Journey Into DVD: Easter Fun 3-Pack

First of all, I love how companies think that slapping the word FUN on something automatically makes it so. I guess it can't hurt, right? Maybe if you have a box set of, say, Vietnam War documentaries coming out, you don't want to put the word all over that package, but otherwise, why not?

Second, conflicting info on the packaging makes it difficult to discern whether this is called "Easter Fun 3-Pack" or Easter: 3-Pack Fun" or maybe even "Pack Fun Easter 3." Each of those titles is clunky enough to amuse me.

I picked this up for the kids (OK, really for myself to watch with the kids) at a certain major retail chain location (OK, maybe I should say THE major retail chain) after spotting an endcap of $5 Easter DVDs. Now, some of you out there may be saying, "Hey, Easter's all but over. Why are you writing about this DVD set NOW instead of a few weeks ago when it might have done us some good?" And to those people, I say...Hey, look, isn't that George Clooney?

Boy, was I relieved when I saw a Rankin-Bass oldie on that rack, because it meant I could skip over the Dora the Explorer collections and get something I might actually be able to enjoy with my little ones.

You see, the first DVD that caught my eye was "The First Easter Rabbit" from 1976. "I haven't seen that in years!" I exclaimed to myself, but no less enthusiastically for being internal. And for 5 bones? It's only a half-hour, but it might be worth it. Then I kept looking, and I saw 1977's "The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town." ANOTHER one I hadn't seen in years! And also for 5 bucks, but this one was longer and even had a few bonus shorts.

Well, I looked some MORE, and then I saw a DVD set that had BOTH those Rankin-Bass classics in one package, complete with the extras. And guess how much it cost?

Well, no, it was actually 10 bucks, but 5 was a darned good guess.

And, hey, this 3-pack throws in "Yogi the Easter Bear." I had never heard of that, but I was going to get the other ones anyway, so as a throw-in, sure, I'll take it. So I threw that in with my groceries and prepared for some fun. Some Easter 3-Pack Fun, that is.

Here's the bad news about this set: The "extras" are not vintage stop-motion animation shorts, as I hoped, but live-action modern shorts that just illustrate the concept. Nothing of real value here. There are some commercials on the other discs, too, but overall, just don't buy this for the bonus features.

More bad news: "Yogi the Easter Bear" is not a hidden gem from the glory days of Hanna-Barbera, but a weak 1994 revival which offers the voice talents of Jonathan Winters but little else. Most attempts at "hip" humor fall flat, like when an abducted Easter Bunny tells a thug to unhand him because "I'm a card-carrying member of the Mythical Creatures Anti-Defamation League." The special isn't a catastrophe or anything, but it's forgettable and also not the reason to get this set. I sure wish Warner Brothers had left this one off and included the Rankin-Bass special "Here Comes Peter Cottontail," which I did not see anywhere on that endcap.

Now for some good news: My kids love the Yogi Bear special (Note to self: Get some real Yogi on DVD for the kids to enjoy sometime). More importantly, the Rankin-Bass stuff holds up well and DOES justify the 10-spot. Now, first when we started watching them, I was unimpressed, finding them a mere shell of their predecessors in the R-B holiday pantheon. I was comparing them to the Christmas classics instead of judging them on their own merits. To oversimplify it in a massive way, "First Easter Rabbit" is akin to "Frosty the Snowman," with similar hand-drawn animation and Burl Ives narrating, and "Comin' to Town" is a remake of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," with stop-motion animation and Fred Astaire narrating.

Are the Easter versions the equal of the Christmas originals? No, they're not. But then, I've been enjoying those ones for years and I never lost that link. Maybe if CBS hadn't bailed on airing these Easter 'toons so long ago, I would love them more. I'd still see them as derivative, mind you, but maybe I would have embraced them quicker.

The fact is, though, I DID embrace them after that first viewing (Oh, yeah, there were multiple viewings; I mentioned I was watching them with my small children, didn't I?) The songs aren't as catchy and the voice work isn't as vivid, even with familiar actors like Paul Frees and Stan Freberg reporting for duty. "The First Rabbit" somehow mixes the holiday with "The Velveteen Rabbit." But the songs are catchy if forced, and the specials are fun. It is enjoyable seeing the writers strain to come up with Easter songs that don't invoke religion, as well as trying to create practical explanations for traditions like coloring eggs. I mean, the longer special includes a ditty about trying new foods that includes this verse:

The first man to eat a pickle
Said, "This cucumber's rather dill"
The first man to find a salt mine
Thought the worth of it was nil"

The cartoon shows these events, followed by the two guys selling salty pickles out of a jar. So commerce wins the day, as always, because these two gents were willing to put strange things in their mouths,

As in most Rankin-Bass efforts, there are little offbeat touches that carry the day. For example, "Comin' to Town" features a 7-year-old boy king named King Bruce, which cracks me up for no reason that I can explain. And, yes, the kids enjoy these, too.

Maybe after Easter, this set will be even less than $10 at a store near you. See? It's not too late to write about this set! I got my money's worth out of the set through nostalgia alone, but my kids also got into the Easter Spirit with this specials, and I may have started a new family tradition. If CBS won't do it, DVD can.