Movie Review: Peter Rabbit

Certificate PG, 95 minutes

Director: Will Gluck

Stars: James Corden, Rose Byrne, Domhnall Gleeson

Peter Rabbit is based (perhaps somewhat loosely) on the Peter Rabbit stories by Beatrix Potter. It beings in Windermere in the Lake District with a quartet of singing birds who land on the ground where they are knocked over by a running Peter Rabbit (James Corden, Ocean’s 8) and the narrator comments that it is not that sort of story.

A Story of Rabbits and Gardens

Peter is heading to meet up with his family; triplet sisters Flopsy (Margot Robbie), Mopsy (Elizabeth Debicki, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) and Cottontail (Daisy Ridley) and cousin Benjamin (Colin Moody). They are going to break into the garden of Mr. McGregor (Sam Neill) to steal his vegetables whilst he is mowing his grass. Peter is the one going into the garden whilst the others stand watch. When McGregor’s lawnmower stops working before he is finished cutting the grass, Peter is discovered and is chased by McGregor, losing his jacket in the process. McGregor’s neighbour Bea (Rose Byrne), who is fond of all the rabbits, rescues them from McGregor’s clutches.

Bea is a painter, who does two types of painting. One type is, as the narrator comments, not very good. The other is pictures of Peter and the other local wildlife – although she never questions how they came to have clothes – and is rather better. It also looks oddly familiar; given the neighbour’s name is “Bea” perhaps she is intended to be someone specific? Pater’s parents are both dead, and Bea asks as a sort of mother figure to Peter and the other rabbits.

The End of Mr. McGregor

Peter decides to return to McGregor’s garden to retrieve his jacket, which belonged to his late father. Who was killed and eaten in a pie by Mr. McGregor. This is a titbit that younger children may not appreciate; the rabbits are portrayed as being friendly and almost human-like and to have one eaten is perhaps a little extreme (although this is what happened in the books). Peter is caught by McGregor who plans to cook and eat him as well, but the man collapses and dies of a heart attack before he can manage this. With McGregor out of the picture, the local animals go wild in both his garden and home.

The New Mr. McGregor

In London, there is another Mr. McGregor, Thomas (Domhnall Gleeson), who works in the toy department of Harrods. Thomas is very organised and likes everything in its place and perhaps has control issues, and when he is called in to see the General Manager (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) he thinks it’s to do with his long-awaited promotion. She tells Thomas that she has bad news – his great uncle has just died. Thomas isn’t bothered by this, as he didn’t even know he had a great uncle. He is rather more bothered when he discovers that he hasn’t been promoted, instead it has gone to the less than competent Bannerman (Gareth Davies) in a display of nepotism that the manager says is practically mandatory for the country.

Thomas loses it in the toy department and is fired and escorted off the premises by security. He then receives notification that he has inherited Great Uncle McGregor’s home. Thomas is not a country person and has not interest in this, but the postman points out will be worth a lot of money. Enough, perhaps, for Thomas to be able to buy his own toy shop. So Thomas sets off to Windermere with the intent of putting the house on the market. The animals are chased out of the house and Thomas is determined to keep them out of the grounds, calling the rabbits rats. He does strike up a relationship with neighbour Bea, and both of them do appear to like each other.

Relationships and Confrontations

Much of the rest of the film revolves around Peter and the others trying to get back into the garden, often with some pretty crazy behaviour on Peter’s part, and Thomas’ attempts to keep them out – and perhaps kill them – without upsetting Bea. There is a fair bit of slapstick violence as a result and things do start getting out of hand and eventually spiral out of control. Especially as it seems that Peter is jealous of the amount of attention that Bea is giving to Thomas who, by the looks of things is, despite his peculiarities, a far nicer person than his great uncle. Oddly, Thomas realises that there is something strange about the rabbits even though Bea doesn’t, despite the fact she has had much more interaction with them.

Reviewing Peter Rabbit

The rabbits, and other animals – of which there are quite a few other characters from the books – are all animated of course, and the animations are excellent. Truly, it’s only because that it’s known that they are animated – because they talk and wear clothes – that this can be discerned. The interaction with the live-action roles is great.

In terms of story, it holds few surprises. There is even a comment later on by the narrator that, given what type of film it is, of course something is going to be successful, and that can actually be said of much of the film; the viewer can tell that everything is going to turn out all right, because that’s the type of film it is. So it delivers exactly what is expected. There are changes from the books on which the film is based, of course, which may annoy purists; the biggest change being Thomas and Bea. Which means that the film is less completely focussed on the animals than the original stories were.

This is a film that is aimed at children, although a PG certificate – possibly as a result of the slapstick violence, the death of Mr. McGregor and the threat to eat Peter – means that it isn’t as childish as it might have been. Adults should still enjoy it, although there isn’t as much aimed at them as there is in other children’s films. There are a few elements of humour, such as Benjamin commenting that he doesn’t know why he is out of shape despite only eating salad and at one point Peter breaks the fourth wall and talks +directly to the camera about allergies (the film got criticised for its handling of these later on).

Peter Rabbit is not a stunning film. It looks great (but largely wasn’t filmed in the area it is set, sadly) and the animation is great, but the story is not exactly chock-full of surprises, even though it differs from the books – and, in some places, probably diverges far too much from Beatrix Potter’s original vision (most of which were in the original trailer). There is also a mid-credits scene to watch out for. Peter Rabbit is generally a nice enough family film but nothing spectacular.