Here Comes Peter Cottontail

Here Comes Peter Cottontail is a Stop Motion puppet animated (called "Animagic") Rankin/Bass Productions holiday special, the first of the studio's Easter specials, broadcast in 1971. It follows the usual Rankin/Bass formula of taking a holiday standard song like "Peter Cottontail", and weaving around it a narrative, in this case adapted by R/B's favorite writer Romeo Muller from Otto and Priscilla Friedrich's book The Easter Bunny That Overslept, and adding original songs with music by Maury Laws and lyrics by co-producer Jules Bass. Danny Kaye serves as the usual R/B Ink Suit Actor Narrator, Seymour K. Sassafrass.


 * Alliterative Name: Seymour S. Sassafras
 * Dark Reprise: "The Easter Bunny Never Sleeps" begets "The Easter Bunny Always Sleeps" when Irontail takes over April Valley.
 * Distaff Counterpart: Jackie Frost in the sequel is obviously a female Jack Frost.
 * Easter Bunny: Of course.
 * Freudian Excuse: Irontail wasn't always a nasty bunny. The entire reason he dislikes children at all is because a kid accidentally squished his tail while rollerskating. Why he couldn't just be an adult about it and accept an apology rather than decide to be a dick to all children is up for grabs.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Vincent Price as Irontail; Casey Kasem as Peter; Danny Kaye as multiple characters, and Rankin/Bass favorite Paul Frees as various anonymous characters.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: Irontail turns the eggs completely green near the end. Naturally, this comes back to bite him when St. Patrick's Day rolls around.
 * Ink Suit Actor: Danny Kaye as Seymour K. Sassafras
 * Loophole Abuse: Peter wins the egg-delivering contest in the end and saves Easter because the rules did not specify the eggs had to be delivered on Easter. Irontail also got away with it at the beginning: although he only managed to deliver one egg, that was still one more than Peter delivered.
 * Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Probably the only reason why Irontail got away with half the stuff he did in the original special.
 * Only Six Faces: The humans Peter encounters during his adventure all tend to look alike.
 * Pinocchio Nose: Peter's left ear droops whenever he tells a fib.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Cute??