Brer-Rabbit.com

(Or should I say Hoppy Easter? Hahahahahaha… just kidding.)

We’ve reached the day of celebration and the end of Anthropomorphic Lagomorph Awareness Week. I hope everybody had a great holiday and weekend. As our last feature, I’m showcasing the best Easter egg I have ever seen in my life:

I wish I could own one of these for my very own. Unfortunately, this was done by Tokyo Disneyland as part of their 2010 Easter celebration. The Tokyo Disneyland Resort is known for going all out with their theming (I hear their Splash is also supposed to be the best, though I have yet to make it over there), and this is no exception. As can be seen from the source, he was one of several Disney characters done as Easter eggs. I wonder what it would take to recreate this? Nevertheless, I wish I could take one of these home… or at least see something like it in the American parks.

I missed yesterday in our celebration of Anthropomorphic Lagomorph Awareness Week! I’m so sorry! To make up, I will feature TWO items today!

The first I’m going to cover is an Easter special Mill Creek Entertainment was offering on some of their DVDs, one of which includes their title The Tales of Brer Rabbit. Though the special has apparently ended, for those of you jonesing for Brer Rabbit on DVD this still might not be a bad option. While the film is not as entertaining a production as Song of the South, it does have some elements that I really liked – I believe it’s the only film adaption to date to have ever included Miss Meadows (though, um… not in quite the same characterization as the original stories), as well as the Wull-er-de-wust story. It is a bit slow-paced, however. Still, it’s Brer Rabbit on DVD, and it’s cheap. It may be too late to order it in time for Easter, but Brer Rabbit is timeless anyways. That said, if you’re interested in this film it might be worth it to check out your local Target – I got this film there last year for only five bucks.

Our second item would be the other Easter pin Disney put out featuring their line of bunnies that includes Brer Rabbit.

A hinged designed, the top half of the egg closes to hide the three inside. This one I can’t help finding a bit funny, because Brer Rabbit looks like he’s just glad they actually included him for once. It also gets credit for its inclusion of the two rabbits from Melody Time’s “Once Upon a Winter.” This pin was released in 2001.

Today we get to take a look at a plush Brer Rabbit. Done in pastels. AND A BOW.

From my own collection, the bow can’t be seen too well  in this picture, but trust me, it’s there. Brer Rabbit has never particularly struck me as the bow-wearing type, but who knows what the styles were for the critters back in the day. The pastels, on the other hand, definitely don’t fit his personality. Brer Rabbit is about as bold as it gets.

It all seriousness though, this plush is as cute in person as it is in picture. It was sold at The Disney Store during the Easter season of 2004. A rare treat, as Brer Rabbit items are rarely seen around there. Like the pin from yesterday, he was part of a set of pastel-and-bowed Disney rabbits sold for the season (I also have one of The March Hare, my other favorite fictional lagomorph). If only they would do more like this!

Regardless, it probably goes without saying that this is my favorite Easter decoration.

It’s Anthropomorphic Lagomorph Awareness Week! The powers that be (in other words, me) have decided that since this is the week leading up to Easter, and Easter’s biggest mascot is the Easter Bunny, there is no better time to celebrate talking rabbits than RIGHT NOW, MY FRIENDS.

To do my part, I thought I would focus on Brer Rabbit. I know, I know – who saw it coming, right? To celebrate, I decided to feature some kind of Easter-related item featuring him through out the week. Yes, in other words, it’s Easter Week at Brer-Rabbit.com. But what’s the fun in calling it that?

Starting off, take a gander at this pin Disney put out in recent years:

It was one of a set of six that were sold on the Disney Store’s website, circa 2009 I believe. It was a limited edition set, and considering the rarity of some of the characters featured in it, no wonder it was snatched up quickly. I’m not really sure what’s going on with the egg flying in the air that Brer Rabbit is looking at, though. Did he throw it up there? Is he juggling it? Is it flying on its own like some sort of eggs-terrestrial being? Oh haha, get it, get it? Corny jokes aside, though, it’s a nice piece, worth getting your hands on if you can manage it. eBay is always a good place to start.

Yeah, yeah, it was probably pretty obvious – as if I would ever truly lose interest in Brer Rabbit. But when you run a website dedicated to a trickster, it’s pretty much a requirement that you partake in the patron holiday of the act. I also thought it would be a fun way to end the site’s hiatus. So instead of the site shutting down, stay tuned for real updates in the near future. (For real this time, I promise.)

It is with great sadness that I’m forced to announce that Brer-Rabbit.com will soon be no more. Unfortunately there is too much going on in my life, and, sadly, my interest in Brer Rabbit has waned. The site will be up for another couple of days, but will most likely be gone by this time next week. Thank you to everyone for your interest and support. It was a good run, and I’ve appreciated everything about it.

I hope everyone had a good holiday season. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to follow through with the things I had intended to do for the site, but an serious emergency fell on my family during the season, one that I am still dealing with today. As is such, I’m afraid I’m going to have to put this site on an official hiatus for the time being.

We’ll be back for sure, and hopefully not before too much longer. Until then, thank you for understanding.

News regarding the release of Song of the South has finally taken a turn for the better. At the D23 70th Anniversary Celebration towards the beginning of November, Disney creative director, Dave Bossert, was asked the repeated question of when the movie will finally be released. The response?

