Join your little cottontails for a marathon of the best Easter movies. Jelly beans not required but highly encouraged.
In cinematic terms, Easter is something of a forgotten holiday. The day doesn’t really have a quintessential movie dedicated to it, unless you count, say, The Passion of the Christ - and if you’re looking for something to watch with the family that won’t traumatise the youngest members, it can be like searching for an egg in the Amazon.
Don’t worry, though: we’ve done the scouring for you. We’ve arranged a basketful of all-ages delights to entertain the entire flock, including animated flicks starring mischievous rabbits and the Peanuts gang, a classic Technicolor musical to a rom-com about Beatrix Potter.
In this modern-day retelling of Beatrix Potter's classic story, we find a mischievous cottontail named Peter and his rabbit relatives who fancy a few vegetables from Mr. McGregor's yard. They struggle to get their paws on the goods when Mr. McGregor is home, and even more so when his nephew inherits his uncle's property. Now, with a new McGregor to face, it's a battle for both produce and the love of their artistic neighbor, Bea.
E.B. is a rockin' rabbit who dreams of becoming a drummer. However, his plans are hijacked by his father who intends to pass down the family business—managing a candy factory on Easter Island. That's when E.B. decides it's time to find his own adventure. He hops off into L.A. and settles in with a man named Fred, but Easter Island is crumbling without him.
Gene Kelly was initially set to star alongside Judy Garland in this cheery MGM musical, but broke his ankle just before production started. He managed to coax Fred Astaire out of retirement – his first retirement, anyway – to replace him, marking the only time Astaire and Garland ever shared the screen. It’s an Easter miracle! Well, maybe not for Gene. But it was great for audiences: Seventy-something years later, even the TikTok generation will be charmed by numbers like ‘Steppin’ Out with My Baby’ and ‘A Couple of Swells’.
What holiday is complete without the iconic Peanuts gang? As we usher in spring, Charlie Brown and co are busy preparing for the season and Easter by dying eggs, building bird houses and so on. Not Linus, though—he's convinced the Easter Beagle will take care of everything.
Beatrix Potter is to Easter what Charles Dickens is to Christmas. In the early 1900s, she created the rascally Peter Rabbit – the closest thing the holiday has to a literary icon, unless you count you-know-who – among other indelible characters. This 2006 biopic, starring Renée Zellweger with her Bridget Jones accent, charts her journey from self-described ‘spinster’ to kids-lit treasure, with cute animations for the wee ones and a romance (with her editor, played by Ewan McGregor) for adults.
Holiday mascots including the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy join forces to go against the evil-spirited boogeyman, who insists on ruining holiday fun for children.
Perfect for the kiddos and Fido, this cute canine film is a great addition to the Easter canon. When the Bannister family goes on vacation and leaves their pup Zeus behind, he and his puppy pals have a blast at doggy daycare...until three crooks step in and try to ruin everything. It's up to Zeus and his mutt crew to step in.
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