The Plot:
On Easter morning, a little bunny named Sunny is born. A natural lover of life, he hopes to instill his passion for fun with the residents of the children-only town of Kidville. After convincing them that a yearly celebration of renewal and candy is valid, he takes his mission over the Big Rock Mountain to the depressed residents of the adults-only burg of Town. Ruled by a child king, who in turn is controlled by a cruel, pinched up aunt, the people are terribly unhappy. Babies are illegal and the only food allowed is beans. Sunny hopes to change all that. Unfortunately, a mean old bear named Gadzooks is determined to stop the rabbit at any costs. But with a little ingenuity and some help from the underage artisans of Kidville, Sunny will become the Easter Bunny. And with the help of the Little Engine that Could, he'll bring joy to everyone in the valley.

The DVD:
At a certain point in every vaunted career, you often see a master merely treading water. In the case of the wonderful Rankin-Bass stop motion animation canon of classics from the '60s and '70s, The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town is that moment of unbridled mediocrity. Nothing more than a beat for beat rip off of the far superior Santa Claus is Coming to Town (both even star the voice of Fred Astaire as the same mailman character), this onerous origin story takes the furry little egg bringer and turns him into a carbon copy of St. Nick - even down to the depressed village setting, irrational villain, and mountain dwelling baddie. Unfortunately, whatever magic was present the first time around has completely eroded away, leaving jaws agape and heads pounding from lame dialogue, generic songs, and a saccharine sweetness that's patently antithetical to R&B's past efforts. Gone are iconic characters like Yukon Cornelius, the Winter Warlock, or the hissable Heat Miser. In their place are boy kings, miserable maiden aunts, an unfathomably friendly hobo, and a mangy grizzly bear named - get this - Gadzooks! It's enough to make you grab your collectable Hermey the Elf Dentist doll and rip its pointy eared head off.

Trying to explain the Easter Bunny within a Christian context is hard enough. Using faith as a flimsy basis for nonsensical narrative balderdash is another. Nothing about the rabbit's tale is original: he colors eggs to sneak them past the hungry bruin; he invents jelly beans so that the people of Town (now THAT'S original) don't have to eat regular legumes; and chocolate hares are nothing but soldier subterfuge. There's a sequence near the middle when our hero, Sunny the Bunny, tells the juvenile monarch of the miserable village about the Easter Egg ritual. As he goes through the steps, making up weird gestures and arcane statements, he finishes by assuring the royal that this is how it's done...and then adds that he just made it all up. This is exactly how The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town feels as a fable, a myth, and an excuse for family entertainment. Longtime Rankin Bass writer Romeo Muller provides one of his worst scripts, struggling to find meaning in such slight symbolism as stuffed toys and playing dress up. To make matters worse - or at the very least, to pad out the story - he also tosses in a bit of The Little Engine that Could and a nod to the "Big Rock Candy Mountain".

Yet none of it works. When it comes right down to it, the Easter Bunny is just not that important of a fictional character. It's not like Santa, or even the Tooth Fairy. And anthropomorphizing him doesn't make things any more special. Instead, we get this weird vibe from the story, a sense of talented individuals trading on their repute for a few bucks and another seasonal network run. Even the memorable Rankin Bass animation looks bad. The mouth movements are out of sync, the usual craftsmanship of the characters limited to vague, ambiguous features. The backgrounds no longer have heft or value. Instead, the boy king's castle looks like a cardboard miniature, while Gadzooks' mountain is nothing but a pile of plaster of Paris. The ability to recognize such corner cutting is indicative of everything that's wrong here. There's no fun, no sense of wonder or awe. When you watched the original Santa saga, or the story of Rudolph, you almost believed the maudlin mush being troweled out. There was whimsy there, and enchantment. Here, there's a mechanical, forced feeling, a notion of trying to hard and failing almost every step of the way. While this may sound like the cynical voice of someone who stopped believing in a certain charmed rodent about 42 years ago, this is just bad. You'd be better served seeking out the previously mentioned Christmas classics rather than deal with this hippity hoppity crap.

The Video:
One thing that is impressive here is the 1.33:1 full screen image. Overloaded with primary colors and crisp to the point of exposing animation flaws, the transfer here is top notch. Even the obligatory commercial fade outs are handled without a significant loss of quality.

The Audio:
The ornate and rather cheesy orchestration and musical numbers are rendered kind of flat, thanks in part to the uninspired Dolby Digital Mono mix. There is very little ambience in the presentation, and the dialogue, while discernible, frequently comes across as loud and slightly shrill.

The Extras:
The only added content provided is three rather dull (and badly done) stop motion movies and a collection of trailers. The films - "Breakfast of Magicians", "Floating Through a Daydream Garden", and "The Easter Express" - are live action and quite amateurish. You'll see better use of the medium and technique on YouTube. Only the most infantile brain will find anything of interest here.

Final Thoughts:
Here's the dilemma - as a current holiday offering, something to show the wee ones in between chocolate binges and cellophane grass choking fits, The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town is an amiable diversion. It's dull, but just engaging enough to keep the under eight crowd at bay. On the other hand, anyone with a double digit IQ will be rendered comatose. Of course, one must also account for the nostalgia factor. Some in the demographic probably maintain fond memories of this mid '70s offering, and would love to own it. So before you rush out and spend part of your house payment on this DVD, a Rent It is in order. See if it still stacks up. If it does, great! Buy a copy. If not, then you're only out a couple of bucks. There is much to love about the Rankin Bass legacy. The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town is not part of the appreciation.

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