Checked out the new Peter Rabbit movie… and I’ve never seen a movie more embarrassed by its source material (except maybe the recent Lone Ranger movie which more hated its source material). I’m not very familiar with Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit books but I gather they are quiet, gentle, and sweet. This movie dips its toe into quiet, gentle, and sweet before pulling back and poking a stick in its eye.
The film is live action with CGI bunnies and other critters. It follows the basic concept of the books (from what I understand) – Peter Rabbit and his sisters Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-Tail (along with Benjamin Bunny) raid the local father’s garden. The farmer, in a surprise moment, dies on screen (Peter pokes his unmoving eyeball) so his nephew (played by Domhall Gleeson) moves in to sell the property. And fall in love with next door neighbor and bunny protector Bee (Rose Byrne).
The romance between Gleeson and Byrne is semi-sweet, Byrne plays charming well, Domhall Gleeson puts his all into the physical comedy, and the CGI rabbits look pretty great. They put legit effort into making a good movie. The script is too schizophrenic though…. any time it approaches the tone of the books, it cracks wise about not being THAT kind of movie. Peter Rabbit is kind of a jerk and the physical comedy approaches Home Alone levels of comic violence. There’s too much modern, pop culture attitude… but, to its credit, it’s not as bad as the trailers let on.
The trailer makes the movie more edgy and modern than it is. All that’s in the movie and your tolerance for that may sway your opinion of the flick. The movie features ALL the pop songs too. But, due to the schizophrenic script, it’s not all this too cool for school humor. Even while mocking the source material, the comedy can also be cheeky and very British too. And I laughed. I laughed less than I didn’t laugh, but I did laugh often enough.
Not a great film… this movie should be more similar to the Paddington movies (two movies that are not embarrassed by their source material while still being cheeky and knowing). But it is what it is – an utter mixed bag of ideas that are pretty disrespectful to the source material but manages to amuse enough.
Score: 75