A list of movies that feature rabbits from cute to scary. The list features the many portrayals of rabbits in film being clever and cunning creatures.
Peter Rabbit (2018)
Mischievous rabbit, Peter, fights the new owners of house thar homes his garden patch home with pranks and tricks. The comedy is alright but it does stray away from the humble cuteness from the source material with the modernized loud and boisterous portrayal that was in most 2010s kids’ film at the time. The film had some controversy when it was released with one of the pranks that Peter Rabbit does to the Homeowner in the film that mocks people with allergies with nuts. The voice of Peter Rabbit is done by James Corden.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
A claymation of the iconic British characters Wallace and Gromit are caled to help a township’s vegetable from rampant rabbits but discover a strange large rabbit threatening their township’s vegetable competition. Gromit, like always, must find a solution to this predicament with sidekick, Wallace [tee-hee]. This film is great for an Easter film and lighthearted Halloween film because it leans into the English countryside werewolf lore that’s a lot like Hammer Horror Studio classics. It’s comedic and shows off Gromit’s deduction skills and the weird inventions from Wallace.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Framed for the murder of a film executive, Roger Rabbit must find a way to clear his name before is gets the “Dip” with help from Detective Eddie Vaillant on the case. The production of the film is groundbreaking integrating live action and cell animation into one scene. Even though Disney’s Songs of the South first created this effect, Who Framed Roger Rabbit used upgraded rotoscoping techniques, Jessica Rabbit’s sparkly dress, green screens, people, puppets and objects dressed in grays to fill in for a “toon” later and the voice actors off-screen to help with the on-screen realism of animated characters.
Zootopia (2016)
The mysterious disappearances of predatory animals in this anthropomorphic society leads a rookie cop partnering up with a con artist fox to solve. In this modernized whodunnit buddy cop animation of the Fox and the Hare tale has Judy Hopps, a rabbit, and Nick Wilde, a sly fox, solve the mystery. The voice acting is quite boisterous and energetic even the real life animal characteristics making up the personalities of the characters, for example, a sloth is a slow animal who works in the DMV. Furthermore, the pop culture references like the animal names for bootlegged films being sold on the streets and the Godfather was pretty funny. It also has mature themes about segregation and prejudice that can be disgusted about how exclusion from a group and being singled out can be hurtful.
Night of the Lepus (1972)
After an experiment on rabbits goes wrong causes rabbits to run amok through a small town. The townspeople must fight oversized gigantic rabbits to survive. This film is more cute than scary because of the rabbits. They placed real rabbits in a miniature set to run through then slowed down the footage. The rabbits looked too cute nibbling on a mini can of tomato soup in a miniature kitchen.
Watership Down (1978)
A notoriously scary movie about field rabbits but this film was made for adults or a more mature audience. Based on the novel of the same name, this animated feature is a classic within British cinema. The film is about a group of field rabbits that fled for safety to the fields of Watership Down after a prediction from one of the rabbits. It’s an elegant hand drawn cell animation. It has rabbit lore, rabbit culture and Lapine, the rabbit language, that’s more explained in the book but briefly discussed in the film which can go over some people’s heads. Watership Down can be scary because of the violence against the rabbits. The viciousness and scorn against the rabbits running away from a bad situation makes it a film for a mature audience.
Presto (2008)
A short film by Pixar about a magician’s rabbit doing a routine magic trick where he pops out of a top hat but the rabbit refuses to the dismay of the magician. It’s funny with little dialogue and plenty of visual gags.
Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971)
A Rankin/Bass Production film about a young Easter bunny, Peter, must complete a contest to become the Chief Easter Rabbit and takes over Easter eggs deliveries by delivering Easter eggs. But his rival is an angry vengeful bunny with an iron tail who won the contest but only wants to take over Easter duties to ruin it for everyone as revenge for an injury that gave him his iron tail. A defeated Peter is convinced by friends to try again and work harder by going through all of the calendar holidays trying to deliver all of the Easter eggs due to a technically in the rules. This is another stop motion film but it is a musical. It has a morality tale for a film about if you want to achieve a goal you must work hard for it and not brag and show-off.
Miss Potter (2006)
A docudrama about Beatrix Potter starting her children illustrator and writing career in the early 20th century creating her series The Tales of Peter Rabbit and her struggles with love, success and family. This may no be that well known due to the other popular Potter of the literature world at the time.
Honorable mentions
Donnie Darko (2001)
Set in the backdrop of the presidential campaign in October 1988, a near fatal airplane accident as a troubled teen escape by sleepwalking onto a golf course after hearing voices. Afterwards, he is visted repeatedly by a man in a rabbit suit with a weird face mask giving him cryptic messages about the world ending. The theatrical cut is better than the longer director’s cut. The story is complex and dark but also for mature audiences due to the themes that arise from the film.
Harvey (1950)
A man defends the existence of a 6 foot 3 1/2 inch tall invisible white rabbit named Harvey by taking his rabbit friend around town to bars, talking to people about his friend Harvey until people draw to the conclusion that Harvey is real. Meanwhile, his older sister goes through a debacle to have him committed to a sanatorium. Obviously, Harvey is never seen but he is described in detail by the James Stewart character. The film is mostly a comedy with some sad moments.
