A gripping moment in "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." (File | Photo provided to MLive.com by Dreamworks/Aardman Animation)

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The rabbit: Few creatures have been portrayed at the cinema with such dignity. From Bugs Bunny to Roger Rabbit, from Harvey to Frank, from Thumper to Fiver, these long-eared, fluffy-tailed screen icons are pictures of grace and eloquence, whether they're being clobbered with anvils, haunting humans, hammering the ground suggestively, clawing each other to bits, or possibly not quite existing.

And so, in the spirit of the commercial Easter holiday, I've compiled this compendium of 10 must-see films featuring members of the Leporidae family. Oddly, none of them are Easter bunnies - I just couldn't squeeze in "Easter Bunny Kill! Kill!", not even as honorable mention - but all of them are unforgettable. Watching these will guarantee you a very hoppy holiday.

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10. 'Zootopia' (2016)

Judy Hopps wants to be a cop, but everyone believes she's just a dumb bunny. That doesn't stop her, though. She overcomes the anti-rabbit prejudice she endures while also facing her own ignorant preconceptions her kind has against foxes. These animals aren't just airheaded carrot-munchers and sneaky orange predatorial so-and-sos, you know. And lo, this animated rabbit's story earned Disney $1 billion in international box office sales, and solved racism forever.

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9. 'Night of the Lepus' (1972)

Janet Leigh (Janet Leigh!) headlines this midnight trashterpiece in which a town is terrorized by giant rabbits. Translation: regular-sized bunnies, all rather cute with their noses wiggling and such, romp around menacingly and adorably on miniature sets. Unless they attack, then it's a person in a bunny costume. It's all rather hare-raising.

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8. 'Donnie Darko' (2001)

This is one of the great cult films of the new century, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a troubled teenager hallucinating a man in an ugly, ugly rabbit suit who shows up one night and tells him exactly when the world will end. The tall, dark rabbit's name is Frank, and I don't think you'd open the door for him or buy him martinis. His empty eyes and horrific overbite may just drill into your subconscious and ambush you as you teeter on the cusp of a 3:47 a.m. insomnia anxiety freakout. "He's just a bunny," you'll tell yourself as you sweat through the sheets.

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7. 'Alice in Wonderland' (1951)

Although there are dozens of film and TV adaptations of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" adventures, I here reference the most famous, the 1951 Disney animated classic. Of course, Disney has sneakily appropriated the public domain work "Alice in Wonderland" into its own canon, making some believe Mickey Mouse Amalgamated Corp. Inc. possesses the likenesses and stories therein, because the company is kind of evil that way, and surely wants us to believe that only pedants will point out such facts. Anyway, the White Rabbit - you know, "I'm late! I'm late!" and all that - is the creature who leads Alice to the hallucinogenic Wonderland, which has made him very popular with stoners for decades. Not that Disney would ever, ever associate itself with drug culture. Ever!

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6. 'Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' (2005)

The most ridiculous rabbit in cinema history comes via Aardman Animation's clay compadres Wallace and Gromit, who birth the beast in the title via a series of events best described as "unfortunate" and/or "sublimely silly." Suffice to say, the creature is like Thumper (only the most thick of skull won't catch the reference to Bambi's pal) crossed with the Hulk crossed with the American werewolf in London if he were British instead of American. If you don't believe that bunnies can howl at the moon, this movie won't change that at all.

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5. 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' (1988)

Poor Roger. He's a Toontown A-lister carrying an undeserved murder rap. It's hard not to be a patsy when you're a silver-screen clown, in over your head with an out-of-your-league wife. (She loves him because he makes her laugh, of course.) It's hard to take a fella seriously when his eyes shoot several inches outside his head whenever an anvil falls on his foot, and you're constantly overbearing and hysterical even when you're not in hot water, and when you're cramping the style of a shadowy detective noir with your blaring Technicolor tones. But that's Roger's lot. Thankfully, his story is comedy, not tragedy.

