The Adventures of the American Rabbit

"Well, after seeing this all the way through I can certainly understand how a kid who loved this﻿ film in the late 80's would grow up to make a webcomic featuring a cross between Pikachu and Sonic that goes nowhere."

- Youtube commenter satinsguard, upon watching this film.

The Adventures of the American Rabbit (released in the UK as simply The American Rabbit) is a 1986 animated fantasy adventure film directed by Fred Wolf and Nobutaka Nishizawa. It was released by Clubhouse Pictures.

Plot
The American Rabbit must battle the evil jackals and their leader Vultor while trying to raise money to rebuild a bar with his friends.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) Extremely nonsensical story. In the middle of the film, the Jackals kidnap a moose and his son who make chocolate for a living and end up taking over America because of that.
 * 2) Forgettable characters.
 * 3) *Rob is a generic do-good boy scout.
 * 4) *Bunny O'Hare is a generic and shallow love interest.
 * 5) *The White Brothers don't have distinct personalities and they all look and sound alike.
 * 6) *The Jackals and Vultor are one-dimensional villains. They want to destroy the American Rabbit because they are evil. Vultor literally said this in the film.
 * 7) Throughout most of the film, Rob doesn't do anything to fight the villains. He uses his powers to save himself and his friends from a trap the Jackals sprung on them.
 * 8) Characters just disappear from the rest of the film and only reappear when necessary without explanation. Rob's parents are never seen again after Rob leaves the village, the Jackals disappear after Vultor dismisses them, and the old rabbit who serves as Rob's mentor appears as a taxi cab driver with no reason other than to serve as a pep talk.
 * 9) Adding on to WIS #4, plot holes are very common here.
 * 10) *The village Rob lives in the beginning literally disappears and is never brought up again.
 * 11) *Rob and the gang never make the money to rebuild the bar. They lose their car, the venues they play at were ruined, they even lose their instruments. But this plot point is never addressed because the fact that Vultor is defeated means it's worth a happy ending.
 * 12) *Rob's powers seem to come out of nowhere. It's been established that he can fly, have super strength, super speed, and can turn back to normal saying his name. But near the end of the film, he now has telekinetic powers for some unexplained reason.
 * 13) *The police don't do anything when Vultor and his Jackals take over.
 * 14) It would've worked better if it was a TV series rather than a film as it feels like a series of events rather than a naturally flowing story.
 * 15) Overall, the story feels like a bunch of events the writer made up as the story goes on, similar to Paw Patrol: The Movie.
 * 16) The characters never bother to notice that the American Rabbit appears when Rob is missing. Had this been addressed, Vultor could've discovered Rob's secret identity and reveal it to everyone.
 * 17) The Statue of Liberty appears human despite everyone in the film being anthropomorphic animals.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Passable animation, due to being animated by Toei Animation.
 * 2) Voice acting is also passable, at least Vultor is voiced by Kenneth Mars. (Who would later voice King Triton in The Little Mermaid)
 * 3) While somewhat dumb, Ping Pong the Gorilla is perhaps the only interesting character of the movie.

Reception
The American Rabbit received poor reviews from critics. Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times said, "Both the writing and the animation in The Adventures of the American Rabbit are so inept that the viewer expects the governor to interrupt the film and declare the theater a disaster area!" The movie quickly fell into obscurity. Eventually, it was resurfaced when it was revealed to be Christian Weston Chandler's (now called Christine and the creator of Sonichu) favorite movie growing up.

Trivia

 * 1) As stated before, this was actually Chris-Chan's favorite movie. He/She even said "They really should've made a TV series on him." Viewers and fans of both forms noted the similarities and writing styles of both the webcomic and film. Including plot holes, flat characters, and generic villains.

Videos
