Rabbit

**Rabbit** is the main character in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and a fussy and compulsive anthropomorphic rabbit.

## Background

Rabbit lives in a large tree in the Hundred Acre Wood, surrounded by an expansive vegetable garden. When not adventuring with Pooh and the others, Rabbit mainly spends his time either tending to his crops or indulging in some of his other hobbies like reading and cleaning. He is also a harvester of honey, which often leads to unwanted visits from a hungry Pooh Bear.

Rabbit is unique in that he is traditionally portrayed as a real animal, rather than a stuffed toy like Pooh, Piglet, or Tigger. As such, he lacks stitches and has noticeable, animalistic features such as fur and whiskers. His movements are also more realistic, in contrast to the stiff movement of Pooh—a character stuffed with fluff. Despite this, he has occasionally been referred to as a toy belonging to Christopher Robin in some *Winnie the Pooh* media, the most notable of which being "How Much is That Rabbit in the Window".

Despite being one of the more mature characters in the Hundred Acre Wood, Rabbit is extremely accident-prone, and he is regularly met with the misfortune to some degree. The most frequent example of this comes in the form of Tigger, who is perhaps Rabbit's most frequent nuisance—mainly due to Tigger's habit of unexpectedly pouncing at Rabbit.

Being one of the smarter and sensible residents of the Hundred Acre Wood, Rabbit is mostly intolerable of the other characters' quirks, such as Pooh's obsession with honey and Tigger's affinity for bouncing. This is, however, mainly due to the fact that these habits often result in Rabbit's misfortune. In the case of Tigger, he enjoys pouncing Rabbit when he least expects it, which oftentimes causes unintentional damage to Rabbit's prized garden; despite being all in good fun, Rabbit is usually given the shorter end of the stick when it comes to the antics of his friends.

Though Rabbit has felt neglected by his friends at times, in truth, the Hundred Acre Wood gang think highly of him; when trouble occurs, Rabbit is often the appointed leader, mainly due to his intelligence and craftiness. This has inflated Rabbit's ego to some degree, but at the same time, it's left him feeling burdened with responsibility. When he is unable to assist his friends, Rabbit becomes overwhelmed with guilt. He also becomes incredibly frustrated when his friends do not take dangerous situations seriously. This ties into Rabbit's most positive trait—he is extremely loyal, and even paternal, towards his friends. Protective and cautious, Rabbit looks out for the wellbeing of each member of the Hundred Acre Wood and has risked his own life numerous times for their safety. In The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit came to adopt a bird named Kessie, whom Rabbit raised and loved as his own daughter, despite how troublesome she was as a fledgling.

He is a tall, slender domestic rabbit with yellow fur (sometimes lime green), thick black eyebrows, a white chest and belly, skinny arms, a pink nose, black eyebrows and a white cottontail.

## In the series

Rabbit is portrayed similarly to his earlier film appearances and has greener fur than in the films (this must be due to a coloring error). He is often faced with fighting threats to his garden, which include crows, bugs, and Gopher's destructive plans. He is sometimes presented in an antagonistic role, though he usually repents. Though normally he is portrayed as a living animal, the episode "How Much is that Rabbit in the Window", presents him as a toy. The episode has an unappreciated Rabbit run away from home not feeling special by thinking that the others were taking advantage of him, only to be picked up by the owner of a store, who puts him up for sale.

Two episodes depict Rabbit's softer side. In "Find Her, Keep Her", Rabbit rescues a baby bluebird named Kessie and raises her. He is shown to be overprotective of her, even forbidding her from flying, though in the end, he reluctantly allows her to migrate South for the winter. Kessie returns in "A Bird in the Hand", and Rabbit still treats her as a child, despite her being grown up. After a run-in with heffalumps and woozles, however, he comes to realize that though she is grown up he can still be Kessie's good friend.

In the episode "Party Poohper", Rabbit is shown to have over 500 baby bunny relatives who he tried to throw a party for but continued to suffer numerous problems due to his hectic schedule.

## Trivia

* In the series, Rabbit is revealed to have a mother (mentioned in Rabbit Takes a Holiday) and a great great uncle named Long John Cottontail (who appeared as a ghost in Rabbit Marks The Spot).
* There's a Friendship volume that centers around Rabbit. It was Three Cheers For Eeyore & Rabbit.
	+ That same Friendship volume also centers around another character. It was Eeyore.