The Adventures of The American Rabbit
| “ | "I can just barely make him out. What a guy!" "Wow, it looks like he's doing a barrel roll!" [...] |
” |
| The very last lines of the movie. Seriously. | ||
| “ | "welp after seeing this all the way through i can certainly understand how a kid who loved this film in the late 80's would grow up to make a webcomic featuring a cross between pikachu and sonic that goes nowhere. | ” |
| Youtube commenter shawtgunjones, upon watching this film. | ||
The Adventures of The American Rabbit is an insipid 1986 animated movie directed by Fred Wolf (of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ('86) fame) about Robert Rabbit, a bunny who is transformed into a superhero to defend his friends, family and land from pollution and the Mafia. All whilst parading around in quite possibly the most retarded costume in superhero history: a rabbit painted in the stars and stripes and wearing roller skates (even though he can fly). The American Rabbit actually set the standards for Chris's perception of many things, including himself, America, storytelling, race (something that will become quickly apparent to any viewer of the film in question), honesty and respect for self and others (which, as in the movie, are given much talk for no reason whatsoever.) His claims for being truthful, honest, and decent are almost certainly informed by the shallow cartoon's glossing over of the issues in a ham-handed, incomplete, moralizing fashion. Even the famous cover for Sonichu 0 is plagiarized partially, in an eerie subconscious fashion from a scene early in the film where the gay little rabbit goes out from his home village, encouraged by his father.
The American Rabbit is also Chris's role model in life, on the level of Sonic the Hedgehog. In Chris's Wikipedia entry, he stated "they REALLY SHOULD HAVE MADE A TV SERIES of him."
Along with Filmation's Ghostbusters, The American Rabbit is another example that Chris's childhood was fed by obscure cartoons that no one's ever heard of.
That or his parents regularly raided bargain bins for videos to keep young Christian amused.
Influence
| “ | The jackals kidnap Rob's gentle gorilla friend Ping (voiced by Garfield himself, Lorenzo Music) by disguising themselves as a telegram service. A telegram service? In 1986? [...] The nonsense reaches a peak during the third act, when the villains kidnap and enslave two chocolate-producing moose, believing that if they are able to control the chocolate they'll be able to control the world. Huh? Do these two moose represent the entire world's means for chocolate production? [...]The Adventures of the American Rabbit is not good satire, it is not good action, it is not good slapstick, and it is quite certainly not great art. As green as this statement may make me look, the film marks the first time I've actually begun to think that some pictures just plain do not deserve to be criticized, analyzed, or considered in any capacity. To paraphrase our beloved former First Lady Barbara Bush, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like this? | ” |
| Alex Jackson film review | ||
The American Rabbit may have had a tremendous influence on Chris's narrative style, as the film has numerous plot holes, a generic moral message, moments that make you go "Huh?" (ex. when the antagonist weasels take over the world by kidnapping two moose who are somehow responsible for the entire chocolate supply), and the use of anthropomorphic animals as heroes. In other words, your typical Sonichu comic.
Possible Influences on the Sonichu Comic
Anchuent Powers/Legacy
In the story, Rob Rabbit is visited at birth by a wizened old rabbit, who keeps tabs on him throughout his life until his latent powers are revealed when he saves his family. He then appears in a wizard's robe and tells Robert that he has inherited the Legacy of the American Rabbit. This is very similar to Chris's Anchuent Prophecy, where he is the chosen one who gets superpowers, for no particular reason.
Shallow Love Interests
As soon as Rob meets the pink Bunny O'Hare, it becomes very obvious that the two are attracted to each other. Granted, unlike the Sonichu comic, American Rabbit actually remembers that it's supposed to be for kids so there's never anything more than a peck on the cheek, but this could easily have set the standard for Chris's idea of love at first sight.
Worthless Side Characters that All Look Alike
To be fair, he could have just as easily gotten this from the Sonic series, but it's just as apparent in American Rabbit as well. The band Rob travels with is called the White Brothers Band, a group made out of five white rabbits that literally look and sound alike. They get mentioned by name once, which I suppose means that Chris at least treats the Chaotic Combo a bit better than them.
Worthless Side Characters in General
Supposedly, besides attempting to make money to rebuild a bar, the characters traveling with Rob believe that they have a 'duty to fight against evil', but out of all of them, only Ping, the Garfield-voiced Gorilla, actually does anything against the Jackal antagonists. In fact, he's probably is more effective than Rob is, American Rabbit or not. This is mirrored in Sonichu, where everyone besides Magi-Chan is completely expendable, unless they are just waiting off to the side to dramatically leap in to save their friends, a la Darkbind Sonichu.
You know what, all the Protagonists are worthless
With all his superpowers, Rob punches out all of two of the Jackals during the whole movie. Every other time he uses his powers is to save himself and his dipshit friends from another trap the Jackals have sprung on them. At one point, Rob is reduced to a blubbering mess, and has to be given a pep talk by the same wizard who was watching over him as a child before he can finally save the day once and for all. This worthlessness can be seen in both Sonichu AND Chris, especially during the earlier comics where Chris was always getting saved by Sailor Megtune.
A Villain in a Staff
Or at least, a villain ON a staff. The main antagonist of the movie, Vultor, is portrayed as a man entirely concealed in a gangster suit and hat, with a staff that doubles as a perch for his pet vulture. It's later revealed that the gangster suit and hat were filled with nothing but air, and that the vulture IS Vultor, and has been controlling the suit in a way that is never addressed by the movie. While Count Graduon isn't controlling Mary Lee Walsh, he certainly calls the shots.
Plot Holes and Loose Ends
In fact, lots of things aren't addressed by the movie. The whole reason Rob and his band start to travel America is to raise money to rebuild a bar, but all the venues they plan to play at get destroyed, they lose their car, and even their instruments. At the very end of the movie they can't even afford to rent new ones, but this point is never addressed since the fact that Vultor has been defeated automatically means it's a happy ending. Not to mention the utterly retarded 'chocolate moose' plot that is addressed by the above quotes. Since American Rabbit is just a single hour and a half movie made for children, it at least has an excuse, whereas Chris will either forget about plot points in Sonichu until he's reminded in the Mailbag, or have the story in his head all along and expect everyone else to magically understand it, and get angry when they inevitably don't.