The Drive-In. Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971), The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town (1977), The First Easter Rabbit (1976).

 

                                               The Drive-In. 

Just in time for Easter this Sunday, here are a couple films you might know and you might not know. They are from the greatest Stop-motion Animation team of all time Rankin/Bass who have given us some of the greatest Holiday films of all time. 

You can read all about the 3 films I have written about below, you can see trailers and at the very bottom you can watch The First Easter Rabbit for free because I was able to up load it on here, it's a really good film plus it's only 24 or 25 minutes long. 

I know this one is short but there are things going on and I know you people don't have a lot of time to watch a lot of stuff so hope you are all doing well. Read and enjoy a little time watching a short film. 

I will see you next time.

                                  Enjoy The Drive-In. 

                              Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971)

Here Comes Peter Cottontail is a 1971 Easter stop motion animated television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions, currently distributed by Universal Television and based on the 1957 novel The Easter Bunny That Overslept by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich.

Peter Cottontail is a young Easter Bunny who lives in April Valley where all the other Easter bunnies live and work, making Easter candy, sewing bonnets, and of course, decorating and delivering Easter eggs.

Colonel Wellington B. Bunny, the retiring Chief Easter Bunny, names Peter his successor, despite his boasting, irresponsibility, and lying. Peter, who has dreamed of being the Chief Easter Bunny almost his entire life, gladly accepts. However, an evil bunny named January Q. Irontail, who lives all alone except for his bat Montressor also wants to become Chief Easter Bunny, only so he can ruin Easter for children as revenge after a child once roller-skated over his tail, forcing him to wear a prosthetic one made of iron. Irontail demands that Colonel Bunny hold a contest to see who delivers the most eggs, according to the Constitution of April Valley. Peter accepts the challenge, but stays up all night, partying with his friends. Although he tells his rooster Ben to wake him up at 5:30 in the morning, Irontail sneaks into his house and feeds the rooster magic bubblegum, sealing his beak and Peter sleeps on, not hearing the crows from the popping bubbles. Though Irontail tries all day long to deliver eggs with unsuccessful results, he is only able to deliver one single egg. However, it's still one egg more than Peter delivered, so Irontail becomes the new Chief Easter Bunny, passing laws to make Easter a disaster, such as painting eggs brown and gray, ordering the candy sculptors to make chocolate tarantulas and octopuses instead of bunnies and chicks, and having Easter galoshes instead of bonnets. Meanwhile, Peter, ashamed that his bragging led to this tragedy, leaves April Valley in disgrace until he meets Seymour S. Sassafras (The narrator), an eccentric peddler and inventor, who supplies April Valley with the colors to paint the eggs with from his Garden of Surprises, from red, white, and blue cabbages and purple corn to striped tomatoes and orange string beans. Sassafras then lets Peter use his Yestermorrowbile, a time machine piloted by a caterpillar named Antoine, Sassafras' assistant who will take Peter back to Easter to deliver his eggs, win the contest, and defeat Irontail. Unfortunately, Irontail finds out about Peter's plan and sends his spider to sabotage the Yestermorrowbile's controls, allowing Peter and Antoine to go to any holiday but Easter.

