Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny
About Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny
Santa's sleigh is stuck in the sand at Dania Beach, Florida. Local children try animals as a team and fail. Santa tells them a story, which is a whole earlier film, either Thumbelina or Jack and the Beanstalk, depending on the print. An Ice Cream Bunny arrives on a fire engine, and the sleigh vanishes back to the North Pole.
Cast & crew
More about Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny
Richard Winer, billed as R. Winer, wrote, shot, edited, and directed the beach frame and composed its songs. The long middle is one of two 1970 Barry Mahon films: Thumbelina, from Hans Christian Andersen, or Jack and the Beanstalk, from Benjamin Tabart.
Themes
Background
A 1972 Florida children's film that recycles two 1970 fairy-tale features as the story Santa tells.
Making
Winer built a Christmas release around Mahon's already finished Childhood Productions films instead of shooting a new feature-length story.
Look
Richard Winer shot the beach frame at Dania Beach, with the sleigh sitting in the sand.
Music
Richard Winer wrote the music for the Santa scenes. The inner films keep their own scores.
Preservation
Prints differ by which inner film they carry. A Thumbelina version circulated on United Home Video VHS.
Notes
- Jay Ripley plays Santa and is billed as Jay Clark.
- Thumbelina's music is credited to Ralph Falco and George Linsenmann. Jack and the Beanstalk's music is credited to Eugene Ventresca.
- Shay Garner plays Thumbelina in that version. Mitchell Poulos plays Jack in the other.
- A United Home Video VHS places the Thumbelina story after the beach scenes, unlike some other prints.
Scenes
- Children hitch animals to the sleigh and cannot move it.
- The Ice Cream Bunny drives up on a fire engine.
- The sleigh disappears from the sand.
Influenced by
- Thumbelina
- Jack and the Beanstalk
Also available
- Internet Archive (SantaAndTheIceCreamBunny1972FullFilm)
- United Home Video VHS (Thumbelina version)
- Legend Films DVD (RiffTrax, 2010)