Easter Sunday, with Critters, Charlie Brown, Bugs and More (edit)

*edit to include "Easter Parade" (a viewing unplanned)

With our weather forecast in Southeastern United States for the afternoon (and some of the morning) calling for severe thunderstorms and possible tornado activity, I knew I had better get my viewing of “Critters 2” (1988) in as early as possible. With other Easter related family fare coming just before the storms rear their ugly behavior down here where I live, forced to remain inside not just because of that C-Virus that has caused global wreckage in its wake but storms scattering in our viewing area, “Critters 2”, typically a later evening viewing in past years, I needed to get it in earlier than desired.

This year I already planned to have watched “Critters 2” as part of a series revisit. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to wait and keep it part of the Easter viewing tradition that has been ongoing for probably a decade now. Granted, I realize that I don’t have much else to say about Mick Garris’ cult sequel, which seems to have gained in popularity since 1988; some consider it the best film in the series. Recently watching the previous “Critters”, I can see why the sequel is a fan favorite and might be chosen as the preferred film, even if I’m just always partial to the first if just because of its excellent cast. But the sequel also has its own charming cast and its own tone, with director Garris deciding to lighten the mood a bit more than its predecessor.

As I mentioned in the past, Grimes returning to sort of tie the sequel to the first film was a nice touch. Even though Ug left behind a device that repaired the family home that was destroyed by the Crites’ stolen spaceship, Grimes’ parents and sister moved away. He returns to spend Easter with his grandmother, and once again must contend with a fresh litany of Crites devouring more livestock and humans. I’ve probably written this same synopsis for years now, so I’ll leave it at that. Eddie Deezen, Playboy, cannon blasters that "rise" in obvious phallic fashion, and plenty of meat products lathered in ketchup and Crites. Ug goes into "nothing face" depression, the local Hungry Heifers is blown to smithereens, Grimes gets probably his first kiss, there's veggie chocolate, Granny negotiates with the local filthy antiques salesman quite impressively, and no cows or bulldogs stand a chance with the teethy-mouthy, carnivorous, gluttonous Crites. 3/5

From the sunny Grover's Bend Easter day, ruined by the Crites, to Charlie Brown and gang preparing for Easter Sunday in their own right...

Along with “Critters 2”, as the storm picked up outside, I put in “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown” (1974), the Peanuts holiday special I picked up just last year and watched for the first time. I had actually picked up the Valentine’s Day special last year, only watching that one this year, although I didn’t write about it for the blog. I really enjoy the Easter Peanuts special but it isn’t necessarily up there with the very best specials such as the Halloween and Christmas ones. In “Easter Beagle”, Linus insists (much like he did at Halloween the “year before”) that the Easter Beagle will take care of all the holiday amenities such as colored eggs, baskets, etc. One of my favorite parts of the short is the emphasis on Christmas items still available for purchase at the department store where the gang go for their Easter items (Sally needs shoes, Peppermint Patty keeps having to go get more eggs because Marcie either fries them or cooks them, Snoopy searches for Woodstock a treehouse due to a bird’s nest not being equipped enough for rainy days, etc.). While Lucy takes Linus to task for his Easter Beagle “tall tales”, others hope he’s right such as Peppermint Patty who has practically flipped her lid after Marcie boils the latest eggs into soup. There are two parts of the short that are especially noteworthy: Schroeder is fed up with Lucy for her “gift-getting” avarice and Patty gets onto Marcie for calling her “sir”. Sally, of course, is at her wit’s end with Linus for his ruining her holiday as the Easter Beagle “didn’t show up” although Snoopy arrives with all the colored eggs the gang could possibly want…granted, Snoopy just hands out Lucy’s colored eggs! Marcie thinks they are supposed to eat the eggs…the taste leaves much to be desired. Poor Chuck doesn’t even get an egg! Lucy thinks she’ll get even with Snoopy but a nice kiss makes up for his “error”. This can’t really even hold up to the Valentine’s Day special but I think you get enough of the Peanuts gang to leave a happy enough heart. And these days, we all could use our hearts lifted. 3/5

