It’s Easter, and a time for bunnies; I see swarms of them every day, and regularly scrape their eyeless corpses off the road with my shovel. Given their numbers, it’s only fair that rabbits should have some movies of their own. German production Rabbit Academy is a new animation in 400+ UK cinemas this Easter, and if you’re kids are just a little on the tiny side to ingest three hours of brutalism via The Batman, Rabbit Academy should do the job for nippers with a taste for a bright, fun cartoon entertainment.
A bit of research reveals that Rabbit Academy is a stealth sequel; the original film, Rabbit School: Guardians of the Golden Egg came out back in 2017, and did well enough to merit a follow-up, one that works as a stand-alone and doesn’t require knowledge of the first film, or the original source material, 1924 children’s book A Day At Bunny School. Things have clearly been amped up a bit in Ute Von Münchow-Pohl’s film as we follow Max, a rabbit city-slicker who is chosen to develop his super-powers as a master rabbit at, you guessed it, the Rabbit Academy. They have to protect the magic process by which eggs are collected and bring joy to children, and a threat arrives in the form of some nefarious foxes. Will Max discover his powers and outsmart his foxy foes?
The world of Rabbit Academy is quite tricky to grasp; while the bunnies live in a very different world from us, it’s rather jarring that they have access to drones, smart-phones and social media, all of which look just like ours. As with a number of recent family films, the punch-lines are generally warm and fuzzy, involving foxes learning to go vegan, and some kind of required rapprochement between species. And yes, somehow that’s 60’s and 70’s star Senta Berger (The Quiller Memorandum, Cross of Iron) providing the voice of the stern Madame Hermine.
Subtitled Mission Eggpossible, Rabbit Academy isn’t aiming for the wide reach or knowing self-referential humour of a Pixar film, but is content to tell a busy, cheerful story without too many nods to adult expectations. With a commendably brief span of 70 minutes, it’s a kids film that skews specifically towards their needs, and that’s probably good enough to provide a viable alternative to some of the more demanding fare on offer this Easter.
Signature Entertainment presents Rabbit Academy in UK Cinemas Nationwide 1st April 2022.
You got me at Santa Berger.
I set my trap with you in mind! First with the new Berger, read it and weep!
What compelled you to watch this one? On the other hand, I did find The Batman an surprisingly excellent watch (despite its implosion in the final act).
I reviewed this film because I thought it would be of interest to you personally. And also because it’s on 400 UK screens from Friday.
Well, I don’t appreciate the sarcasm, but I’m still honoured that you thought of me…
Do you like bunnies?
No. I hear there’s a lot of eyeless ones on your road though.
I’ll send you some pics to prove it.
Should probably CC Alex in too while you’re at it.
It looks like a nice thing or the kids to watch at the movies. I’ll give it a miss though, not a fan of bunnies.
What would you prefer? I’ve got bunnies coming out of my ears…
Having bunnies coming out of your ears sounds like just the thing Fraggle could help you with.
I’ll drive down and get her to take them out!
Neat trick!
If you’ve got as much stuff in your ears as I do, it’s not hard to provide a home for bunnies. Putting in Drood every night.
Wow, that’s hardcore!
Trying to loosen the wax and hear better! Not getting a twizzler as seen on tv.
Do NOT buy an implement to use on yourself! See a specialist.
Is the correct answer.
Drops. I’m putting in drops. Not sure why it would autocorrect to Drood.
Because Drood liked Twizzlers, but he liked the black ones, not those namby pamby red ones…
What difference does the colour make?
The red ones are OK. The black ones are terrible.
You put them in your ears?
I dare you to say that to Mike Tyson 😉
Is that something that is likely to happen socially? How should I prepare myself?
Well, I doubt Alex and Tyson move in the same circles. But if Tyson were to bitchslap Alex, I suspect Alex wouldn’t be joking about it the second after.
To prepare, I’d write your will…
It’s not a scenario I’d entertained. I’ll probably just take a rain check if that’s OK. Hope you haven’t built it up into a big deal in his mind.
But just think, if Alex does die, we can hire Charlie to investigate. Alex would want us to, I know it…
Let us not imagine such a thing. Alex lives, a man of letters, renowned for his bins. Let’s not imagine him fighting a boxer. And Charlie is fictional, you don’t want to hire fictional characters.
true, I’d forgotten about the bins. I bet Alex could stuff Tyson into one of the recyclable ones. Then we wouldn’t need Charlie after all.
You do realize fictional detectives work wicked cheap, right?
Problem solved. No actual action required then? No need to bother Charlie.
Red twizzlers are ostensibly cherry flavored while the black ones are licorice flavored. Haven’t you eaten twizzlers before?
He lives in the UK. They don’t have any good candy. All they have is rock taffy.
Yeah, we’ve had candy issues before. I figured that twizzlers might have been able to bridge the gap though.
You put them in your ears?
Kola Kubes and Mccowan’s Highland toffee.
You put them in your ears?
No silly rabbit, twizzlers are for eating!
I was wondering why you put them into your ears though.
To soften the wax inside?
Do you warm the twizzler up or something? Because they’re usually pretty big, way bigger than a q-tip…
I think we have now established over at least three conversations that there are twizzlers you eat and twizzlers you do not put in you ears.
I try to forget the cultural differences we have and just embrace your insaneness. I mean, if you want to stick rubbery candy sticks into your ears, I will respect your culture and let you. I’ll still call you insane though.
Besides, jellied roadkill rabbits are a universal treat we can all agree to snack on together.
A quiet disposal under the tree.
He never knew what hit him.
Another quote from Tannhauser Gates.
What sort of drops?
Cerumol?
Ok. Never use Otex or Earex.
Understood.