Santa and the Ice Cream Rabbit
(R & S Film Enterprises Inc., 1972)
Today's movie is a special one. And by special, I mean "special". Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny is one of those movies that you watch the same way you would a fifteen car accident on the highway.
The only way I would suggest trying to watch this absurd movie within a movie is if you add yet another layer and watch the Rifftrax version. I've watched the riff of this movie a couple of times now, and I know with one hundred percent certainty, that I could never watch this movie without the riff. Not even once.
The title part of the movie has Santa getting his sled stuck in the sand in Florida. In order to get himself unstuck, he calls out to the children in the area. They all freeze in the middle of whatever it is they are doing and heed the summoning. It almost reminds me of when Aquaman calls out to fish, only with the ability to call to children. Like, some sort of mutant ability that a pedo would love.
The children try everything they can think of to get Santa unstuck, but nothing works. So, to encourage the kids, Santa uses his frightening telepathic powers to beam a completely different movie directly into their brains. This other movie, the tale of Thumbelina, even has opening and closing credits.
After the tale, the Ice Cream Bunny shows up to take Santa for a ride in his firetruck so he can deliver the presents. Okay. The children stick around to try and figure out how to get the sleigh out, and it vanishes. The end. Wait, what?
The main reason behind the main wtf-ness of this film is the fact that it was filmed at and/or for Pirate's World, an amusement park that went defunct a mere three years after this movie was released. Coincidence? I think not.
Today's musical selection is something that should help bring you down from the weirdness of the movie. Enjoy the mellow sounds of the Vince Guaraldi Trio's O Tannenbaum.
