Cinema #88: Bunnicula (1982)

Hey There!

As you may know, we are in total thrall of the Bunnicula Reread Marathon! I wanted it to take up all of October! One super interesting thing I found while I was researching the books for my announcement video was that not only are there 7 books in the original Series. There is a Spin off series, called Tales from the House of Bunnicula narrated by Howie, along with an animated film from 1982 and a more recent cartoon series in 2016.

I’m currently working through Nighty-Nightmare which is book 4 in the series, and I happened to find the 1982 animated film on Boomerang the night prior. I knew of the animation but had no idea when it was made, who was in it, or who produced it.

Imagine my shock when I found out that it was Ken Spears and Joe Ruby, the brilliant minds that brought us Scooby-Doo! So I was relatively excited to experience this 23-minute spectacle.

However, what I received while very adorable is barely anything like the books. Many liberties were taken with events in the novel and the characters and their attributes. The gist of the cartoon is that there’s a small town called Centerville, and it’s a plant town. Meaning there’s a large plant that almost everyone works at, and that supports the local economy.

With so many unexplained accidents occurring at the plant, the managers decide to shut it down, until they can figure out what’s going on. This puts the entire town in peril. As they all go home after a trip to the fair, they find Bunnicula in a cardboard box, wrapped in a blanket underneath a nearby tree. They take it home, and immediately Chester is suspicious.

Don’t even get me started on how much animated Chester looks NOTHING like Illustrated Chester! They changed Mr. Monroe from an English Professor to a Scientist, so it would fit the story more, there is NO mention of the showing of Dracula or any of the attempts to defeat the Vampirism of Bunnicula.

All in all, while cute, this animated short is NOTHING like the Novel, and so I place it in a completely different category altogether. It almost felt like Fanfiction.

What did you think of the Bunnicula Film?

Until Next Time,

Moriartie

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