Peter Rabbit (2018) – Film Review
I wasn’t sure about this one, going in. Children’s book characters like Franklin, Little Bear, and Peter Rabbit dominated my pre-literate days of my parents reading to me. Sure, I wanted to indulge my inner child a little with this show—how often do I have that chance, anymore?—but I figured it was going to be a run-of-the-mill, try-hard kids’ movie.
So glad it wasn’t.
Right off the bat, Peter Rabbit subverts audience expectations—literally killing the biggest of them all off in the opening ten minutes of the film. This isn’t a direct adaptation: It’s its own story, and thank God for that. That said, it pays plenty of homage to the original Beatrix Potter children’s books, be it visually or with textual nods.
The rabbits, for starters, are adorable. They’re so life-like, the animations, that I had to remind myself that these are just CGI projections, not the real, anthropomorphized things. The other animal side-characters look good, too, but with the audience attention on the main rabbit family, I’m sure that’s where the animators’ focus was. With the voice talent of James Corden, Elizabeth Debicki, Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie, and Colin Moody, I knew such would be the main draw of the film. Sam Frakkin’ Neill also makes a cameo appearance, as well as David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings films, 300) lending his voice to a short Easter egg role.
The Star Wars universe was nice enough to loan the filmmakers General Hux—err, I mean…Domhnall Gleeson. He’s surprisingly-dynamic in his role, though, all kidding aside; close your eyes, and you can hear Hux, sometimes, but his range of emotion in this is…a pleasant surprise. He actually became one of my favorite parts of the film. Rose Byrne (Insidious, Neighbors) is so cute—clearly inspired by the books’ author (her name is Bea, for Flying Spaghetti Monster’s sake), she takes kind of a background role to the rabbits’ own predicament, but the story is by no means removed from her own sphere. She’s got plenty of screen-time, and the montage she shares with Gleeson’s young McGregor is great. Their budding interest in each other feels real, where I was dreading another forced relationship—as I did with The Greatest Showman. I’m happy to have been surprised in both instances.
Visually, this is a very beautiful film—mostly taking place in the English countryside, but what we see of small-towns and London is equally gorgeous, just for different reasons. As I said, the animation is top-notch, and really makes me look forward to Sony’s animated Into the Spider-Verse venture, come Christmas. There are a few issues with clipping, as well as some not-so-seamless transitions between animated and non-animated shots, but they’re fleeting—totally inconspicuous to the average movie-goer.
Textually and sub-textually, the film’s just as entertaining.
Meta as all get-out, Peter Rabbit’s ripe with pop culture jabs, in-jokes, witty dialogue, references and call-backs to other films, the Potter source material, as well as including plenty in there for the grown-ups. Kids new to the characters—or just looking for a good kids’ film—will enjoy it just as much as the adults and seniors who grew up with the children’s book series. It all works, where I was pre-judging that it wouldn’t all mesh. Will Gluck (Easy A, Friends With Benefits) has created an instant classic, with a little bit thrown in for everyone. The writers used the “rule of threes” to great effect, and no joke is beaten to death or tired from over-use. Non-stop fun, there’s never a dull moment, even during the slower scenes. The soundtrack is full of great tunes, even a remix of Fort Minor’s “Remember the Name”. Just added a bunch of tracks to my own playlist.
This is Peter’s story; whether he likes it or not, life as he knows it is changing, and he has to weigh the options he has for changing with it. The filmmakers didn’t try anything unwieldy, like taking the characters out of their natural environ, or twisting the narrative to where it’s unrecognizable, but added their own flavors to make it something new, something fresh for audiences.
Final ‘Risk Assessment: ****/*. Would definitely see this one again, while it’s at the theatre.
LINK: “Peter Rabbit | UK Trailer” on IMDb [http://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi4266572057]