Bugs Bunny’s Easter Funnies is more or less a wraparound story featuring Granny (of the Tweety and Sylvester cartoons) needing Bugs to step in for the Easter Bunny (who is bedridden), featuring a number of old Warners Brother Loony Tunes cartoons tied together for an Easter special. Bugs, of course, is busy under contract at work on set so he tries to enlist the aid of other candidates. If you love the old Loony Tunes cartoon classic cast of characters then this will go over just fine, although the shorts included really have no Easter theme besides the wraparound that ties them together. While at the movie studio, Bugs offers Granny alternatives, as Daffy tries his best to convince them he’d make a good Easter Bunny. Many of the star Loony Tunes characters star such as Tweety, Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Porky, Pepe le Pew, and Elmer Fudd. The cartoons included in the special are edited down to fit a 50 minute running time. One of the tricks the special does is have Bugs and Granny looking at footage, at “dailies”, in an editing room with assorted characters proposed as substitutes for the Easter Bunny. 2.5/5 (seeing the cartoons in their complete form is preferred over bits and pieces cobbled for a special).

•     Birds Anonymous (Sylvester tries to go straight, disavowing the hunger for birds (Tweety, always on the mind, eventually snapping the cat, who can’t seem to avoid the addiction…his eyes “gone mad” and his sponsor cat’s various methods to stop him are hilarious)

•     For Scent-imental Reasons (Pepe Le Pew, per usual, pursues the cat with a paint streak down its back, believing she is a female skunk; when she falls in a barrel of water and loses her stripe, and Pepe falls into blue paint, she goes after him!)

•     Knighty Knight Bugs (Bugs is a court’s jester “assigned” to snatch a special sword or else be executed by the king, so he pursues it while Yosemite Sam (a knight this go-around) and Sam’s “pet idyut dragon” try to stop him)

• Bully for Bugs (Bugs takes the wrong turn, missing Albuquerque again, finding himself in the bull ring as a horned beast seems invested in getting rid of him in the grand fashion of champion bulls…but Bugs is no order adversary)

•     Sahara Hare (Bugs misses Miami by quite a stretch, finding himself in the Sahara, with Yosemite Sam (this time in white garment referring to himself as Riff Raff Sam, complete with camel he mistreats) after him. Bugs finds a castle to hole up in as Sam miscues and mistimes his attempts to get inside, including mishaps with trees and the drawbridge, Bugs giving him plenty of doors to open before the big dynamite greeting)

•     Robin Hood Daffy (Daffy is Robin Hood to giggling Porky’s Friar Tuck. While Daffy stumbles and makes an ass out of himself, clumsy and unlucky, never able to rob from a rich horserider with a bag full of gold, swinging from branches into trees and rocks, shooting himself from a bow instead of the arrow, dropping accidentally into rivers, he just can’t impress Friar at all into joining his “merry band”)

•     Rabbit of Seville (set to orchestra, this riff on “The Barber of Seville” has Bugs devoting his time to Elmer’s haircut, shave, facial, and manicure, with the two often at odds to finish the process, with even the two of them marrying! That is short-lived as Bugs drops him off a scaffolding!)

•     Hillbilly Hare (Bugs “entertains” hillbillies in a singalong that all eventually participate)

•     Tweety's Circus (Sylvester tries to snatch Tweety while a giant lion prevents him from succeeding. This takes place under the Big Top)

•     Little Boy Boo (Foghorn Leghorn resorts to “extreme measures” to avoid a cold winter in his domicile, eyeing the cozy, warm confines of Miss Prissy, needing to impress her for marriage by wooing her through a strong relationship with her wunderkind genius son. No longer needing her to “keep him warm”, Egghead Jr. and his science experiments leave Foghorn in bandages…which will keep him warm for the winter!)

