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January Q. Irontail, also known as Irontail for short, is the main antagonist of the 1971 Easter television special Here Comes Peter Cottontail and its 2005 sequel Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie.

He is a purple rabbit with black hair, iron-shaped ears and an artificial iron tail. He is the arch-enemy of Peter Cottontail and his son, Peter Cottontail, Jr. who wants to ruin Easter as revenge for a kid who accidently roller-skated over his tail. He was forced to become a janitor as punishment for his crimes.

In the original film, he was voiced by the late Vincent Price, who also played Cardinal Richelieu in the 1948 film adaptation of The Three Musketeers, Ivan Igor in the 1953 remake of House of Wax, Mr. Scratch in The Story of Mankind, King Richard III in the 1962 remake of The Tower of London, Prince Prospero in the 1964 adaptation of The Masque of the Red Death, Dr. Goldfoot in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, Egghead in the 1960s Batman TV series, Matthew Hopkins in Witchfinder General, Lord Edward Whitman in Cry of the Banshee, Anton Phibes in The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Edward Lionheart in Theater of Blood, one of the Sub-humans in Fire and Ice, Sinister Man in Bloodbath at the House of Death, himself in Escapes, Judge Holden in Blood Meridian, Professor Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective, the Narrator in Michael Jackson's Thriller, Zigzag the Grand Vizier in The Theft and the Cobbler and the Phantom in the Disneyland Paris attraction Phantom Manor. While in the sequel, he was voiced by the late Roger Moore.

History[]

He was once the Easter Bunny and was nice, but when a kid accidentally roller-skated over his tail, he had to replace his tail with a prosthetic one iron, hence his name. Since then, he became evil and has hated kids ever since. Irontail will stop at nothing to stop Peter Cottontail from becoming the Easter Bunny, and he wants to rule April Valley and ruin Easter for children everywhere, as payback for as mentioned above losing his tail to a child. He has a henchman, a bat named Montressor, who flies around and helps him ruin Easter.

Personality[]

As Irontail himself explains, he has hated children since the day he lost his tail. Before that, he was no doubt a very nice rabbit, like all the other Easter bunnies. However, in the sequel to the original special, when he explains his tragic past, he is shown trying to squish a harmless bug, implying that he was a bit of a brat. Now, during the egg-delivering contest in the original special, he prevents Peter from waking up in time to deliver his eggs, showing that he is devious and sneaky. Irontail is mostly presented as being quite vengeful, and absolutely hates his plans being foiled. For example, when he is shown as the janitor at the end of the original special, he is furious and unhappy with his new job.

Apperance[]

Irontail is an anthropomorphic pruplerabbit with dark gray fur, diamond-shaped ears and black hair. He wears a dark bluish-black leather coat, black with white buttons, a white shirt underneath, black string tie, black gloves and no trousers. As his name implies, he dons an artificial tail made of iron. He is the only rabbit in April Valley that doesn’t wear colorful clothes and the only one with gray fur, visually explaining that he is the villain since his color scheme is mostly drab colors.

Biography[]

Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971)[]

Colonel Wellington B. Bunny, the retiring Chief Easter Bunny, names young Peter Cottontail his successor, despite Peter’s propensity for boasting and telling fibs, which is exemplified when his left ear droops. Peter, who has dreamed of being the Chief Easter Bunny almost his entire life, gladly accepts. But not everyone in April Valley is not happy with the Colonel’s decision. Irontail wants to be the Chief Easter Bunny…but only so he can ruin it for children everywhere, as revenge for the loss of his tail, which was run over by a small child who roller-skated over his fluffy tail (as we are told), and replaced it with an iron prosthetic tail. Because the constitution of April Valley says the only rabbit who delivers the most eggs on Easter morning can be Chief Easter Bunny, Irontail proposes the Colonel Bunny hold a contest between himself and Peter to see who wins. Peter, eager to prove his worth, accepts Irontail’s challenge even as Colonel Bunny is preparing to turn the evil rabbit down. Although Peter promises the Colonel that he won’t fail, he stays up late partying with his friends. Though he sets his rooster to wake him up at 5:00, Irontail sabotages his friend by giving him magical bubble gum. The bubble gum causes the rooster’s crows to float so far away that Peter can’t hear them, resulting in Peter sleeping through Easter morning due to that party and losing the contest.

