Jim Henson's The Tale of the Bunny Picnic

First aired on HBO on March 26, 1986 in the U.S. (and 3 days later on the BBC according to Muppet Wiki)

This charming special tells the story of Bean Bunny (as performed by Steve Whitmire), an imaginative but small rabbit who does not feel appreciated by his family or peers. His older brother Lugsy and sister Twitch seem to find him a bit of a nuisance and tell him he's too little to help out with their preparations for the upcoming Bunny Picnic.

The Bunny Picnic is an annual spring festival that involves elaborate preparations on the part of all the bunnies as well as a much anticipated visit from the Bunny Storyteller.

Frustrated that his siblings won't let him help out, Bean wanders off to a nearby farm where he is frightened and chased by a Dog. Bean manages to get away and returns to warn the other rabbits about the Dog, but no one believes him since a dog has not been seen near the warren for years (and also, one surmises, because Bean's imagination has been known to run away with him in the past).

Dog, as it turns out, isn't really a bad fellow(and is amusingly performed by Jim Henson), but has been coerced by the mean Farmer - who is allergic to rabbits and resents the bunnies' incursions on his lettuce patch. Dog needs to catch bunnies so the Farmer can have some bunny stew (yuck! & possibly not smart in light of Farmer's apparent bunny allergies) so that the Farmer will feed him and possibly deign to give Dog a real name.

Dog eventually finds his way to the warren, peril is averted by Bean's bravery and imagination (with an assist from a cute story about a wise Giant Hedgehog courtesy of the Bunny Storyteller), the mean Farmer is defeated and the bunnies become friends with Dog and even give him a real name and the Bunny Picnic is a success.

To my mind, this cute hour of television was intended as a secular Easter special (bunnies, springtime, etc) and functions quite well. It's sort of in the same stylistic vein as Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas, but with songs that are not quite as strong as the songs in Emmet (lack of Paul Williams as composer will do that though). Although the songs are not quite as strong as in other Henson movies and specials, they are perfectly adequate to the purpose and you may well find yourself humming the bunnies' “Hello Sunshine” song for days after the fact. It may not quite be a “classic” per se, but this is a very fun special that you may have missed & well worth a look, especially if you are Jim Henson/Muppets fan. I was almost 10 when this special first aired and I find it still holds up well for jaded thirtysomething me.

Sadly, it has not (yet) been released on DVD (what's the hold up, Disney?), but The Tale of the Bunny Picnic did receive a VHS release and is readily obtainable from various internet sources.

My rating:

3 Easter Eggs

Spring has sprung on the HFR blog!

Spring has sprung on the Holiday Film Reviews blog and we've updated our look. Now we can change the background to look all seasonal. Spiffy, isn't it?

And after a bit of a long absence, we will be returning shortly with exciting new posts about specials relating to Spring!

RigbyMel's Specials Without Which The Holidays Are Incomplete

Everyone has their holiday traditions and everyone has opinions on things that can make or break their holiday season.

Being the tv and film geek that I am, I have several holiday specials that, if missed, would make my Christmas feel rather incomplete.

Herewith, a list (not in any order other than the order in which they occurred to me):

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer



The 1964 classic stop-motion special. Unparalelled cuteness. Great songs. Fun additional characters like the Misfit Toys, Yukon Cornelius, Hermey the Elf who wants to be a dentist and the Bumble Snowmonster. Plus, Rudolph overcomes his misfit status and saves Christmas. What could be better?

A Charlie Brown Christmas




This special first aired in 1965 and has become a holiday staple. Featuring the beloved Peanuts characters created by Charles Schultz. Really manages to get at what Christmas is all about in the face of the over-commercialization of the holiday. Plus it has real children voicing the Peanuts gang (as opposed to grown up voiceover actors pretending to be children) and the best Christmas jazz soundtrack ever thanks to Vince Guaraldi.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas!



The 1966 television special based directed by Chuck Jones, narrated by Boris Karloff, based on the book of the same title by Dr. Seuss. Moreover it has Thurl Ravenscroft and another brilliant message about the holidays. "Christmas there will always be, just as long as we have we ... "
Accept no bad Jim Carrey film adaptation substitutes!

Christmas Eve On Sesame Street



First broadcast on PBS in 1978, this sweet little special is well worth checking out. The song "Keep Christmas With You All Through The Year" has a tendency to make me cry (in a good way).

"Keep Christmas with you
All through the year,
When Christmas is over,
Save some Christmas cheer.
These precious moments,
Hold them very dear
And keep Christmas with you
All through the year. "

And here is another Jim Henson special which I don't think quite as many people are familiar with:

Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas



Based upon a charming 1971 children's book by Russell and Lillian Hoban (which I also love), this is a 1977 adaptation by Jim Henson and company. It is a kinder, gentler version of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi".

