontail'' (1971), narrated by

Danny Kaye Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; ; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer, and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs. Kaye starred ...

, and '' The First Easter Rabbit'' (1976), narrated by

Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American Folk music, folk singer and actor with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his o ...

. * The original airing of ''The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town'' on ABC in 1977 ranked No. 13 in the Nielsen TV ratings for that week. *

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...

released ''The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town'' on VHS in 1993 and 2000 (as part of Warner's ''Century 2000'' promotion), and on DVD in 2006 and 2008 (in a Deluxe Edition). The 2008 Deluxe Edition DVD release included two bonus features: "The Easter Bunny is Comin’ to Town: The Magic of Stop Motion." and three family-friendly selections consisting of "Breakfast of Magicians", "Floating Through Daydream Garden", and "The Easter Express".Easter Bunny Comes to DVD - IGN
/ref>

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town 1977 television specials 1977 films 1970s American television specials 1970s American animated films 1977 in American television American Broadcasting Company television specials 1970s animated television specials Rankin/Bass Productions television specials Stop-motion animated television shows Films scored by Maury Laws Television shows directed by Jules Bass Television shows directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. Easter television specials Television shows written by Romeo Muller Animated films about trains Musical theatre television specials Easter Bunny in television