Crusader Rabbit

What a pity that "Crusader Rabbit," Jay Ward's first wild and wacky TV animation series is all but lost to the modern world. Only five-minutes long, each segment was a splendid combination of humor, satire and comedy that was a delight for 1950's children and adults. "Crusader Rabbit" is the seminal work that led Ward to go on and produce such memorable series as "Rocky and Bullwinkle," "Dudley Do-Right," and "George of the Jungle." Can't someone get this material back into circulation on video or dvd? It is a gem in its own right as well as an important first step in the evolution of TV animation and satire.

Yes, Jay Ward could certainly tell the difference between boys and girls. Almost anyone can! He also knew that if he got himself a male brat and the show happened to last, pretty soon he'd have to get himself another boy. Anyway, those women's voices were great! And the show was funny, charming, and sweet--designed to be something parents and kids could enjoy together.

I was sitting at the computer and remembered an old show that I watched in the 1964-65 era. It was Crusader Rabbit and Rags The Tiger. I decided to look it up on this site, since this site has just about everything! Low and behold here it was. My family had just moved back from the navy base at Pensacola, Florida to Brooklyn, N.Y. to stay with my grandparents. We were awaiting housing at the military base in Keflavik, Iceland which was our next assignment. I remember for about 4-5 months getting up very early on Saturday mornings and watching "The Modern Farmer" at 5:30 A.M. since this was the only thing on T.V. Then at 6:00, on came a full hour of Crusader Rabbit. The must have played all the week's episodes at one time because you watched the entire show to 7:00. I sat there and ate my giant bowl of cereal and was glued to the set. It was great. Of course later I would be watching Fury, Roy Rogers, Sky King, etc. Then my mother would chase me out of the house to play stick-ball and handball with the old 25 cent pink Spalding rubber ball we could buy back in those days at the candy store. This was a great time for television shows back in the day. The family that lived next to my grandparent's house in Brooklyn was the Allegretti family. Their son, who was near my father's age, was Cosmo Allegretti. He was Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit on the Captain Kangaroo show. As kids we thought that was absolutely fantastic. Well anyway we were off to Keflavik for 2 years and would miss T.V. for that time. However not having T.V. and being on a base was great too. You went out and did things and everything was free or cheap. I would catch up on T.V. when I got back and sit with my cereal bowl again.

I have great memories of this show, and thought I was the only person who remembered it. I didn't know there was a color version made in 1957 (until the mid-sixties, ALL my shows were in B&W!).

So when is somebody going to come out with a collection of this cartoon classic?

HI there. I love and collect classic animation. Somehow, in my entire lifetime, Crusader Rabbit eluded me. I discovered it only a day ago, when Richard mentioned the series on Leave It To Beaver (season 5 episode "Beaver's Jacket"). This review is mainly about a few reviewers earlier in this review timeline, complaining about voice actresses portraying male characters.

This has nothing to do with gender confusion. It's not uncommon for females to voice male characters in a cartoon. Bart Simpson is voiced by a woman. Bobby Hill is voiced by a woman. Lots of classic animal cartoon characters have a woman's talent behind them. This kind of casting decision is not a political or social statement. Females have a particular voice quality that often makes them best to portray a young boy or an animal. The lovely June Foray was perfect as Rocket J. Squirrel in "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle". To dismiss a series because a girl voices a guy is folly. It's also upsetting to see someone use the name, "Bimbo" substituted in every instance for "female". TV is not real life. Escape the real world and enjoy the show.

I managed to watch the first episode of Crusader Rabbit, "Crusader Rabbit vs Texas." It's filled with the fun, adult, irreverent humor via which I immediately identified it as a Jay Ward series. And, as such, the animation is cheerful, imaginative, and very static. TV animation, especially early animation, was on a budget and was very limited. Fortunately, the drawings are stylized and expressive and compensate for such limitations. Crusader Rabbit is whimsical for children, but written on an adult level, so the entire family can watch it and not get bored. It may seem dated to today's "sophisticated" audience, but Crusader Rabbit is a forgotten series that deserves more recognition for its significance in TV history.