Peter Rabbit review

PETER RABBIT:

LOOK AT THAT, THIS SONY PICTURES ADAPTATION OF BEATRIX POTTER'S BELOVED CHARACTER AIN'T BAD!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES AND SONY PICTURES ANIMATION

The world of Beatrix Potter comes to life in Peter Rabbit

            Is a bad marketing campaign in Sony’s contract or something? First the 2016 Ghostbusters movie, then Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and now this, a film adaptation of the beloved children’s book character, Peter Rabbit.

            I was ready to despise the latest cash-cow from Sony when I first saw the trailer, and the marketing itself looked like their Smurfs movies but with CG rabbits. However, I was still optimistic about Peter Rabbit and decided to give the movie a chance, after all it wouldn’t be the first time Sony gave us a good movie with bad publicity.

            Thankfully, the movie doesn’t quite live up to the dreaded trailers, but is it on par with the Paddington films? No. Peter Rabbit is a decent family film with nice animation, fast slapstick-filled humor, and cute little animals running around and causing trouble, but with a few self-aware jokes that poke fun at several kids’ movie tropes and clichés thrown in that get a good laugh.

            Granted the plot is recycled and often derivative of other films of the genre, not every joke works and the soundtrack does utilize a lot of modern pop songs. But unlike something like Smurfs or Alvin and the Chipmunks, I'm willing to look past those clichés because of the charm of the film's characters both animal and human. 

            The film follows Peter Rabbit (voiced by James Corden-Gavin & Stacey, Begin Again, Into the Woods), his cousin, Benjamin (voiced by Colin Moody), and his triplet sisters, Flopsy (voiced by Margot Robbie-The Wolf of Wall Street, Suicide Squad, I, Tonya), Mopsy (voiced by Elizabeth Debicki-The Great Gatsby (2013), The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2), and Cottontail (voiced by Daisy Ridley-Star Wars franchise, Only Yesterday, Murder on the Orient Express (2017)) spending most of their days picking on their neighbor, Mr. McGregor (Sam Neill-The Piano, Jurassic Park, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) and stealing vegetables from his garden. The rabbits are friends with a free-spirited woman named Bea (Rose Byrne-Neighbors, X-Men franchise, Spy) who has a passion for painting and being surrounded by nature and is a motherly figure for the rabbits.

            After Mr. McGregor’s sudden death, the rabbits think their human neighbor problems are over and they can get all the vegetables they need. Until, his nephew from London named Thomas (Domhnall Gleeson-Harry Potter franchise, Ex-Machina, Star Wars franchise), who has an unhealthy hatred of rabbits, inherits his home and does everything he can to keep them out.

            Eventually Thomas grows a liking to Bea which sets off a feud for attention between Peter and Thomas. They clash, and all sorts of hilarity ensues as the rabbits turn Thomas’ life upside-down.

            The film also features the voices of Byrne as Jemima Puddle-Duck, Neill as Tommy Brock, Gleeson as Mr. Jeremy Fisher, Sia (My Little Pony: The Movie) as Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Ewen Leslie (Dead Europe, The Daughter, The Butterfly Tree) as Pigling Bland, Rachel Ward (Night School, The Umbrella Woman, Blackbeard) as Josephine Rabbit, Bryan Brown (Stir, Rebel, The Thorn Birds) as Mr. Rabbit, and David Wenham (Dark City, The Lord of the Rings 2 and 3, Lion) as Johnny Town-Mouse.

            Overall, Peter Rabbit is a fine family movie, it isn’t high quality entertainment like Coco or Paddington 2, but it’s definitely a huge improvement over recent Sony animated outings like The Emoji Movie. The animation is lively, the humor when done right is funny, the characters are very likable, and it has a good heart.

            The animation is colorful and despite the animated characters resembling real-life animals, the animators added a lot of personality in the movements and facial features of the characters, not to mention fast slapstick. They even have hand-drawn animated scenes that look like the illustrations to Beatrix Potter’s books, and they’re absolutely beautiful to look at and done in a very clever way.

            Peter is mischievous, arrogant, and cracking jokes, but still remains a likable character, though his attitude can get a little annoying at times, but I feel that's kind of the point. Domhnall Gleeson’s performance as Thomas is the highlight of the film as he’s over-the-top, hamming it up, and it looks like he’s having a great time on-screen while simultaneously being very charming and having strong romantic chemistry with Rose Byrne's Bea and I admire the fact the film does not make him the villain.

            The humor was sort of hit and miss to me, there are a handful of gags geared towards kids, but then the film will do something clever by satirizing a ton of tropes and clichés found in other children’s movies including a very funny joke in the climax that's obviously set in London (I won't give it away here because it's probably the best joke in the film) and even this bizarre character arc regarding a rooster over the course of the movie. As someone who grew up with a lot of bad talking animal kids' movies like Scooby-Doo, The Shaggy Dog (2006), and Cats & Dogs, seeing a film acknowledge several rehashed plot elements or clichés from these kinds of films and do something legitimately funny and clever with them get nothing but my respect. 

            Peter Rabbit is a step down from the Paddington films and the original books, but as an adaptation goes it's enjoyable for both kids and parents. Cute animals and silly hijinks while also having charming human characters and clever jabs at clichés found in other family fare, a good time for all.