“The American Rabbit” (1986)Before Fred Wolf became one of the most successful animation
“The American Rabbit” (1986)Before Fred Wolf became one of the most successful animation directors of the 1980s and 1990s through DuckTales, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and other projects, he made this absolutely weird personal animated film with chocolate mind controlling people, a superhero able to change through roller skates, and a cold war analogy at the end about mutual thermonuclear destruction (yes, really). It is not only as bizarrely jingoistic as it looks, it also has weird jabs at the animation industry (the villain is a gangster named Walt - odd as Fred Wolf worked with Disney on the Wuzzles at this point, the first, forgotten syndicated “Disney Afternoon” show). The American Rabbit’s secret identity was a jazz piano player in New Orleans who travels with a band, and he got his powers from a wizard. The contrast between the true crackpot weirdness, the right wing cold war politics, and deeply personal nature of this film could not be greater when you compare it to the very fluffy, commercial Fred Wolf style and visuals, that were later used for the Gummi Bears, Goof Troop, and Heathcliff. In short, it’s a truly bizarre artifact worth seeing. This movie had the messages of Zootopia….if it was made in the militaristic goateed mirror universe. -- source link
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