Even though the unfriendly Irontail only manages to deliver one egg (to a hobo who was fast asleep), it’s still one more egg than Peter delivered and so Irontail is named the new Chief Easter Bunny, as per the constitution. Immediately, Irontail begins to wreck Easter by passing ridiculous new laws that will undoubtedly make the holiday a complete disaster. Meanwhile, Peter, ashamed that his overconfidence and irresponsibility led to this tragedy, leaves April Valley in shame.

He happens upon Seymour S. Sassafrass, who in addition to being the narrator in the special is also the friendly man who supplies April Valley with the dyes the bunnies use to color the Easter eggs. He gets them from his Garden of Surprises, which includes striped tomatoes, orange string beans, purple cornstalks, and red, white and blue cabbages. Proving to be a very compassionate and friendly man (if not a somewhat offbeat one), Sassafrass offers to let Peter use his Yestermorrow Mobile, a time machine that can take one to the holidays. With the help of its pilot, a French caterpillar named Antoine, Peter will be able to go back to Easter and retake the contest.

Unfortunately, Irontail finds out about Peter’s plan and sends a spider to sabotage the Yestermorrow Mobile’s controls, thereby making it so that Peter and Antoine can go to any holiday but Easter! The rules of the contest don’t specifically say the eggs must be delivered on Easter, so Antoine convinces Peter to try and deliver his eggs at other holidays. He did manage to give one to Madame Esmerelda, a Halloween witch, tying the contest, but there wasn't any more success than that. Along the way, he rescues Bonnie Bonnet, a talking Easter bonnet, and meets Donna, a lovely girl bunny (with whom he briefly celebrates Valentine’s Day with). But his biggest problem is Irontail and his pet bat Montressor, who are always trying to steal the eggs and/or sabotage Peter’s efforts (at one point asking for help from Esmerelda), eventually succeeding in ruining the eggs for good so no one will want them, by turning them a mottled green color.

After many failed attempts, Peter eventually delivers all the eggs on St. Patrick’s Day and finally wins the contest. As such, he is declared the new Chief Easter Bunny, and appoints Irontail as the local janitor, as punishment for his wickedness and deceit.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail The Movie (2005)[]

Irontail, last seen having been demoted to the janitor of April Valley, approaches Jackie Frost, the queen of winter, with a proposal. Jackie wants it to be winter forever, and Irontail, who knows of the Clock of Spring’s existence (and wants revenge against Peter Cottontail for taking away his position as Chief Easter Bunny), decides to team up with her to steal the golden spring that powers it. They do so when Peter’s son, Peter Cottontail, Jr., Junior for short, irresponsibly runs off with his friends Chunk and Sophie, and soon as the Spring of Spring has been stolen, March gains extra days.

Realizing the whole mess is his fault, Junior leaves his parents a note and sets out to find Irontail and Jackie and get the Spring of Spring. Along the way, he teams up with a clumsy robin named Flutter and a perpetually hungry mouse named Munch. As it turns out, Junior’s desire to stop Irontail and Jackie couldn’t have come at a better time, as the villains now plan to steal the Sun of Summer and the Leaf of Fall! Meanwhile, a distraught Peter sends Antoine out to search for his son.

Irontail and Jackie, haven stolen everything so that all that remains in winter, give chase when they discover the kids have stolen back the missing clock pieces. At one point, when Junior attempts to stand up to them, the evil pair get into a fight, resulting in them falling off an icy cliff to their doom. Presumably, they should have disappeared forever. But instead, near the end of the film, they show up to finish off Peter and Junior. But Junior cleverly uses the key to the Clock of Spring to deflect Jackie’s icy blast, freezing her instead. Irontail attempts to make a quick getaway, but Jackie zaps him and freezes his head. They are seen again one last time, with the penguins attempting to chip them out of the ice.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

• Irontail also possesses a magic looking egg much like Sassafrass. Only Sassafrass’ egg presents the entire story, while Irontail’s egg is used to spy on Peter.