Here Comes Peter Cottontail

Here Comes Peter Cottontail is a 1971 Easter-themed stop-motion animated special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions, based on the 1957 novel The Easter Bunny That Overslept by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich. The title comes from the Easter song "Here Comes Peter Cottontail", which is also heard in the special.

The special was originally broadcast on ABC, and has since appeared in reruns on CBS, Fox Family, and The CW. In 2006, it was followed by a computer-animated sequel, Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie.

Summary
Peter Cottontail is a young Easter Bunny who lives in April Valley, where the Chief Easter Bunny supervises colored eggs, chocolate candy, and bonnets for Easter. Colonel Wellington B. Bunny, the retiring Chief Easter Bunny, names Peter his successor, despite his boasting and fibbing, exemplified when his left ear droops. Peter, who has dreamed of being Chief Easter Bunny almost his entire life, gladly accepts. But January Q. Irontail, an evil, reclusive, rabbit villain wants to be Chief Easter Bunny, only so he can ruin it for children everywhere, as revenge for the loss of his tail, which was run over by a small child who roller-skated over it and had to be replaced with a hard iron tail, hence his name. Irontail goes to April Valley where Colonel Bunny is about to crown Peter the new Chief Easter Bunny and proposes a contest to see who delivers the most eggs and wins in order to be the new Chief Easter Bunny, so the Constitution of April Valley states. Peter, eager to prove his worth, accepts the challenge, though the Colonel refuses. Although Peter promises the Colonel that he won't fail, he stays up late partying with his friends. Though he tells his rooster to wake him up at 5:30 AM, Irontail sneaks into his house and feeds magic bubblegum to it, causing the crows to float so far away that Peter can't hear them, resulting in Peter sleeping through and losing the contest.

Even though Irontail manages to deliver only one egg, it's still one more egg than Peter delivers and so Irontail is named the new Chief Easter Bunny, as per the constitution and begins passing laws that will doubtlessly make Easter a complete disaster, such as painting eggs in the colors of mud and new concrete, ordering the candy sculptors to make chocolate tarantulas and octopuses instead of chocolate bunnies and chicks, and having Easter galoshes instead of Easter bonnets. Meanwhile, Peter, ashamed that his overconfidence and irresponsibility led to this tragedy, leaves April Valley in disgrace. The next morning, he meets the story's narrator - Seymour S. Sassafras, an eccentric and friendly peddler and inventor who supplies April Valley with the dyes it uses to color its Easter eggs with, which he gets from the vegetables he grows in his Garden of Surprises from red, white, and blue cabbages and purple corn to striped tomatoes and orange string beans.

Proving to be very compassionate and understanding, Sassafras lets Peter use his time machine, called the Yestemorrowbile, which can transport anyone to yesterday or tomorrow. With the help of its pilot, a French caterpillar named Antoine, Peter will be able to go back to Easter and deliver his eggs, win the contest, and defeat Irontail. Unfortunately, Irontail finds out about Peter's plan and sends his spider to sabotage the Yestemorrowbile's controls, thereby making it so that Peter and Antoine can go to any holiday but Easter. While Antoine tries to fix the machine, they find out that the rules of the contest, however, don't specifically say the eggs must be delivered on Easter, so Peter begins trying to give his eggs away at other holidays unsuccessfully. On the Fourth of July, he lies to two boys when he tries to sell his eggs as firecrackers. On Halloween, he meets Madame Esmeralda the witch and gives her a Halloween egg. When she calls the other creatures of Halloween together, Irontail sends his pet bat Montresor out to steal and smash Peter's eggs. Fortunately, Peter and Antoine recover all of the eggs.

Unfortunately, Peter cannot go back to Halloween to give out the rest of his eggs since Antoine has to land the Yestermorrowbile again to continue with the repairs. On Christmas Eve, Peter, who continues to fail to sell his "Christmas eggs" while dressed like Santa Claus, meets Bonnie Bonnet, a talking bonnet who left April Valley years ago, all alone in a hat shop, crying because no one will buy her at Christmas. Peter makes a deal with the hat shop owner, trading her his Christmas eggs for Bonnie. However, Irontail steals the eggs and Peter and Bonnie go after him, accidentally leaving Antoine behind. After demanding Irontail return the eggs to Peter, Santa returns the eggs to Peter, though Peter is unable to thank him due to not knowing how to control the Yestermorrowbile. Eventually, Peter and Bonnie manage to get the machine to make a stop at a Valentine's Day ice-skating party. There, Peter meets Donna, a lovely girl bunny who immediately takes an interest in one of his Valentine eggs. Unfortunately, while Peter goes skating with Donna, Irontail finds the eggs and casts an evil spell on them, turning them all green, inside and out.

In the end, Peter, having vowed to never boast again and keep his promises, finally manages to give the green eggs away on St. Patrick's Day, since they are the appropriate color. As a result, he is crowned Chief Easter Bunny, Antoine returns as a butterfly, and Irontail is now the April Valley janitor.

Trivia

· In the beginning, Seymour S Sassafras flies across the sky with an umbrella. This references the 1964 movie Mary Poppins.

·The scene in which Madame Esmeralda cries and is upset because she failed. References Gilligan's Island The Producer, where Ginger Grant cries and is upset because Howard Hecuba insulted her performance. But unlike Ginger, Madame Esmeralda wasn't dressed up as Marilyn Monroe. And like Ginger, she calls herself a has-been.

· During the sunrise, Peter Cottontail does Samantha Stephens' nose wiggle from the 1964 sitcom Bewitched.