Turning holiday songs into origin stories is something that Rankin/Bass did best. The Studio translated such popular Christmas songs, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, into equally popular TV specials.
With this in mind, Here Comes Peter Cottontail was a natural fit for adaptation.
The 1949 song reached Billboard’s Top 10 and became an Easter standard, making it an obvious choice for Rankin/Bass to adapt as a holiday special.
While it may not have had the stamina of Rankin/Bass’ Christmas specials like Rudolph and Frosty, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, celebrating its 55th anniversary this Easter Season, has developed its own following.
The song “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” was written by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins (who also gave us “Frosty the Snowman), and released on Decca Records in 1950.
Beyond the popular song, another inspiration for Rankin/Bass’ Here Comes Peter Cottontail was the 1957 children’s book, The Easter Bunny That Overslept by Priscilla and Otto Friedrich. Building on these sources, Rankin/Bass stalwart and writing collaborator Romeo Muller penned the script.
The special, directed by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass, and told in their stop-motion “Animagic” style, is narrated by Seymour S. Sassafrass, voiced by Danny Kaye, a traveling salesman who tells the story of Peter Cottontail. Peter (Casey Kasem) lives in Easter Valley with all the other bunnies. It’s here that all the Easter candy, bonnets, and colored eggs are made.
Colonel Wellington (also voiced by Kaye) is retiring as Easter Bunny and chooses Peter as his successor. Villain January Q. Irontail (Vincent Price)—a black-and-grey rabbit with an iron tail—has other ideas.
He proposes a contest between himself and Peter: whoever can deliver the most Easter eggs will become the Easter Bunny. Irontail cheats by allowing Peter to oversleep, and the villainous rabbit delivers all the eggs himself, and becomes the Easter bunny, making chocolate spiders instead of bunnies, and galoshes instead of bonnets.
A dejected Peter leaves April Valley and meets Sassafrass, who gives him his time-traveling “Yestermorrowbile,” piloted by Antoine the caterpillar (Kaye again). This allows Peter to potentially “win back” Easter by travelling to other holidays and attempting to deliver eggs there.
Peter travels to Mother’s Day, July Fourth, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and St. Patrick’s Day. He attempts to deliver eggs on each holiday and regain the title of Easter Bunny.
As narrator for the story, Danny Kaye does excellent work, not just as Sassafrass but also as the Easter Bunny and Antoine. It’s clear from songs like “When You Can’t Get It All Together, Improvise” (one of six written for the special by Jules Bass and Maury Laws) that he was having fun.
This collaboration marked the beginning of a friendship between Kaye and Arthur Rankin.
“Arthur and Danny were kindred spirits. Both liked to travel, eat great food, loved music and art,” said Rick Goldschmidt, official Rankin/Bass historian/biographer and author of such books as The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass. “They did some traveling together, and Danny even went to the Animagic Studios in Japan to see the animation produced; maybe the only star to do that.”
Building on this partnership, Kaye would go on to work with the Rankin/Bass Studio for what was intended to be a series of specials entitled The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye.
“The first episode was The Emperor’s New Clothes, but the ratings may not have been their best,” noted Rick. “The series may have also been very expensive to produce. Arthur got the author of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers, to write a script for the series about Jack Frost. Animagic puppets of Punch and Judy were made with a stage set. Jerry Lewis was going to be Punch, with Carol Burnett being Judy. The plan was to re-air previous specials in the series as well.”
Unfortunately, no other specials in the series, beyond 1972’s The Emperor’s New Clothes, ever aired.
The other casting coup in Peter Cottontail was Vincent Price as Irontail. He emerged as one of Rankin/Bass’ more memorable villains. “Arthur and Jules were so happy with his appearance that they were planning to edit the feature film of Mad Monster Party to an hour TV special and have Vincent host it in Animagic form,” said Rick. He added, “This special would have been part of The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye. Ultimately, they opted to do a new special called Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters for the ABC Saturday Superstar Movie.”
Thanks to Animagic, the artists bring to life all that’s colorful about the holiday and the season in Here Comes Peter Cottontail. The special features bunnies carving chocolate rabbits like great sculptors. It also includes vibrant backdrops, such as the scene where Peter meets Seymour Sassafrass. These beautiful environments were a hallmark of Rankin/Bass.
Originally airing on ABC on April 4, 1971, Here Comes Peter Cottontail may not have had the repeat, seasonal airings of other Rankin/Bass specials, but for many, it’s still required viewing each and every spring.
“I think Rankin/Bass hit their peak in 1970 to ‘71 with Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town and Here Comes Peter Cottontail back-to-back,” said Rick. “Both Laws and Bass soundtracks are of Broadway musical quality. The Animagic never looked better, and Romeo Muller hit his story peak as well.” He added, “It showcases what Rankin/Bass will be forever known for! I think it is an amazing example of their work, and there is nothing better to watch for Easter!”
For more on Here Comes Peter Cottontail, check out Greg Ehrbar’s 2021 article.
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
I well remember watching the premiere of “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” in 1971, as well as the annual rebroadcasts over the following years. It was by far the most colourful Animagic special that Rankin/Bass had made to date, in contradistinction to the earlier Christmas specials with their snowy winter landscapes. The riot of spring colours made the monochrome appearance of Irontail all the more grim and foreboding by contrast.
Peter is an uncharacteristically flawed hero by Rankin/Bass standards, given to telling lies. Every time he does so, one of his ears droops, exposing the lie as surely as Pinocchio’s growing nose. Peter’s flawed nature, like Pinocchio’s, makes him all the more relatable to children; the scene where Peter departs from April Valley in disgrace, vowing to make good, had a powerful emotional impact on me as a ten-year-old boy. Thus “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” is one of the rare Rankin/Bass specials in which it is the hero, rather than the villain, who ultimately changes his ways.
Irontail’s bat Montresor shares his name with the narrator of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, a short story that has been dramatised many times because it consists largely of dialogue and has only two characters. In Roger Corman’s adaptation of the story in his 1962 anthology film “Tales of Terror”, Peter Lorre plays Montresor to Vincent Price’s Fortunato. Prolific voice actor Lennie Weinrib (Pufnstuf, Timer, Scrappy-Doo) has a bit part as a policeman.
You may not have grown up with this one (I did not); only the Santa and Rudolph specials for me. But it’s definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it. Pret-ty weird.
When I first watched this special, I got the distinct sense that Rankin/Bass were “feeling their way” toward an Easter story, hedging their bet by including several of the major holidays so that the focus didn’t have to be on Easter all the way through. In a way, this special and The First Easter Rabbit, which I commented similarly upon last week, were dry runs for the third R/B Easter special, “The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town.” This latter, despite having a title clearly derived from Santa Claus, as well as a return visit of S.D. Kluger as the postman, again narrated by Fred Astaire, deals more specifically with Easter throughout. And, as I pointed out before, each of the three retells the origin story of the Easter Bunny, so viewers can take their pick of the one they like best, or as in my case, accept all three as viable stories.
“Peter Cottontail” definitely benefits from the voice talents of Danny Kaye as well as those of Vincent Price. Both were pretty well known at the time from their appearances on variety shows and other TV specials. (Danny Kaye frequently hosted televised showings of “The Wizard of Oz.”) And I agree about the color palette! The spring colors make the story come alive, especially as color TV was still quite a novelty with our family. This is definitely required annual Easter viewing for me!
Gene Autry introduced the song in the 1951 B-Western flick The Hills of Utah.