The story centers on Emmet Otter and his widowed Ma, Alice Otter. They manage to scrape by doing laundry and odd jobs for others in Frogtown Hollow. As Christmas approaches, they hear of a talent contest taking place in a nearby village and Ma and Emmet each decide to enter in order to get Christmas presents for each other. Ma wants to buy a nice guitar for Emmet, and Emmet wants to get a piano for Ma. However, they must sacrifice each other's livelihood for the talent contest -- Ma hocks Emmet's tools for dress fabric, while Emmet turns Ma's washtub into a washtub bass for a jug band. All turns out well in the end though.

This special features a beautiful variety of puppet work (Henson and company were trying out techniques for The Muppet Movie) and wonderful songs by Paul Williams. A secular special made with great care, love and respect for its audience. If you've not seen this, I highly recommend checking it out.

For more info check out the Muppet Wiki entry on the special: Muppet Wiki Emmet entry.

So those are my "can't miss" Christmas specials. What (if any) specials do you find it necessary to watch every year?

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer

'Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer'

Released October 31, 2000

Every Christmas, I learn there are two kinds of people:

Those who like Elmo & Patsy’s ‘Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer’, and those that thinks it’s musical torture.

I’m a big fan of Christmas “novelty” songs, so I like it. I wouldn’t call it one of my favorites, but I remember hearing it for the first time in 1982. During the ‘83 Holiday season, the song became a Christmas hit, a staple of the Doctor Demento Show playlists and MTV put a video for the song in heavy rotation.

The story takes place in the town of Cityville, where we meet the main character, Jake Spankenheimer. Jake loves Christmas and everything that comes with it, and so does his Grandma, which creates a special bond between the two. The rest of their family doesn’t care much about celebrating Christmas. Jake’s sister Daphne tells Jake that there’s no such thing as Santa Claus, he asks his parents who say Daphne is correct. Jake’s faith in Santa is shaken.

Jake helps out at Grandma’s general store, the only family owned business left in town. At Christmas, the store sells lots of Grandma’s homemade fruit cakes. All other stores are owned by Austin Bucks, Cityville’s business tycoon, and he wants to buy Grandma’s store too. She refuses to sell to him, despite the efforts of money grubbing Cousin Mel, who also works at the store. Mel concocts a scheme: she will poison Grandma’s famous fruitcakes, hoping they will taste terrible, thus bankrupting the store, forcing Grandma to sell to Austin.

On Christmas Eve, the Spankenheimers are hosting a family gathering, when Grandma realizes she forgot her medication and walks home to get it, taking some of her fruit cake with her. While walking home, Santa flies by in his sleigh and his reindeer act distracted and accidentally run over Grandma. Her family notices her absence and looks for her. There’s no sign of Grandma, they find her shoes & fruitcake in the snow. Jake is convinced she was hit by a reindeer. Mel finds a note near the scene and grabs it, telling no one.

A year passes, with still no sign of Grandma. Jake is sad about this, Mel convinces Grandpa Spankenheimer (Grandma’s heir) to give her power of attorney. Grandpa appears to have dementia, so he’s easily manipulated by Mel, so she gets him to sell the store to Austin. Jake protests, saying Grandma might come back and wouldn’t agree to sell. Austin says he’ll give her another week to return.

It turns out Grandma was taken to the North Pole by Santa so he could make sure she received medical attention. She is suffering from amnesia, so Santa doesn’t know where to take her. Jake e-mails Santa, his message is read by Quincy, the chief elf. They figure out Grandma is the amnesiac woman, Santa returns her to Cityville. She is happily greeted by Jake & the rest of her family, the end. Or, it should have been the end, anyway.

At this point of the show, I noticed there was still 22 minutes left in the show’s running time, I wondered what else needed to happen.

Mel and her lawyer I.M. Slime frame Santa for kidnapping Grandma, he is charged with leaving the scene of an accident and “Sleighicular Negligence” (the best “joke” of the special). Mel and Slime also sue Santa for everything he has, thus threatening the existence of Christmas as we know it. Meanwhile, Mel and Slime have kidnapped the still-amnesiac Grandma and hidden her in remote cabin in the forest.

Spoilers follow.

With the help of Quincy the elf, Jake locates Grandma, and finds the note left at the scene of the reindeer accident. Turns out to be a note left by Santa, explaining that he ran over Grandma by accident because the reindeer smelled the fruit cake she was carrying; it seems Mel added “reindeer nip” to the recipe. Grandma’s memory is restored when Jake gives her a piece of her famous fruit cake, she reads the note and rushes to court, where Santa is about to be found guilty. Mel is revealed as the cause of all the troubles, Santa is acquitted; Grandma’s general store is saved, as is Christmas itself.

Austin Bucks has changed his tune, he will not try to buy the store, but wants to start a national franchise of Grandma’s stores, making her and Jake’s family very wealthy.

J. A. Morris says:

Like I said, this special should have ended with Grandma’s return to Cityville. The relationship between Jake and Grandma (and their mutual love of Christmas & the Holiday season) in the first part is touching. Mel could have received her comeuppance at that point.  In the tradition of earlier classic specials, Mel could have even been reformed. And that would’ve probably been enough to get a positive review. But it drags on for practically another half hour after that.

My appreciation of the title song made me want to like this, but I can’t.

My rating:

Two Candy canes