Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (1972)

When Santa's sleigh gets stuck in Florida, he tells a group of kids the story of Thumbelina.

Director:

R. Winer

Writer:

Hans Christian Andersen (fairy tale "Thumbelina")

Stars:

Jay Ripley, Shay Garner, Pat Morrell

Cast

Cast overview:
Jay Ripley	...	Santa Claus (as Jay Clark)
Shay Garner	...	Thumbelina (archive footage)
Pat Morrell	...	Mrs. Mole (archive footage)
Bob O'Connell	...	Mr. Digger (archive footage)
Ruth McMahon	...	Mother (archive footage)
Heather Grinter	...	Witch (archive footage)
Sue Cable	...	Flower Girl (archive footage)
Mike Yuenger	...	Flower Prince (archive footage)

Storyline

Poor Santa Claus. This live-action feature finds his sleigh stuck in the sand on a Florida beach only days before Christmas Eve. He psychically summons prepubescent aid from a nearby subdivision. In order to extricate Santa's sleigh, the local children bring many different animals (presumably the sheep was someone's housepet), but nothing works, and the kids are afraid they won't get any gifts this year. To boost their spirits, Santa tells them the story of Thumbellina, and the setting dissolves into a "fantasy within a fantasy". Thumbellina is a beautiful but very tiny girl, "not much larger than a clothes pin". She becomes lost in the forest during the winter and finds refuge in the underground home of Mrs. Mole. A neighbor mole, Mr. Digger, falls in love and wants to marry Thumbellina, but she's having none of it. When warm weather returns, she runs back into the forest and deserts the two kindly creatures who saved her life, crushing their spirits forever ... the end. As Santa is ...

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Plot Keywords:

mole | santa claus | christmas | florida | storytelling | 

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Taglines:

The amazing story of Santa in big trouble... And his exciting rescue by the daring ice cream bunny ... It's breath-taking, fun for all.

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Genres:

Family | Fantasy

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Filming Locations:

Pirates World Amusement Park - Sheridan Street, Dania, Florida, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

R & S Film Enterprises Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min 83 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The last movie filmed at Pirate's World, which closed in 1975.

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Goofs

If the sleigh could be teleported back to the North Pole, why wasn't it teleported earlier in the film, instead of trying to pull it out of the sand?

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Quotes

Santa Claus: What is that? What is that I hear? Where's it coming from? I hear a siren, but I don't see any fire, I don't see any smoke. Whenever there's a siren, it means there's a fire, but I don't see any smoke. That siren. Where is it coming from? Where's that sound coming from?

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Crazy Credits

Two sets of opening credits and end tags are used in the movie (one for the Santa portion and one for the fairytale portion).

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Connections

Edited from Jack and the Beanstalk (1970)

User Reviews

I just saw it!

Believe it or not, I found a copy of this thing. I just watched it. Wow. That's all I can say. I have to comment on it further now that I've seen it again. This has got to be one of the worst movies I've seen, and I've seen a lot of bad ones. I've seen Herschell Gordon Lewis' "Jimmy the Boy Wonder". I've seen "Nukie", "Indian Superman", "Devil Monster", "Return to Boggy creek", and many more. But "Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny" is really a wonder of bad, bad cinema. I can't say that enough. I can just see the producer telling everybody who questioned him during production, "But it's a KID's movie. It doesn't MATTER." Like that's an excuse for this sort of thing.

As I said in my previous comment, I saw this in the theater when I was ten. I think it came out in the spring, which caused some confusion about the Ice Cream Bunny. I mean, is that supposed to be the Easter Bunny or what? And why is Santa Claus in it? I didn't understand then, and 30 years later I still don't understand. Anyway, here's the story.

A skinny dimestore Santa with a large sweat stain on his butt is stuck in the sand on a Florida beach. That's a very surreal image for a kid from Minnesota who's used to seeing Santa in snow. His reindeer (shown in stock footage) got too hot and flew home without him. Santa falls asleep and sends a telepathic message to kids living in a nearby housing development. The message stops time until they respond to it. They all come help him with their pet animals - a horse, a cow, a sheep, a pig, a donkey, and a guy in a gorilla suit. Must be a pretty lax housing development to allow those kind of animals. Nothing works, so Santa tries to cheer the kids up by telling them the story of Thumbelina. The poor audience (us) doesn't just hear it; we see it, too. It's a movie within a movie! When it rolls, we see the credits and everything. That's pretty darn confusing to a kid who thought the movie already started twenty minutes ago. Soon we learn that it's also a movie within a movie, so we're seeing a movie within a movie within a movie! AHH!!!

Whew. The movie within a movie is narrated by a tinny loudspeaker at a cheap amusement park called Pirates World. When the speaker talks, we see a closeup of it. This happens way too many times to count. The young lady who plays Thumbelina is an excellent singer, and I can't help but like her. Trouble is, her story goes on forever and ever and ever. The sets look like something from a high school play. They make Santa on the beach look pretty good!

Then just when you think the movie has turned into Thumbelina and you've given up all hope of seeing Santa again, it ends. It even says "The End" on the screen. So you're getting up ready to run out of the theater and there's Santa on the beach again! After an hour plus of this business we finally get to see the Ice Cream Bunny. He's driving an antique fire engine through the woods to the beach. He's so close now. Please hurry, Mr. Bunny. Save Santa and end the movie NOW! No, wait - now he's taking a long shortcut through Pirates World! HOW'D THAT HAPPEN???

OK, now he's back on the beach. It still takes several minutes to cross those last few hundred feet. Turns out he and Santa are old friends. He gives Santa a ride on his truck, and when you're wondering why they left the sleigh behind it blinks out of sight and magically returns to the North Pole. The kids point at the sky as if they can see it flying. The end.

Wow. Did I mention the really bad singing in the Santa part of the movie? Did I mention the endless kazoos, and the talk-singing into the kazoos? I watched much of this standing up, pacing.

If you're brave - if you're really brave - there's another copy for sale on half.com. I haven't seen it on ebay or in Amazon Z Shops, and I've been looking for a while. Here's your chance.

My head hurts. Me go now.