Rabbit (Winnie the Pooh)
Encyclopedia
In the fiction
al world of the book series
and cartoon
s Winnie-the-Pooh
, Rabbit is a responsible rabbit
who happens to be a good friend of Winnie-the-Pooh
. He is always practical and keeps his friends on their toes, although they sometimes raise his ire unintentionally.
book by A. A. Milne
. He also appears in chapters VII, VIII, IX and X of that book, as well as in chapters III, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, and X in The House at Pooh Corner
.
Unlike most of the cast in the books, who are based on stuffed animals owned by Christopher Robin Milne
, the illustrations of Rabbit look more like a living animal than a stuffed one. This idea is also supported by Rabbit's own comment to Owl, "You and I have brains. The others have fluff." In Ernest H. Shepard's illustrations, Rabbit appears like a typical, long-eared rabbit, except that he walks on two legs and uses his front paws as hands. The top of his head reaches about to Pooh's nose; his ears, when pointed straight up, reach to just above Pooh's head. While loyal to the friends he knows, Rabbit shows a certain reluctance to welcome newcomers, as evidenced by his initial negative reaction to the arrival of Kanga and Roo in the first book, and to Tigger in the second book. Nonetheless, he warms up to all of them in time.
Rabbit likes to take charge and come up with elaborate plans, such as the one to scare Kanga by hiding Roo
, and the one to "unbounce" Tigger
. He is also an organizer, as in the case of the Search for Small. As detailed as his plans are, they often miss certain key points, and thus go wrong in one way or another.
Rabbit tends to include Pooh and Piglet in his plans, and he goes to Owl when there is "thinking to be done". He sees his relationship to Christopher Robin
as being the one that Christopher depends on. Rabbit also has good relationships with the minor animals in the forest, who are usually referred to as his "friends-and-relations". Several are mentioned by name, including a wasp
called Small, a beetle
named Alexander Beetle, another member of the beetle family named Henry Rush, and three unspecified creatures called Smallest-of-All, Late, and Early. According to the illustrations of the book, his other friends-and-relations include other rabbit
s, a squirrel
, a hedgehog
, some mice
, and insect
s. At one point, Rabbit estimates that he would need "seventeen pockets" if he were going to carry all his family about with him; whether that number refers just to his relatives or to the friends-and-relations as a group is unknown, if it had any basis at all.
Rabbit lives in a house in the north central part of the Hundred Acre Wood
, between the sandy pit where Roo plays and the area where his friends-and-relations live.
As an addition to his character, he likes his garden and does whatever he can to protect it from other animals such as bugs and crows. He gets cross and grumpy when they try to steal his vegetables, especially carrots. In one episode, he even goes so far as to build a fortress around his garden, including a moat and booby traps. Tigger, Pooh and Piglet come to see him, and he tells them to go away and leave him alone. The trio leaves him to his gardening, at which point he realizes he forgot to add a door to his fortress, and he is stuck inside.
It is also shown that like a real rabbit, he is occasionally jumpy; in Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, he got lost in the mist and was eventually scared witless by the swamp wildlife.
In one episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh he adopts a bluebird named Kessie that he rescued from a snowstorm.
The original voice of Rabbit in the Disney films was Junius Matthews
. After his death, Will Ryan
, Ray Erlenborn
, and later Ken Sansom
replaced him. Tom Kenny
provided his voice for the 2011 film Winnie the Pooh
.
, Rabbit now appears at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, FL and Disneyland in Anaheim, CA for meet and greets.
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al world of the book series
Book series
A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their publisher....
and cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...
, Rabbit is a responsible rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
who happens to be a good friend of Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...
. He is always practical and keeps his friends on their toes, although they sometimes raise his ire unintentionally.
Role in the books
The first appearance of Rabbit is in chapter II in the Winnie-the-PoohWinnie-the-Pooh (book)
Winnie-the-Pooh is the first volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne. It is followed by The House at Pooh Corner. The book focuses on the adventures of a teddy bear called Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends Piglet, a small toy pig; Eeyore, a toy donkey; Owl, a live owl; and Rabbit, a...
book by A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...
. He also appears in chapters VII, VIII, IX and X of that book, as well as in chapters III, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, and X in The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner is the second volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, written by A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepard. It is notable for the introduction of the character Tigger, who went on to become a prominent figure in the Disney Winnie the Pooh franchise.- Plot :The title...
.
Unlike most of the cast in the books, who are based on stuffed animals owned by Christopher Robin Milne
Christopher Robin Milne
Christopher Robin Milne was the son of author A. A. Milne. As a child, he was the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father's Winnie-the-Pooh stories and in two books of poems.-Early life:...
