Hoppy Easter! Prepare yourself for absolutely adorable muppets telling a charming children’s story, The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, as a treat!
Similar to Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas, The Tale of the Bunny Picnic originally aired on HBO and later found a home on VHS. Unlike Emmet Otter, this tale is completely original – Jim Henson and his daughter Cheryl were out at the park and noticed a very strange interaction between a horde of bunnies and one singular dog. They made up a story on what the relationship between the two species could look like, and with the collaboration of writer Jocelyn Stevenson, Bunny Picnic was born.
The Tale of the Bunny Picnic serves as the origin story for one Bean Bunny, who some may find annoying, but I can’t get enough of. Bean is performed by Steve Whitmire, the same puppeteer who plays Rizzo the Rat (and half of my favorite on-screen love story). You may recognize Bean from A Muppet Christmas Carol as he’s the tiny stuffy who buys Scrooge a massive cooked turkey. I want to squeeze him till he pops.
Well, I’ve found the audio equivalent of terrorism. I’ve been singing this for literal days. Thanks, Philip Balsam.
Being a younger brother is tough. Bean wants to assist his older siblings Twitch and Lugsy with decorating the glade for the much anticipated yearly bunny picnic, but they are dismissive of his potential contributions. Lugsy is a big strong bunny, see, and he can’t be bothered by some palooka who can’t reach the top of the bushes when it’s only a few hours before the storyteller rolls up in his bucket to kick off this wingding. Whether the assumption is warranted or not, Bean’s very vivid imagination has given him the reputation of a liar, with his other siblings constantly doubting the validity of his statements. This becomes particularly problematic when Bean is later accosted by a real-life dog.
The farmer of their land is incredibly allergic to furry things, which is the main reason why this particular herd has chosen to make their life there – no possibility of dogs. Even Bean’s great great great great grandmother has only seen two dogs in their lifetime, and at a distance, so to all of Bean’s relatives the likelihood he saw what he says he saw is impossible. They dismiss his claims and move full steam ahead prepping for the picnic, gathering pickled parsnips and participating in their favorite pastime of teasing Bean. The great great great great grandmother has so many flippin’ family members that it’s miraculous she remembers anybody’s name, nevertheless enough about Bean to tell him he’s full of shit.
“DOG?! DID YOU SAY DOG?!”
“DOG!”
“DOG?!”
“DOG!”
“DOG?!”
“DOG!!”
“DOG?!”
“There’s no dog.”
“NO DOG?!”
“No dog.”
“No dog?”
“No dog. It’s just his imagination. Again.”
You know when you say a word enough times that it starts to lose its meaning? This is what happened with the word dog to me at this moment.
Of course, there actually is a dog. A very cute dog that vocalizes all his activities as “Bark!”, “Woof!”, “Growl, snarl, snap, snap!” The farmer picked up the nameless dog (he’ll earn his name once he catches a bunny for the farmer’s stew) at the junkyard, and is toughing out his allergies to force the dog to remove several generations of rabbits off of his farm. This poor puppy gets reamed by the farmer at every moment for not immediately being successful at his task, and the fear incentivizes the dog to work harder to get those bunnies so he can eat. Everything about the dog makes me want to cry.
Up close he’s so stinkin’ cute, but these wide shots where you can tell the dog and the farmer are humans in costumes is somehow incredibly unsettling to me.
Bean, separated from his family on the way back from 4GG’s, falls asleep in the bushes because his weird grandma, who is a bit of a scientist in her spare time, was making a sleeping potion in her house and Bean got a killer contact high. The dog stumbles upon Bean again and this time is clever enough to know that tracking the bunny to where all the bunnies live instead of scaring a singular bunny off is a better long-term strategy. When Bean Bunny stalls out, however, it doesn’t take the patient dog long before he succumbs to a similar fate, leaving Bean to scurry off once he wakes up. But much like Cinderella, Bean leaves his scarf behind and the dog, once he’s alert again, uses it to track Bean’s scent the rest of the way to the bunny glen.
Meanwhile, the storyteller arrives for the picnic and Twitch and Lugsy are immediately distracted from finding out where the fuck their brother went. The storyteller is a wise head, see, wearing glad rags and dropping darbs of knowledge. You’d think they wouldn’t revere the storyteller much with the way Bean’s imagination seems to personally offend them.
