Tim's Toons: Easter animation
Sunday, March 27, 2016 at 7:30PM 
Tim here. Easter is upon us, and with it comes the realization that, for a holiday with such prominent iconography and a pre-made adorable talking animal, the movies haven't been able to do much with it. The go-to classic Easter film for generations of TV audiences has been The Ten Commandments, a religious epic that isn't even about the life of Jesus; meanwhile, the secular side of the date has been horribly mangled. Recent attempts at minting new holiday classics include Rise of the Guardians, which devoted all of its energy to pretending to be a Christmas movie instead, and the deeply execrable Hop, a live-action/animation hybrid with James Marsden as the perpetually horrified human companion to an abominable CGI rabbit voiced by Russell Brand.
Dig a little, however, and you can still find some reasonably charming Easter Bunny pictures out in the world. As a public service, may I offer these three Easter-themed shorts, all of them available on the internet.
Funny Little Bunnies (1934)
One of Disney's Silly Symphonies from the middle of that series' life, this is a look at the factory-like process by which a community of rabbits ready the various candies distributed to the Christian American children of the world. Primitive already by the standards of 1934, with its metronome-like repetitions of action and complete lack of a plot, the film nonetheless thrives on account of its gorgeous color palette, blending dreamy springtime pastels with the rich saturation of early Technicolor. Not one of the all-time great Disney cartoons, but at just seven minutes, it goes down nicely. Right up until the split-second blackface gag, anyway, startlingly unnecessary even by the standards of Disney's 1930s infatuation with minstrelsy. (On YouTube)
Two more Easter shorts after the jump!
Easter Yeggs (1947)
Bugs Bunny gets tricked into delivering eggs for a lazy Easter Bunny, and gets a bit knocked around for his trouble. It's not by any means one of the better-known Looney Tunes shorts, though it has some pretty great interplay between Bugs and his hapless nemesis, Elmer Fudd. It's also a string example of the work of Robert McKimson, the least-known of the golden age Looney Tunes directors; his films were tinged with realism like none of his colleagues, which can at times work against the film – the violence in this one is unusually tangible, all the more so because it pairs that violence with a colorful holiday for kids – but shines in the Bugs/Elmer sequence. Definitely the film to watch if you harbor any dislike for Easter. (On Vimeo)
It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (1974)
If there's a canonically classic Easter cartoon, this is it: the twelfth of the CBS Peanuts specials, and the fourth based on a holiday. By this point, the formula was starting to ossify (the film more or less openly acknowledges its debt to It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown), but the special is propped up by the generally superior quality of its individual gags, including a beautifully cynical joke about commercializing Christmas. And everybody's favorite-coded-as-lesbian couple, Peppermint Patty and Marcie, are at their very best here, squabbling over the proper treatment of Easter eggs. It is, I think, easily the best those characters have ever been used in any iteration of animated Peanuts. (On DailyMotion)
Have any other ideas for seasonal viewing? Share it in comments!
Reader Comments (5)
Thanks for sharing this list! My kid and I watched two of the Rankin & Bass Easter specials today -- The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town (1977) and The First Easter Rabbit (1976). They're both harmless and fun, which is also what I would say about The Easter Beagle special.
Oh yeah, The Easter Bunny Is Coming to Town is delightful. I haven't seen the other one, I'll have to track it down!
Tim, I love the Silly Symphonies.
They are all timeless and maybe some of them
impossible today, like 1932's King Neptune.
A grandfather of The Little Mermaid.
Can you imagine a Disney Cartoon with nudity(and other things) ?
Watching it everyone can understand the reason for Ariel's bra shells.
Animation is really awesome. I have recommended this to my son. :)
I love the Funny Little Bunnies! As far as Easter movies go, I'd throw Ben-Hur and Easter Parade in there, and, though it's a stretch, Zootopia as well!