, the illustrations of Rabbit look more like a living animal than a stuffed one. This idea is also supported by Rabbit's own comment to Owl, "You and I have brains. The others have fluff." In Ernest H. Shepard's illustrations, Rabbit appears like a typical, long-eared rabbit, except that he walks on two legs and uses his front paws as hands. The top of his head reaches about to Pooh's nose; his ears, when pointed straight up, reach to just above Pooh's head. While loyal to the friends he knows, Rabbit shows a certain reluctance to welcome newcomers, as evidenced by his initial negative reaction to the arrival of Kanga and Roo in the first book, and to Tigger in the second book. Nonetheless, he warms up to all of them in time.
Rabbit likes to take charge and come up with elaborate plans, such as the one to scare Kanga by hiding Roo
Roo
Roo is a fictional character created in 1926 by A. A. Milne and first featured in the book Winnie-the-Pooh. He is a young kangaroo and his mother is Kanga...
, and the one to "unbounce" Tigger
Tigger
Tigger is a fictional tiger-like character originally introduced in A. A. Milne's book The House at Pooh Corner. Like other Pooh characters, Tigger is based on one of Christopher Robin Milne's stuffed animals...
. He is also an organizer, as in the case of the Search for Small. As detailed as his plans are, they often miss certain key points, and thus go wrong in one way or another.
Rabbit tends to include Pooh and Piglet in his plans, and he goes to Owl when there is "thinking to be done". He sees his relationship to Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, appearing in his popular books of poetry and stories about Winnie-the-Pooh. He has subsequently appeared in Disney cartoons....
as being the one that Christopher depends on. Rabbit also has good relationships with the minor animals in the forest, who are usually referred to as his "friends-and-relations". Several are mentioned by name, including a wasp
Wasp
The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their...
called Small, a beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
named Alexander Beetle, another member of the beetle family named Henry Rush, and three unspecified creatures called Smallest-of-All, Late, and Early. According to the illustrations of the book, his other friends-and-relations include other rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
s, a squirrel
Squirrel
Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...
, a hedgehog
Hedgehog
A hedgehog is any of the spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae and the order Erinaceomorpha. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand . There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to the Americas...
, some mice
MICE
-Fiction:*Mice , alien species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*The Mice -Acronyms:* "Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions", facilities terminology for events...
, and insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s. At one point, Rabbit estimates that he would need "seventeen pockets" if he were going to carry all his family about with him; whether that number refers just to his relatives or to the friends-and-relations as a group is unknown, if it had any basis at all.
Rabbit lives in a house in the north central part of the Hundred Acre Wood
Hundred Acre Wood
The Hundred Acre Wood is the fictional land inhabited by Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Winnie-the-Pooh series of children's stories by author A. A. Milne...
, between the sandy pit where Roo plays and the area where his friends-and-relations live.
In Disney adaptations
Rabbit appears in most Disney Winnie the Pooh cartoons.As an addition to his character, he likes his garden and does whatever he can to protect it from other animals such as bugs and crows. He gets cross and grumpy when they try to steal his vegetables, especially carrots. In one episode, he even goes so far as to build a fortress around his garden, including a moat and booby traps. Tigger, Pooh and Piglet come to see him, and he tells them to go away and leave him alone. The trio leaves him to his gardening, at which point he realizes he forgot to add a door to his fortress, and he is stuck inside.
It is also shown that like a real rabbit, he is occasionally jumpy; in Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, he got lost in the mist and was eventually scared witless by the swamp wildlife.
In one episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh he adopts a bluebird named Kessie that he rescued from a snowstorm.
The original voice of Rabbit in the Disney films was Junius Matthews
Junius Matthews
-Career:He was a private in World War I before becoming an actor, and determined to become a popular radio and television actor, his career began on stage where he got his first role in a silent film called The Silent Witness . He later played the role of the Tin Woodsman on a radio version of The...
. After his death, Will Ryan
Will Ryan
Will Ryan is an American voice actor and producer–writer–composer, well-known for singing about the American West. In the late seventies he teamed up with Phil Baron as Willio and Phillio. They had regular gigs on television, radio and comedy clubs and universities throughout the US...
, Ray Erlenborn
Ray Erlenborn
Ray Erlenborn was an American vaudevillian, voice actor and sound effects artist. He is known to audiences all around the world as the voice of Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh....
, and later Ken Sansom
Ken Sansom
Kenneth Sansom is an American actor and voice actor who first began acting in the early seventies. His first role was in an episode of Mayberry R.F.D., a continuation of the The Andy Griffith Show. He is best known for his role as Rabbit in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. He also voiced...
replaced him. Tom Kenny
Tom Kenny
Thomas James "Tom" Kenny is an American actor, voice actor and comedian. He is especially known for his long-running-role as SpongeBob SquarePants in the television series of the same name, as well as the live-action character Patchy the Pirate, Gary the Snail and the French narrator based on...
provided his voice for the 2011 film Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh (2011 film)
Winnie the Pooh is a 2011 American animated musical children's family film inspired by the A. A. Milne stories of the same name. The film is a reboot of Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise and is the fifth theatrical Winnie the Pooh film released and the second from the Walt Disney Animation...
.
, Rabbit now appears at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, FL and Disneyland in Anaheim, CA for meet and greets.