Tale of the Bunny Picnic--VHS Review

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Jim Henson's latest gothic masterpiece tells the story of Bean, a paranoid schizophrenic bunny living within a community of nature-loving hippies desperate to preserve their way of life. Early in the film, we experience Bean's disconnect in an internally focalized dream sequence. Saturated blues and an experimental use of focus heighten the sensory deprivation that sutures us into Bean's experience. He's a bunny--but in Bean's mind, he's a weasel, a nasty old owl, and even a fire-breathing dragon.

Bean's managed to keep his personality disorder in check thus far, until a chance encounter with a dog triggers a dissociative episode reminiscent of The Shining: "Bean's not here." Where Henson excels is in his manipulation of the perception of reality, for it's not clear that the dog exists anywhere but in Bean's broken mind. No one else has seen the dog; none can even imagine a dog invading their peaceable kingdom.

Not content to see one of her 86,000 great-grandchildren in such pain, Bean's promiscuous granny promises him a dose from the batch of amphetamines she's cooking up, in a desperate move that will bring him to sanity or shatter his twisted mind forever.

April Fools! This post is part of the White Elephant Blog-a-thon, hosted by Lucid Screening. We all put a movie into the mix, which were then randomly assigned to all the participants. I suggested Making the Grade, which was reviewed by goatdogblog. Thanks! And sorry.

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