Rabbit Academy: Mission Eggpossible is an animated film produced by Akkord Film, based on characters from a series of German children’s books (Die Häschenschule, 1924). Ute von Münchow-Pohl returns as director to this sequel of Rabbit School: Guardians of the Golden Egg. While this is the second movie in the series, Rabbit Academy stands up fine as a film on its own and doesn’t require you to know much from the prequel.
Rabbit Academy follows the story of Max (voiced by Callum Maloney), an Easter rabbit who lives in the city. He is selected to train and become a Master Rabbit at the Easter Academy. But the other rabbits don’t think Max has what it takes to become a Master Rabbit. Determined to prove that a city rabbit can do just as well as those that live in the forest village, Max must find his unique skill and learn to work with others to truly become a Master Rabbit. While I do think the other characters are a bit too judgemental of Max, he does have some growing to do, but overall is a likeable character that means well.
While Max struggles to prove himself to the other rabbits, the foxes are trying to sabotage Easter! The foxes serve as the antagonists of this film without being particularly evil (aside from their instincts to eat rabbits), as their beef with the bunnies mainly comes from jealousy. They desperately want to be popular, thinking if they put their own weird spin on egg decorating, that they can fulfil their desire to become ‘Easter Foxes’.
The fox family are klutzy and really hit up that bumbling villain trope that is quite prevalent in children’s stories. They don’t seem to accomplish much on their own until a chance encounter with a rabbit named Leo, who has a far more sinister plot in mind for dismantling everyone’s Easter celebrations. One of the fox brothers feels guilty and goes to the rabbits for help. But can they ever truly trust a fox?
Visually this movie has some really stunning uses of colour and cute character designs, which are of course modernised and different from the original book artwork. Each character is animated smoothly, and the facial expressions aren’t too over the top. The standout feature to me in the art direction of this film is the really nice use of soft ambient lighting. It makes the use of sunset gradients and glowing light sources with complimentary colours. In night-time scenes, the soft glow from light sources such as fireflies and lanterns is quite beautiful.
Overall, the voice acting is decent for the main characters but there are a few side characters with annoying voices. There is one musical number with all the characters singing, which is fairly average and forgettable, which may be a blessing in disguise as your kids won’t be singing it on repeat! The orchestral soundtrack to the rest of the movie is quite nice and compliments each scene without being too overbearing.
While this film probably doesn’t have a whole lot of depth to keep most adults entertained, I was once a child who loved movies with cute animal protagonists. My younger self in a simpler time definitely would have adored this movie and I’m sure young kids that need something to watch over the Easter holidays will have fun with this! It is a good film to teach kids about learning to trust people and working together. Additionally, if you are an animation student or fan, this movie is worth a watch for the lovely scenic shots.
Rabbit Academy: Mission Eggpossible will be in cinemas from April 7.