With voicework from James Corden as the title character, Peter Rabbit, and the likes of Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, and Colin Moody as Peter’s “family” of rabbits (among other voices for animals like a pig, deer, and porcupine) as the animated characters of this mostly countryside family comedy (with some adventure set on the way to and back from London) and Rose Byrne (so cute and adorable) as a painter living in a cottage near the rabbits’ tree lair, Domhnall Gleeson as Peter’s rival for Byrne’s affections and attention (coming from London, a deposed control freak toy store manager inheriting a cottage complete with garden) and an unrecognizable Sam Neill as the grumpy, cantankerous, unhealthy cottage owner the rabbits wish to fleece of his garden vegetables make up quite a great cast. This was an Easter release two years ago and my family went to see it early Sunday morning in 2018 during the holiday, having a good time. Corden’s friendly, pleasant voice and his amusing rabbit in the lead, with equally funny characteristics added to the animals from their acting counterparts do give this live animation film plenty of warmth and sweetness. Look, I love my horror, don’t get me wrong, but Easter weekends of today and the past are really when I go for lighter-hearted fare. I admit that I just didn’t want anything too dark right now, opting for James Bond and content that isn’t depressing and grim. I’ve been really depressed, with an aching heart lately, with this virus that is globally devastating just ruining any ability to really enjoy much. So I try as I can to find something that brings a smile to my face, even if it is temporary. Neill as Old Mr. McGregor was startling because I did not know it was him! Chasing the rabbits with a rake, eventually catching Peter (using Peter’s father’s shirt as a lure), dropping dead with a coronary (!), Neill leaves an impression as a real adversary for the rabbits as they rob his garden delightfully. I really appreciated the ability of the film to “turn Gleeson babyface” (a pro wrestling term where a bad guy turns good guy) when the trailers at the time certainly painted him as a major villain for Peter and company to vanquish.

But you will definitely need to turn the cerebral dial down a lot in order to enjoy this because it doesn’t hold up realistically: Rabbits hitching a ride in Gleeson’s truck and disrupting his attempt to drop off Moody’s Benjamin into the drink for the rabbits’ garden party, the animals running roughshod in McGregor’s cottage before Gleeson’ Thomas arrives to spoil things, the rabbits wearing shirts, the rabbits as lookout for Peter while he tosses them veggies from the garden, the rabbits setting traps in Thomas’ bed (and the unfortunate issues with garden rakes, with stick handles that throttle him), the rabbits turning the tables of Thomas’ electric fence buy setting it up where he touches his front door knob and is thrown from his feet into the wall, Peter pressing a detonator that sets off explosives knocking the tree into Byrne’s Bea’s painting room, etc. The romance between Thomas and Bea, as Peter sees to stopping it (because of issues with the loss of his parents and her as a surrogate he doesn’t wish to lose), is inevitable but it does serve as a melodramatic arc that eventually encourages Peter to do the right thing when his actions disrupt their idyll. We felt once we left this film theater two years ago it was just a harmless diversion, not necessarily set during Easter but featuring cuddly rabbits often mischievous so enough to give it an annual holiday viewing just the same. The animation is really good, the voices of the animals (and their antics) as comically rich as the CGI, the setting of the rural countryside quite naturally beautiful and fitting for the story being told, and an especially noteworthy trip to London by the rabbits to find Gleeson when they realize the error of their ways. The comedy warfare might be a bit too violent for younger viewers but basically Loony Tunes in nature, not to be taken seriously. The breaking-fourth-wall of the allergy “mishap” as Peter addresses us briefly is a clever bit of wink-wink. 3/5

In all honesty, "Easter Parade" (1948) has a romance plot I've seen in all the other musicals watched over my years. I typically will watch these musicals for the amazing, brilliant choreography, cast, and chemistry of those involved in the well-staged, obviously incredibly difficult numbers brought to the screen from the very best movie studios ever produced. I honestly enjoyed this film, just barely tied to the holiday of Easter, primarily at the beginning and very end, quite loosely, for the chemistry of Astaire and Garland, Astaire's impressive department store dance choreography with some drums and drumsticks, Astaire's musical feet put to the test with "Steppin' Out with My Baby", and a sad song in a bar from Garland with "Better Luck Next Time". This plot essentially consists of Nadine (Ann Miller) wanting out from her "hoofer pairing" with Astair's Don Hewes where she signs a solo contract, Don looking to prove he could replace her with someone else quickly (Garland's Hannah Brown), and the burgeoning romance blooming between Don and Hannah as they work together from scratch. There is Peter Lawford as the best friend of Astaire's, attracted to Hannah and trying to avoid the advances of Nadine out of respect for Don. The rest of the film is dance numbers, songs, and a plot devoted to the soap opera of Don and Hannah. Nadine can't help but try and get between Don and Hannah out of jealousy. This is all about the cast and their talent. Musicals depend on them, and this should bring particular joy to musical fans and those who love Garland, who is a delight. Garland all tore up for Astaire is amusing. 3/5