Here Comes Peter Cottontail Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Here Comes Peter Cottontail Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 11, 2020

There are several seminal holiday classics that graced television screens in decades past, many of which center on the Christmas holiday while there are some that branch out to Halloween and Thanksgiving. 1971's Here Comes Peter Cottontail flips the calendar to springtime rather than fall and winter, celebrating the Easter season with the story of how the title character became the Easter Bunny. The stop motion animation is charming, the story is mildly intriguing, and the characters are voiced by some of the industry's then-top names. And, hey, it's actually not limited to Easter duty, either, hitting everything from the Fourth of July to St. Patrick's Day for good measure, if only en route to circling the calendar around to April (usually).

Peter Cottontail (voiced by Casey Kasem) is the “number one chief Easter Bunny” in April Valley But this is the story of how he almost wasn’t. Once upon a time, he lost the job to the wicked Irontail (voiced by Vincent Price), a mean spirited bunny who literally has a tail of iron rather than a fluffy white one. He detests children -- he lost his tail in an accident at the hands of a child -- and wants to become the Easter Bunny to exact revenge. The sitting Easter Bunny, Colonel Wellington (voiced by Danny Kaye), wants Peter to take his place but is forced to pit his protégé against Irontail in a game of egg distribution, as the letter of the law requires. The rule is this: whoever amongst the two can deliver the most eggs on Easter will be named Easter Bunny. Simple, and Peter is confident he’s got the gig in the bag. But between Peter’s overconfidence and Irontail’s trickery, Peter sleeps Easter day away. Irontail delivers but a single egg, but it’s enough to declare him the victor.

Now, Irontail rules April Valley with an iron fist. It’s now a land of perpetual gloom. A discouraged Peter meets up with the film’s narrator, Seymour Sassafras (also voiced by Kaye), who provides Peter with an out: a time machine operated by a caterpillar named Antoine (also voiced by Kaye). Unfortunately, what should be a simple mission turns much more complex when Peter is transported to the wrong holiday. As he travels through the calendar, getting ever closer to Easter, can he devise a plan to reclaim what is rightfully his and, more importantly, save Easter from a bunny who detests everything about it?

While there are a few darker beats in play -- Irontail can be somewhat scary, and he's not afraid of exploiting his fiendish ways for his own gain -- the film generally finds and holds a family friendly cadence. It's light, uncomplicated fare, even as the film dabbles in themes that warn of the dangers of determined foes, the perils of pride, and literally sleeping on the job. Irontail takes full advantage of Peter's nonchalance and confidence, but the rabbit quickly learns his lesson. His "out" is a time machine but even as that solution presents its own challenges, he manages to discover the importance of several critical values en route to reclaiming his rightful position.

The film is well made. The stop-motion animation is quite agreeable and filled with character and environmental detail that certainly demonstrates the complexity with which the film was made, and the passion, too. The character models are exacting and full of life. The filmmakers round up a collection of A-list voice talent that breathe life into the roles with gusto. Peter is voiced by the late and legendary radio personality Casey Kasem who fills the bill perfectly, capturing Peter's life course and story beats with a pleasing cadence and sense of wonder, fear, and growth throughout the story. Familiar voices belonging to the likes of Danny Kaye and Vincent Price round out a terrific vocal ensemble.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Here Comes Peter Cottontail's 1080i AVC transfer is sourced from a print that is in fairly good, though certainly imperfect, condition. The picture enjoys good foundational clarity, serving up nicely defined details that, particularly in close-up, showcase the fine textures on the various materials used to bring the movie's characters, props, and scenery to life. The picture is attractively filmic. A natural grain structure remains for the duration, but the stray pop, speckle, and vertical line appears from time to time (the latter not to be mistaken for the visible strings holding up and manipulating the puppets in a few shots). Colors are nicely saturated, offering balanced, natural contrast and not appearing either faded or pushed too hard. Tones are pleasant; nothing leaps off the screen but neither does any color fail to offer an adequate level of tonal delight. There are no serious encode artifacts of note. This one could stand a little TLC to make it perfect, but all things considered it's in relatively good condition.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Here Comes Peter Cottontail hops onto Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. The track is fine, delivering on a source that is a bit crude at its center. Music ranges from adequately clear to terribly scratchy; a song at the 17:50 mark when Peter first takes off in the time machine is one such occurrence of unruly, scratchy music, as is the closing credits tune. The track is generally fine otherwise, if not a bit sonically unassuming. What few supportive action effects of consequence there are deliver no potency or nuance within the dynamic range, but core sound elements are in good working order. Ditto any ambient support effects spread along the front. Dialogue is the primary sonic propellant, and it presents with nicely imaged front-center placement and solid enough clarity. Prioritization is never a concern; there's frankly not much in competition with the spoken word, anyway.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Here Comes Peter Cottontail's Blu-ray disc includes no extras, but the DVD does feature a number of extras, including Peter Cottontail The Movie, Peter Cottontail Songs, Storyboard Scenes, Development Art, Deleted Scenes, and a Picture Slideshow. There is no digital copy code included with purchase. The release does ship with an embossed slipcover.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Here Comes Peter Cottontail offers enough cute and cuddly and comedy and just enough dramatic content to keep the story balanced. It's brief in runtime but not at all short on heart. It's not the world's greatest holiday special, not of its time and not of its style, but it's a nice springtime diversion with enough calendar maneuverings to prove appealing at any time of the year. Universal's Blu-ray disc proper is featureless but the bundled DVD does include some worthwhile content. The 1080p video and two-channel lossless audio are imperfect but generally adequate-to-good. Recommended.