Under The Moonlight 
A list of movies that feature rabbits from cute to scary. The list features the many portrayals of rabbits in film being clever and cunning creatures.
Peter Rabbit (2018)
Mischievous rabbit, Peter, fights the new owners of house thar homes his garden patch home with pranks and tricks. The comedy is alright but it does stray away from the humble cuteness from the source material with the modernized loud and boisterous portrayal that was in most 2010s kids’ film at the time. The film had some controversy when it was released with one of the pranks that Peter Rabbit does to the Homeowner in the film that mocks people with allergies with nuts. The voice of Peter Rabbit is done by James Corden.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
A claymation of the iconic British characters Wallace and Gromit are caled to help a township’s vegetable from rampant rabbits but discover a strange large rabbit threatening their township’s vegetable competition. Gromit, like always, must find a solution to this predicament with sidekick, Wallace [tee-hee]. This film is great for an Easter film and lighthearted Halloween film because it leans into the English countryside werewolf lore that’s a lot like Hammer Horror Studio classics. It’s comedic and shows off Gromit’s deduction skills and the weird inventions from Wallace.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Framed for the murder of a film executive, Roger Rabbit must find a way to clear his name before is gets the “Dip” with help from Detective Eddie Vaillant on the case. The production of the film is groundbreaking integrating live action and cell animation into one scene. Even though Disney’s Songs of the South first created this effect, Who Framed Roger Rabbit used upgraded rotoscoping techniques, Jessica Rabbit’s sparkly dress, green screens, people, puppets and objects dressed in grays to fill in for a “toon” later and the voice actors off-screen to help with the on-screen realism of animated characters.
Zootopia (2016)
The mysterious disappearances of predatory animals in this anthropomorphic society leads a rookie cop partnering up with a con artist fox to solve. In this modernized whodunnit buddy cop animation of the Fox and the Hare tale has Judy Hopps, a rabbit, and Nick Wilde, a sly fox, solve the mystery. The voice acting is quite boisterous and energetic even the real life animal characteristics making up the personalities of the characters, for example, a sloth is a slow animal who works in the DMV. Furthermore, the pop culture references like the animal names for bootlegged films being sold on the streets and the Godfather was pretty funny. It also has mature themes about segregation and prejudice that can be disgusted about how exclusion from a group and being singled out can be hurtful.
Night of the Lepus (1972)
After an experiment on rabbits goes wrong causes rabbits to run amok through a small town. The townspeople must fight oversized gigantic rabbits to survive. This film is more cute than scary because of the rabbits. They placed real rabbits in a miniature set to run through then slowed down the footage. The rabbits looked too cute nibbling on a mini can of tomato soup in a miniature kitchen.
Watership Down (1978)
A notoriously scary movie about field rabbits but this film was made for adults or a more mature audience. Based on the novel of the same name, this animated feature is a classic within British cinema. The film is about a group of field rabbits that fled for safety to the fields of Watership Down after a prediction from one of the rabbits. It’s an elegant hand drawn cell animation. It has rabbit lore, rabbit culture and Lapine, the rabbit language, that’s more explained in the book but briefly discussed in the film which can go over some people’s heads. Watership Down can be scary because of the violence against the rabbits. The viciousness and scorn against the rabbits running away from a bad situation makes it a film for a mature audience.
Presto (2008)
A short film by Pixar about a magician’s rabbit doing a routine magic trick where he pops out of a top hat but the rabbit refuses to the dismay of the magician. It’s funny with little dialogue and plenty of visual gags.
Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971)
A Rankin/Bass Production film about a young Easter bunny, Peter, must complete a contest to become the Chief Easter Rabbit and takes over Easter eggs deliveries by delivering Easter eggs. But his rival is an angry vengeful bunny with an iron tail who won the contest but only wants to take over Easter duties to ruin it for everyone as revenge for an injury that gave him his iron tail. A defeated Peter is convinced by friends to try again and work harder by going through all of the calendar holidays trying to deliver all of the Easter eggs due to a technically in the rules. This is another stop motion film but it is a musical. It has a morality tale for a film about if you want to achieve a goal you must work hard for it and not brag and show-off.
Miss Potter (2006)
A docudrama about Beatrix Potter starting her children illustrator and writing career in the early 20th century creating her series The Tales of Peter Rabbit and her struggles with love, success and family. This may no be that well known due to the other popular Potter of the literature world at the time.
Honorable mentions
Donnie Darko (2001)
Set in the backdrop of the presidential campaign in October 1988, a near fatal airplane accident as a troubled teen escape by sleepwalking onto a golf course after hearing voices. Afterwards, he is visted repeatedly by a man in a rabbit suit with a weird face mask giving him cryptic messages about the world ending. The theatrical cut is better than the longer director’s cut. The story is complex and dark but also for mature audiences due to the themes that arise from the film.
Harvey (1950)
A man defends the existence of a 6 foot 3 1/2 inch tall invisible white rabbit named Harvey by taking his rabbit friend around town to bars, talking to people about his friend Harvey until people draw to the conclusion that Harvey is real. Meanwhile, his older sister goes through a debacle to have him committed to a sanatorium. Obviously, Harvey is never seen but he is described in detail by the James Stewart character. The film is mostly a comedy with some sad moments.
Banner Credit: A bunny with carrots. Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash
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