There’s something delightfully meta about the puppets sitting around watching a puppet show.
“I’m the giant hedgehog! And even though I’m really, really big and you’re really, really small, I’m not going to hurt you. And do you know why? Because those who hurt others hurt themselves.”
While Bean tries to warn the unsuspecting crowd of bunnies from congregating lest they be spotted, their party is soon crashed by the dog, proving to Lugsy that Bean was on the square the entire time. Swell.
The bunnies are able to scatter and hide in their holes, and while Bean is fantasizing about being another shrewd animal, he comes up with a scheme to scare away the dog for good and enlists his bunny buddies to enact his plan. Even though Bean had this brilliant idea, his brother Lugsy automatically takes over the preparation activities assuming Bean incompetent. Wanting to be perceived as the high pillow he is, Lugsy takes the perilous trek to 4GG’s house to grab her weird sleeping potion to drug the dog – A task that is eggs in the coffee for Lugsy while Bean is behind the eight-ball. Bean is so frustrated with Lugsy he initially tells him to go climb up his thumb, but in Lugsy’s absence Bean starts to regret the horrible things he said to his brother and decides to climb up a tree to watch for Lugsy’s return. On Lugsy’s way back, however, Bean is so excited when he spots Lugsy unharmed that he balls up and alerts the dog of his approaching brother. Lugsy is then nailed by the pup.
“I’ve got a bunny! I’ve got a bunny!”
My dog Chloe had a similar reaction when she found a nest of baby bunnies in the backyard, which traumatized me and the high-pitched squealing furball she was trying to play with.
With Lugsy out of commission, Bean is forced to play Lugsy’s role in their plan, reluctantly and ominously stating, “I’ll be on top and I’ll do the talking.” Mood.
Throughout the story, when Bean is scared he disassociates and pretends he’s something bigger that will protect him – A fire breathing dragon, a weasel, a nasty old owl, a clever giant hedgehog, a giant tree…
These are truly cursed amalgamations of Bean on other bodies, but I would take either of these over This Giant Bunny costume they cooked up.
Whoops, sorry, that’s another big bunny and delicious dog.
Cursed. This is cursed. If I were the dog I wouldn’t stick around to talk to it.
The dog, being a terrified captive audience, is receptive when Mr. Giant Bunny tells him he won’t hurt him because “those who hurt others hurt themselves”. The dog frees Lugsy, but only moments before Bean unravels at the word “stew” like it’s part of his sleeper cell activation sequence. The Giant Bunny falls apart and while the rest of the bunnies disperse the dog nabs Bean.
It’s at this moment the farmer shows up and Bean realizes the farmer is the dog’s giant hedgehog and this little bunny’s unending empathy leads him to protect the pup. When the dog tells Bean the farmer is allergic to bunnies, Bean bravely approaches the farmer to scare him away with sneezes.
Bean’s bravery finally earns Lugsy’s respect and they mend fences. After introductions between all the relieved and united parties, the dog regrettably admits he doesn’t have a name. Be-Bop the bunny suggests De-Dop-De-Diddly-Dog-Bop, which, y’know, they could’ve workshopped a bit… But everyone loves it. De-Dop agrees to stay in the glade permanently, and I dunno what this dog is going to eat living on the land with a bunch of bunnies, but I’m choosing not to be horrified by this or imagine a world where a bunny gets sacrificed every week so they can keep De-Diddly-Dog-Bop on as a furry protector.
Flash forward to the future, we see Grandpa Bean assume his perfect vocation as the town storyteller and oh my god, I’m not getting teary-eyed at this…
“And so, the bunnies lived happily ever after with their friend Mr. De-Dop-De-Diddly-Dog-Bop.”
“Ohhhhh, I just love that story.”
JESUS CHRIST COLLEEN STOP CRYING.
The Tale of the Bunny Picnic is a delightful story of the contentious relationship we can have with our siblings. You may rag on your little brother, but if someone else tries to shove him in a sack and put him in a stew they’re gonna be sleeping with the fishes, see. Little brothers can also be brave even if they’re small in stature, and while you may not understand their Pan’s Labrynth-esque coping mechnisms, their imagination makes life more colorful and interesting. So, give your little brother a break sometimes. He may be forced to carry a goose 20x his size down several streets for an old man on Christmas and that will be punishment enough.