David Pierdomenico
There’s a rare magic that comes with holiday seasons. Whether it’s the creepiness of Halloween, the patriotism of the 4th of July, the drunken shenanigans of St. Patrick’s Day, or the unmatched feeling of love and giving of Christmas, holidays have a tendency to bring out the cause to celebrate among humans, one way or another. And while many have honorary mascots, none are as iconic or well known as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Yet it seems in the realm of entertainment, one of them receives far more representation than the other. Why is it that we can make top 10 lists of our favorite portrayals of Santa, but when it comes to the Easter Bunny, we struggle to even bring one to mind?
Is Hop The Best We Can Do?
When it comes to films based around the Easter Bunny, only a handful come to mind. Back in the 1970’s Rankin and Bass did an animated special The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town, however it failed to capture the audience or be nearly as memorable as the previous iteration staring St. Nicholas. And while the character is featured in the lineup of Rise of the Guardians, he’s really just one of many, which also includes Santa. The only true (and recent) adaptation of the Easter Bunny seems to be 2011’s Hop, starring James Marsden, Kaley Cuoco, and the voices of Russell Brand, Hugh Laurie and Hank Azaria.
To call this film strange would be an understatement. The animated portions are done well enough, and it does help add to the mythology of the Easter Bunny, implementing ideas such as him using a sort sleigh-like jet to travel around the world the night before Easter, as well as there being many Easter Bunnies over the years since it’s a title passed down. But it quickly falls into goofy and cheesy territory (and not in a good way) with all the interactions with the human characters. Easter is mentioned many times, but the film feels more like a clichéd story about someone running from their destiny to follow a dream, while discovering along the way they had what they wanted all along. For being the sole modern representation of this beloved piece of holiday folklore, the Easter Bunny deserves far better!
Less of a Season Than Christmas
While Easter is certainly synonymous with Spring and new beginnings (which is why brightly colored eggs became tradition), it fails to encompass the entire season that way that Christmas does December. When we think of that month, we automatically associate it with the holiday, while Spring is more its own thing, and Easter just feels like one small component of it. It doesn’t help that its date often changes, or that marketing companies have spent so much more energy making Christmas the end all be all of holidays, despite the fact that for many Christians, Easter is the far more important holiday from a strictly religious standpoint. But in the realm of pop culture, it’s commercialism that wins, and unfortunately Easter lost in that department.
Human vs. Animal
Another probably reason for this gross disparity in cinematic representation is the mere fact that Santa Claus is a human and the Easter Bunny is an animal. Because of this any portrayal of the latter will involve some sort of talking animal aspect in the film or TV series. Whereas Santa is merely a jolly old man with a beard, this is far more believable in the “real world”. So if a filmmaker is even thinking about featuring the Easter Bunny as a character, they must choose between making him a cartoon-looking rabbit of the right size, but who talks, or a disturbing-looking humanoid with fur and bucked teeth and long ears (there’s a reason children are more terrified of the Easter Bunny in malls!). The very nature of his existence as an animal makes it more difficult to put him in a film and have it work effectively.
Perhaps the poor Easter Bunny will always be doomed to be absent in the film industry. And that’s a real shame, because there’s a chance to explore an entire mythology, the same way we do the North Pole and the magic of Christmas Eve. Or maybe one giant, over the top holiday is a enough for one calendar year. Either way, let’s not let a film like Hop determine the representation, and the future of the image of the beloved Easter Bunny. As we’ve said, he deserves far better!
