I'm a week early, but what else do we have going on? Here is a series of clips from one of my favorite cartoons of the 21st century, Teen Titans GO!, celebrating (sort of) Easter. Never mind the creepy Easter Bunny, he's supposed to be horrifying.
Here is another family-oriented Easter offering, and my favorite of the bunch this year. Billy, Jeffy, Dolly, and PJ meet the Easter Bunny himself (voiced by the late Dizzie Gillespie) in A Family Circus Easter.
And that's it for my Easter programming this year. As I've said before, I wanted to get it out early as I leave for Walt Disney World with the family tomorrow and won't return until late next week. I'll be off the grid until at least then, so if you don't hear from me beforehand, Happy Easter!
Keeping it for the kiddies again (it's hard to find grown-up Easter stuff), here are the Cadillac Cats (from the 80s Heathcliff syndicated cartoon) learning the story of how the Easter Bunny got involved with Easter eggs in "Cottontails, Chickens, and Colored Eggs." Enjoy!
Today's post is strictly for the kids. Bring them up to the PC or Mac and let them enjoy Yogi The Easter Bear, featuring the titular bear subbing for the Easter Bunny. With the recent theatrical film now available on DVD, there may be an uptick in interest for the smarter-than-the-average bear. Enjoy!
What, Easter already? Actually, it's not until April 24th, but as I'll be away for awhile on a family trip to Walt Disney World, I won't be posting much later in teh month. Therefore, I'm showcasing this year's Easter stuff a couple weeks early. As usual when starting holiday programming, I'll kick things off with some classic TV commercials.
And what a surprise, a Carvel ice cream cake commercial, this time featuring Cookie Chick.
Everyone loves the Cadbury creme egg Easter Bunny, so why would anyone want to replace him?
Lastly, here are three spots for the Dudley line of Easter egg dyeing kits. They haven't advertised on TV for ages, but back in the day they were all over TV around Easter time. These kits were very involving, with a whole line of characters (garishly designed) and came with many gizmos and gadgets. Wow, seeing the costumed characters after all this time, I see they were even goofier looking than I remember. Ah, the late 70s/early 80s!
Hello everyone. Thanks to everyone for their well wishes and thoughts for me after the sudden death of my father. It means a lot that people that are strangers can be so compassionate in my time of need.
Life does go on, as does this blog. And I am back to the normal silliness as of now, and I mark my return with an obscure Easter special. Easter Fever is one of several specials created by Canadian animation studio Nelvana in the late 70s/early 80s that featured unusual character design and story elements. You'll see what I mean as you watch. I've posted A Cosmic Christmas before, and mentioned several other specials, but I've never heard of this one at all, and came across it out of sheer dumb luck! In fact, I still haven't seen all of this as I write this. Please enjoy Nelvana's Studios Easter Fever. Happy Easter!
I've noticed two things as I've examined my blog reader stats for the last few days: my Easter posts from last year are beginning to get more hits again (not surprising, as Easter is next Sunday), and I've been StumbledUpon! This blog has been added to StumbleUpon's cartoon page, and I'm thrilled about it! To anyone encountering my blog for the first time due to this service, welcome! I hope you stay on board.
In honor of both of these trends, I present today something that I hope will satisfy both the Easter and StumbleUpon crowd. Today I present the Fat Albert Easter Special, courtesy of Hulu. It originally aired on CBS on April 3rd, 1982. Hey Hey Hey!
Happy Vernal Equinox everyone! I hope you all get a chance to get out into the new spring sunshine. I believe it's officially becoming spring as I type this. Hope your day is going well whatever your weather pattern.
Here is the last of this year's Easter posts, and it deals with the very origin of the celebration itself; no bunnies or colored eggs here. This is a dramatization of Jesus's crucifixion from Franco Zeffirelli's hours-long television miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (imagine if there were real footage). If you celebrate the spiritual aspect of the holiday seriously, you should enjoy it.
I hope everyone has a Happy Easter, regardless of religion (or lack thereof). I'll see you again on that day, and for the third time within the last two months, it will be a post of personal significance for me. See you then!
I hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day, whether you're Irish or not. If you're looking for some Irishness here, take a look at my previous post. Otherwise, I'm returning to Easter programming with a focus on the Easter Bunny.
UPDATE AS OF 4/6/2011: Unfortunately, the first two clips are no longer available, and I'm unable to find repalcements on YouTube. Please try the usual retail outlets for availability.
The first two of today's offerings were created by the delightful Rankin/Bass studios. Although most famous for their Christmas fare, they did dabble in Easter stories here and there, first in the 1971 TV special Here Comes Peter Cottontail (starring Casey Kasem as the titular rabbit and Vincent Price as the villianous Irontail), then again in two more offerings.
The first is a cel-animation special called The First Easter Rabbit, narrated by Burl Ives (basically reprising his Sam the Snowman role from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but as a rabbit instead of a snowman) and released in 1976. I have to say, I have no recollection of this show, but here is the opening sequence:
The very next year, R/B presented The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town, which Warner Brothers Video just reissued in a deluxe DVD edition last month. The story is almost a plotline-by-plotline remake of the classic Santa Claus is Coming to Town, except for a change of character/species here and there. This clip isn't all that egg-citing (pardon the rotten pun); in fact, it's nothing more than a teaser by WB for the reissue of the special, but perhaps it will intice you to check out the DVD.
Lastly, going back a couple of decades before these Rankin/Bass specials, here we have a charming black-and-white presentation of Peter Cottontail, by the same studios that made the Frosty the Snowman cartoon featured in my Christmas posts. For some reason, there is no mention of Easter in this version.
See you again on Thursday for the last of my Easter posts, which will be a reminder of the reason for the season. Thanks!
Time again for another Easter post. This time, I have two great cartoon shorts from the studios that defined the genre, although their styles couldn't be more different.
First, a delightful Walt Disney classic, "Funny Little Bunnies." Disney cartoons, especially those of this ilk, were the epitome of warmth, sweetness, and charm.
On the other hand, you had Warner Brothers. Not warm, not sweet, and a charm that was more like that of a snake oil salesman--and that's what was so great about them! It's been said that Disney cartoons make you smile, but Warners Bros. cartoons make you laugh, and I couldn't agree more. This hilarious example, "Easter Yeggs," was often quoted by my high school classmates around this time of year: "I wanna Easter egg, I wanna Easter egg, I wanna Easter egg!"
I'll see you again this Friday the 14th, a date I hope will bring good luck, as we'll take a break from Easter to kick off St. Patrick's Day weekend. See you then!
Today starts the beginning of my Easter posts. Of course, St. Patrick's Day is first (by a mere 7 says), but I haven't had much luck finding good material. I highly recommend the Pop Culture Holiday Blog, which can be found in my links section; there is some great St. Paddy's Day programming there. I will have one post devoted to the wearin' of the green right before next weekend, but for now, on to Easter!
First up are some classic TV commercials touting two of everyone's favorite Easter candies: Cadbury Creme Eggs and M&Ms. My wife loves the creme eggs, and I love their commercials. What grabs one's attention better than a clucking bunny?
M&Ms are great any time of year, and Easter is no exception. Just ask these very grateful kids. And look, a clucking child! "Thanks Easter Bunny. Buck buck!"
You may have noticed that all posts now have labels to help you find your favotire topics. I hope to have more improvements soon. Let me know what you'd like to read, hear, or see.
Another improvement: I'll try to give a heads-up when my next post will be. I'll be back here on or around this Tuesday, March 11th. Thanks!
