PPossessed of a truly short-lived subtitle – Mission Eggpossible – this German Easter-themed animation probably provides just enough frantic hi-jinks to keep little kids slightly engrossed over the holidays. But its scatty plot, about a group of master bunnies tasked with distributing Easter eggs and jealous foxes who wish to supplant them, was apparently concocted by someone slipping into a chocolate-induced coma.
Its difficulties are obvious as Ute von Münchow-Pohl’s film can barely rouse any interest in its own main character, the aspiring young bunny Max. Max has the honor of being the first bunny in town invited to join the Bunny Masters. But he makes a formidable enemy when he humiliates bad boy bunny Leo as – in the now obligatory social media shoo-in for children’s cartoons – the latter broadcasts live to his fans. Leo, a failed academy student, takes his grievances to the gang of forest foxes who want to take over the egg racket. But the disgusting leporid hides his true intentions from them: to destroy all the eggs entirely and, in the process, Easter himself.
Rabbit Academy’s animation has a perfectly hewn look that gives the characters and the sacred mountain on which the eggs roll in looping tracks eye-catching appeal. Too bad we can’t say the same about the script. The Monsters University-like setup is totally derivative, with a few waffles about the bunnie masters having to locate their own special power, a bit of kung fu style for head instructor Madame Hermione, and a sickly title track, Let’s Color the World. , which is sure to make even five-year-olds want to stick a pencil up each nostril and butt a table.
Max doesn’t have a story so much as a series of nagging moral checkpoints that sometimes contradict each other: find your own personal special power, but also, as one character berates: “Is ‘I’ your word? prefer ?” Try to avoid letting your kids get sucked down that assertiveness rabbit hole, and stay on Watership Down instead.