The Adventures of the American Rabbit/Recap

In a village of rabbits, a hero is to be born once a generation. In this case, it's Rob Rabbit, whom the elder identifies the moment he's born. When Rob's parents get caught in a rock slide, Rob runs over and inadvertently turns into the American Rabbit. The elder, now dressed like a wizard, teaches Rob how to use his powers.

Rob leaves the village and plays piano at a San Francisco nightclub known as the Panda-Monium. His first public performance ends in disaster, however, as the Jackals biker gang invades and tears up the place. This is the last straw for Bunny O'Hare, a female performer, and organizes a protest parade. The Jackals' boss, Vultor, learns about the parade and puts the Jackals at the end to cause mischief. Meanwhile, Vultor's vulture pecks at the Golden Gate's suspension cables, causing them to break. Rob turns into the American Rabbit and fixes the bridge, causing Vultor and the Jackals to retreat.

The Jackals drug Ping Pong, a big gorilla, and takes him to the Grand Canyon, where they put him in a flooding chamber. Vultor tells him to join up and be evil or drown. Meanwhile, Rob, Bunny, the White Brothers band, and Teddy, the panda manager, decide to go touring around the country to try to raise funds to rebuild the bar. Their first stop happens to be the Grand Canyon. Rob notices what's going on, becomes the American Rabbit, and saves Ping from the Jackals' clutches and the rest of the group from falling off a waterfall in an inflatable raft that Rob suggested they hop into in the first place. Unable to find a venue, Rob and his group head to New Orleans with Ping, but so do Vultor and the Jackals.

The Jackals burn down the Hog & Frog, the bar the White Brothers were supposed to play at. A jackal lures the band into a steamboat, locks them in the ballroom, and sets fire. Again, Rob transforms and saves everybody, but he goes over to the getaway boat the bad guys are on and overhears their next plan. He can't get any good details except that it's in New York City. Rob turns back to normal and suggests everyone head to New York City.

The village elder, for some reason, allows Rob and his gang to ride to the outskirts of the metropolis and drop them off there. They hitchhike with a father-and-son moose team, who make chocolate, to a rental group to rent out instruments to play. Shortly after dropping them off, the moose get captured by the Jackals. This same rental group rents out the Statue of Liberty for Vultor. Vultor gathers a large crowd of people at the Statue of Liberty with the incentive of chocolate. Rob, as the American Rabbit, defuses as many bombs as he can, but Vultor is wise to him and threatens to detonate the remaining bombs with his Doomsday Switch if American Rabbit doesn't announce Vultor's victory speech himself and retire. Without American Rabbit, the Jackals kick out the governmental figures and threaten the locals asking for protection money. The people refuse and overwhelm the Jackals, so Vultor cuts ties with them, taking matters into his own wings.

Rob feels dejected and takes his village elder's taxicab. The elder tells Rob that things can't go his way all the time and that since Vultor made a "power play," whatever that is, that Rob should make one back. Rob unleashes his Force Lightning to hold the water up at a dam, cutting off the power in Vultor's territory. Vultor, in what must be an act of sheer impulse, flips his Doomsday Switch anyway, but the handle snaps off. Vultor goes over to the dam and tries fighting American Rabbit himself. After seeing everyone is safe (Ping takes the moose duo to safety), American Rabbit pursues Vultor to some snowy woods, where Vultor gets exhausted from the snow weighing down on him--it slips right off American Rabbit--and can no longer fly. Vultor tries a divebomb as a last resort and crashes onto the ground. American Rabbit leaves Vultor for dead, changes back to Rob, and rejoins with his group, who are hallucinating American Rabbit in the sky.

You may notice that many subplots get unresolved, such as Teddy getting funds to rebuild his bar, what happened to the Jackals after Vultor cuts ties with them, or why Rob even left his village in the first place. They are not resolved in the movie either.


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