Since the rules of the contest don't specifically say that the eggs must be delivered only on Easter, Peter tries to give his eggs away at other holidays, but without success. On the 4th of July, Peter paints the eggs red, white and blue and lies to two boys by passing them off as firecrackers, which ultimately fails. Then, on Halloween, Peter meets a witch named Madame Esmeralda and gives her a Halloween egg as a gift, making the score a tie. When she calls the other Halloween inhabitants, Irontail sends Montressor out to steal Peter's eggs. After getting the eggs back, Peter tells Antoine they have to get back to Halloween, but they can't go back since Antoine has to land the craft to fix it. After failing to give any of his eggs away on Thanksgiving, Peter and Antoine go to Christmas Eve where Peter, dressed as Santa Claus, tries to give his Christmas eggs on the streets, which are completely deserted. Then Peter hears sobbing from a nearby hat shop where he meets Bonnie, an Easter bonnet who had left April Valley years ago. Bonnie's sad that nobody wants to buy her, so Peter tells the shopkeeper that he'll trade his Christmas eggs for Bonnie. Unfortunately, Irontail steals them again and Peter and Bonnie go after him, accidentally leaving Antoine behind. During the chase, Irontail and Montresor crash into Santa's sleigh where Santa demands Irontail give the eggs back to Peter. Santa returns the eggs, but Peter is too sad to thank him since they left Antoine behind. Afterwards, Peter and Bonnie are unable to land on New Year's Day but land on Valentine's Day where Peter meets a beautiful female bunny named Donna and he gives her a Valentine egg. However, Irontail finds the eggs and casts a spell on them, turning them all green, inside and out.

After failing to give the green eggs away on Presidents' Day, Peter vows to be more honest and responsible. He and Bonnie end up landing in the middle of St. Patrick's Day, which gives Peter another chance to give away his eggs — this time, Peter's successful and wins the contest, finally becoming the Chief Easter Bunny. Antoine returns as a butterfly and Irontail works as the janitor of April Valley while Peter leads a parade with all the characters from the story.

                         The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town (1977)

The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town is a 1977 musical Easter television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions, using their "Animagic" stop motion animation. It reunites the writer Romeo Muller. designer Paul Coker Jr., and narrator Fred Astaire, and stars the voices of Skip Hinnant, Bob McFadden, Meg Sargent, James Spies, and Allen Swift. 

S.D. Kluger returns as a train engineer, but still a mailman to answer questions about the Easter Bunny in the children's letters.

The story begins in the small town of Kidville, run by all orphaned children (including S.D. Kluger when he was a child) and located on the other side of Big Rock Mountain. The children enjoy the simple life, despite being bothered by Gadzooks the Bear who hates everything to do with the holidays, including birthdays.

One Easter morning, they find an orphaned baby rabbit, raise him as their own, and name him Sunny when they notice how much he likes the warm sun. Sunny, now one year old, makes plans with the children to sell what they make in exchange for what they need, including their eggs, with help from three chickens called the Hendrew Sisters.

Sunny sets off to deliver his eggs. Along the way, he meets an eccentric and yet friendly 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 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 paperweights. Gadzooks, befuddled by Sunny's lie, 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. However, Lily, disappointed in her nephew, 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 all 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 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 trainyard to hire a train to carry all the goods. However, since the big engines in the roundhouse are too important to help, they find a small switch engine named Chugs (who would become the famous Little Engine Who Could and is helping S.D. Kluger deliver mail) all rusty after being put down for years. They hire him 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. Afterwards, everyone celebrates with a train ride on Chugs. Even S.D. Kluger gets in on all the fun.

                          The First Easter Rabbit (1976)

The First Easter Rabbit is an animated Easter television special that premiered April 9, 1976 on NBC and later aired on CBS. Created by Rankin/Bass Productions, it tells the story of the Easter Bunny's origin. The special is loosely based on the 1922 children's book The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.

Stuffy is a stuffed rabbit, given to a little girl named Glinda as a Christmas present. But one day, when she becomes sick after contracting scarlet fever, her old toys are thrown away to be burned in order to disinfect the playroom. Stuffy is rescued by a sprite named Calliope, who brings him to life and sends him to Easter Valley at the North Pole where he befriends Santa Claus and three other rabbits named Spats, Flops, and Whiskers to help him with the Easter traditions. However, an ice being named Zero wants to freeze the valley by stealing the Golden Easter Lily with the help of his reluctant partner, a sentient snowball named Bruce. In order to stop Zero, Stuffy must become the Easter Bunny, retrieve the Golden Lily, and save Easter Valley.

You can watch it down below. It's only 24 or 25 minutes long so I was able to upload it. Hopefully it will play for you. Enjoy.