Movie Review: Rabbit Ears-The Velveteen Rabbit

Get out your hankies folks if you watch this lovely 1985 animated adaptation of the The Velveteen Rabbit story that had been written by Margery Williams and is narrated by actress Meryl Streep, with wonderful music by George Winston.

Plot

An excerpt from the beginning of the movie.

In the beginning he was really splendid. He was fat and bunchy, just as a real rabbit should be His coat was brown and white and very soft. He had real thread whiskers and his ears were lined with pink satin

That is how this delightful children's story starts to unfold. The Velveteen Rabbit is given as a gift to a young boy on Christmas and while the boy gets other gifts on that Christmas morning he favors the rabbit most of all. He even favors the rabbit more than all his other toys from Christmases past, which doesn't sit well with the more expensive toys in his room that talk to the rabbit and all make fun of him and tell him that he's not real, just a silly stuffed toy. The rabbit befriends an old worn old rocking horse that is the oldest toy in the boy's room, and he tells the rabbit not to pay attention to the other toys that make fun of him. The rabbit is even made fun of one day, when the boy takes him on a picnic, and real rabbits are attracted to this Velveteen Rabbit...but when they sniff him, they realize he's not real, they make fun of him that he can't run, jump or play like they can since they are real and he isn't.
Disheartened, when the boy takes him back to his room he asks the old rocking horse what does it mean to be real. And the horse replies, that a toy is real when it has been loved.

Time passes on, the rabbit is getting shabbier and shabbier looking and worn out, yet the boy still loves his Velveteen Rabbit until a calamity happens. What is the calamity? What happens to the Velveteen Rabbit? Does he ever become "real"?

For this you have to watch this movie to find out.

Opinions/Comments

I have a confession to make. I'm a bona-fide wimp when it comes to watching children's movies like this and need tissues nearby. While this is an animated movie, and not even really animated in the sense of most animated movies, but merely the story unfolds with a collection of drawings, this movie still affects me big time. This is one of those movies I make a point watching especially during the Christmas season. What is it exactly that will make a person perhaps cry at this movie? In my case, maybe it's a remembrance of one's own childhood, and that absolute favorite toy they had as a child. And believe it or not, I still have my very first stuffed toy as well...a female Kangaroo with a pouch and baby "roo". When she was new her fake fur was a pale soft pink and so was the baby roo. She had cute glass eyes sewn in and a fuzzy tail. Like the Velveteen Rabbit, that stuffed toy, that I called KangyRoo, is far worse from wear, now being almost as old as I am, which is 53. she is shabby looking, all the fur worn off, and missing her eyes, yet I refuse to throw her out...silly and sentimental I know, but just can't part with her...ever. So perhaps that's what strikes a chord with me when I watch The Velveteen Rabbit. It reminds me of my own treasured toy from childhood.

If you wish you can read the story here: Velveteen Rabbit

Cast:
Voice of Meryl Streep for all characters
Music by George Winston

Based on the book, The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real by Margery Williams