Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny

Plot

In Santa's workshop in the North Pole, Santa's elves sing about Christmas nearing and Santa's absence. Meanwhile, on a beach in Florida, Santa's sleigh has become mired in the sand, and his reindeer have flown away to escape the heat, leaving him stuck. Santa sings a song bemoaning his troubles, then falls asleep.

Several local children hear Santa calling them telepathically and run to him. Santa awakes and explains his predicament. One boy asks why Santa does not fly back to the North Pole on a plane; he explains that he cannot abandon his sleigh and needs their help pulling it out of the sand. The kids bring him several animals, including a pig, a sheep, a donkey, a horse, and a gorilla.

Meanwhile, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn watch and comment on the action from a distance.

When all the children's attempts fail, Santa encourages them not to give up hope, and tells them a story about a girl who visits the theme park Pirates World and hears the story of "Thumbelina" as an example. A previously produced film of Thumbelina plays, complete with its original credit sequence, and runs longer than its frame story (alternate prints of the film use another Mahon adaptation, Jack and the Beanstalk, as Santa's story).

After the story, Santa encourages the kids to "always believe". One girl tells Santa that her dog, Rebel, can do anything. The kids leave. Santa takes off his coat and falls asleep once more. He wakes up and puts his coat back on when the kids return in an antique fire engine, singing about how they will help Santa. The engine is being driven by the titular Ice Cream Bunny, whom Rebel has summoned. The Ice Cream Bunny offers to drive Santa to the North Pole and they depart. The children realize Santa's sleigh is still stuck in the sand and wonder what to do before it teleports to the North Pole, waiting for Santa's arrival.

Legacy

On December 17, 2010, the RiffTrax film-commentary project released Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny, with their synchronous commentary, as a "Video on Demand" download. It has since been made available on DVD as well by Legend Films.

On December 3, 2015, RiffTrax presented a live screening of Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny in theaters across the United States. For this performance, the alternate Jack and the Beanstalk version was used.

Home media

The Thumbelina version was released on VHS by United Home Video, but is different from the theatrical version in that the Thumbelina film is shown after the Santa portion rather than during it.

In 2011, the film was made available on DVD as a bonus feature on the RiffTrax: Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny DVD from Legend Films. However, just like the version shown in the RiffTrax episode, the film is cut down to a runtime of 83 minutes due to the removal of certain musical numbers.

The Jack and the Beanstalk version has not been released on video, but the included film was released on DVD by Image Entertainment in 2002.