FUN FACT: He's Thumper's nephew!

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4. 'Watership Down' (1978)

Many of a certain generation no doubt recall the upending of expectations when a supposed sanitary Disney-style cartoon about talking bunnies was actually a violent story of survival and the omnipresence of death in the natural world told through the eyes of rabbits. Those of us who saw it as children no doubt remember it at least more vividly than, say, "The Rescuers." And perhaps we were traumatized by the dead eye and frothing mouth of an imposing bunny named General Woundwort being called a "cracked-brain slave driver" by the heroic Bigwig, prefacing their gory clashing of adorable bunny claws and gnashing of adorable bunny teeth, adorable fur flying everywhere.

As an adult, I'm more troubled by little Fiver's hallucinogenic, fever-state visions of the future ("I'm so cold, so cold," he shivers, eyes glassed over and milky) than the film's realistic portrayal of sudden, brutal bloodshed. It's considered a classic of sorts now, and it's lyrical and profound, once you get past the extreme juxtaposition of cuteness and horror.

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3. 'Bambi' (1942)

Bambi's bunny buddy Thumper is the first of his kind - a comic-relief scene-stealing animal sidekick in a Disney cartoon. This frolicking woodland creature gets his name from the repetitive manner in which his left leg habitually taps the ground, which sets him apart and likely endears him to the ladies - and no, I'm not sure if that's innuendo or just whimsy. He's a skilled ice skater, prefers to eat blooms over greens and, most famously, inspired the Thumperian Principle: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Who says he's all fluff and no substance?

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2. 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' (1980)

Shoulda listened to Tim: "He's got huge, sharp... er... He can leap about. Look at the bones!"

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1. 'Harvey' (1950)

"Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it." James Stewart's best pal is Harvey. Six feet, three-and-a-half inches tall. Invisible. Rabbit. Nobody can see him but James Stewart - well, except maybe a few others. Everyone thinks he's nuts. Stewart, I mean. Harvey is pretty quiet. But damn if Stewart isn't the sweetest man you'll ever meet. He sure lives in the moment, and appreciates that moment. Maybe he drinks a few too many martinis. Who is this guy? What happened to him? How should we treat the mentally ill? How do we define "mentally ill"? How do we define "alcoholic"? Where does whimsical comedy cross over with meaningful drama? If you think you have definitive answers to these questions, you're one of the ones who can't see Harvey.

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HONORABLE SHORT FILM: Any Bugs Bunny cartoon

Preface your evening of bunny movies with a classic Bugs short or two from his classic era, the late '30s to the mid-'60s. I recommend the wabbit-season/duck-season one, or the one where he dresses in drag, or the one with the big red hairy butthead monster in sneakers, or, if you're looking to educate yourself, the really racist one. Any will do. As long as it isn't "Space Jam." Come on. Get real, people.

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HONORABLE SHORT FILM: 'Presto' (2008)

Rabbit wants carrot. Rabbit can't get carrot. Magician tries to pull rabbit out of hat. Rabbit takes out frustration on magician. Simple. Uproarious. Inventive. Slapstick. Pixar!

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HONORABLE MENTION: 'The Witch' (2016)

The Hare, in very "Alice"-like fashion, leads our protagonist directly to the witch coven that both traps and frees her. Yet, even though this Very, Very Evil Bunny plays a key role, the film is relegated to honorable mention status in rabbit-movie lore because the flopsy-eared deviant remains mute, and is ultimately upstaged by Black Philip, the Satanic goat who gets all the best story beats and lines: "Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?"

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HONORABLE MENTION: 'Fatal Attraction' (1987)

This movie, the Oscar-nominated(!) pinnacle of hysterical 1980s thrillers, posed the question burning in the minds of so many: What differentiates a rabbit's existence as family pet or family dinner? Unfortunately, it offers no definitive answer.

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Nick Robinson stars as Simon in "Love, Simon." (Ben Rothstein | Photo provided to MLive.com by Twentieth Century Fox)

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