“I can say there’s been a lot of internal discussion about [Song of the South]. And at some point we’re going to do something about it. I don’t know when, but we will. We know we want people to see Song of the South because we realize it’s a big piece of company history, and we want to do it the right way.”

It sounds pretty promising to me, though with the history surrounding this movie I’m not going to be holding my breath for this being released any time soon. But it’s much, MUCH more promising than Bob Iger’s comments from earlier this year. Here’s hoping the film will get the release it deserves at last, and fairly soon!

Read the article breaking the news in its entirety here:  http://www.post-movie.net/?p=1840

The Holiday

Happy Thanksgiving from Brer-Rabbit.com! I hope everybody is enjoying this day, regardless if you’re celebrating it or not (I realize not everybody is from the USA. ). I associate Brer Rabbit with Thanksgiving often for a few reasons. The first being that I got the Brer Rabbit doll that turned out to be the Woody to my Andy as a child during a trip to Disneyland a few weeks before the Thanksgiving of 1995. The second reason being how, that very same November, I walked into a Barnes & Noble for the first time in my life, and immediately found a Brer Rabbit book in the Children Section with beautiful illustrations.

Also, now that I think about it, I rode Splash Mountain quite a few times two days before Thanksgiving last year. Always go on that ride before the park closes, folks – they let you ride over and over without getting off.

As for Brer Rabbit, I think it’s pretty safe to say he would be thankful for the brain he was blessed with… and to be surrounded by some rather gullible neighbors.

Site Related

I know, I know – I’m sorry the updates here are few and far between. But I have not forgotten. Never! But the holiday season, like always, is a busy one in a lot of ways. Especially when you consider that I have also been participating in NaNoWriMo this year (almost done!). But behind the scenes, I have been working on concepts for this site that I’m planning on executing before the end of the month.

The main thing to know is that I am planning on reorganizing it a bit. It will still mainly be the same, but I’m going to move things around a bit. I also am planning on a few festive Brer Rabbit related things for the Christmas season — including the site’s very first review of Brer Rabbit related media! I’m really looking forward to it, and I hope you are too.

Black Friday

Believe it or not, even Brer-Rabbit.com has a couple of deals to offer for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday craze.

If you have at all been considering starting up a website, or changing hosts, now is the time to do it. The company I use to host this site, Host Gator, is offering some amazing deals for hosting packages tomorrow. I have always been extremely happy using them as my host. If I have ever had any downtime, I have never been aware of it, it’s that brief. Their customer service is also wonderful – any problems I have ever had has been dealt with immediately by them, and they have always been very helpful. Their rates are also very price efficient, especially considering the deals they will be offering tomorrow. It would take a lot to convince me to leave them, and I cannot recommend them enough.

Anyways, on to the deals!

50% OFF EVERYTHING From 12:00AM CST – 5AM CST

80% OFF EVERYTHING From 5AM – 9AM CST WHILE SUPPLIES LAST (first come, first receive; so definitely don’t miss out!)

From 9AM – 11:59PM CST OR after 80% OFF accounts have sold out, they will continue to offer 50% OFF EVERYTHING

If you decide to purchase a hosting plan through Host Gator, I do get a small commission off every sale I send through here – which means you would be helping to support the continuation of this site. So please consider it! But be sure to use one of the links I’ve provided, or else I won’t receive anything.

Our Store also should be offering some Black Friday prices on the items in it. I, personally, can’t think of a better gift to give than that of Brer Rabbit, myself.

That’s all she wrote. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Greeting from the Disneyland Resort! I’ve been on vacation here over this past weekend, which could only mean one thing: Splash Mountain!

As you can see, the weather has been overcast here in Anaheim for most of the weekend. Regardless, the wait for the ride has been long during peak times — sometimes reaching over an hour! However, in the mornings and evenings it tends to be closer to 15 minutes or so. (Tip: Go the hour or so before the park closes, and a lot of times the Cast Members will let you continue riding without getting off.)

This way to Splash Mountain!

Statue on a well in the queue

Statue of the three in the queue

Official entrance into the ride building.

The sign for the Briar Patch gift shop in Critter Country. No Splash merchandise here, though -- it's a hat store.

Brer Rabbit can be found in other places through out the park besides his attraction, though. This is hanging on the sides of the registers at the Hungry Bear Restaurant, also in Critter Country:

On the sides of chocolate containers:

And perhaps the strangest place of all, the lobby of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln:

Splash Mountain model in front of concept art for it and other attractions.

Close up of model

Plaque on model explaining Splash Mountain

Splash concept art

Close up of Brer Rabbit in concept art. They obviously took some style liberties here.

Painting of Walt Disney in the exit area of Great Moments. All three of the Brers are there, but I only included the close up of Brer Rabbit.

And last, the poster for Splash Mountain that can be seen in one of the tunnels entering/exiting the park:

I also had a chance to pick up the new merchandise for the ride available here. There’s not a lot, since Disneyland never seems to get as much as Walt Disney World does, but the good news is that it seems to be popular. I’ll do a separate post on that, but for now I need to get back over to the park to get a few more rides down the flume before I leave!