The Tale of Peter Rabbit came out in 1902, which means that this beloved rabbit and his friends have been charming the English speaking world for well over a century. If you’re a child of the 1990s then, like me, you might have had an old VHS copy of Peter Rabbit and Friends laying around, as Beatrix Potter and a cup of Milo was the usual routine when arriving home from school.
Will Gluck’s adaptation of these classics is unfortunately the latest in a long line of Hollywood looking for once popular children’s books and attaching jumper leads to them, as they try to shock new life into old properties like some giant corporate Frankenstein. This 2018 version of Peter Rabbit is just another chaotic mainstream hybrid of live action and CGI, devoid of charm, wit or regard of its source material.
Peter (voiced by James Corden) and his sisters Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail live in a picturesque part of the English countryside – although the majority of filming took place in Sydney. Their two human contacts are Mr. McGregor (Sam Neill) whose garden they continuously steal from, and Bea (Rose Byrne) who spends her time picking flowers and painting watercolours of the animals; Bea presumably being short for Beatrix. When McGregor has a fatal heart attack his nephew Thomas (Domhnall Gleeson), a middle manager from London, inherits the farm and all hell breaks loose when he and Peter start a turf war.
Children will probably have a great time here. The slapstick humour and the bright colours will entertain the tots for a while, but anyone who grew up with these books or their adaptation will most likely be appalled. It’s always worth debating whether you should judge a film by its source materiel and vice-versa, but the really aggravating element is that there seems to be no point to have adapted Peter Rabbit. There’s absolutely none of the gentle, quaint Britishness that characterises this text; this is just that really broad, brash American animation we’ve all seen before, to the degree of such laziness there’s a scene where McGregor continuously get blatted in the face with rakes he keeps stepping on. Or a subplot where Mr McGregor wants to build a big, beautiful wall around his property to keep the undesirables out – which is quickly becoming 2018 short hand for lazy metaphor.
Most disappointing is the sense of humour. Meta-commentary can work if it’s applied sparingly and has a point, but this just comes off like the voice actors got lost and ad-libbed in the booth. For example, a few of the bunnies keep chatting about their character flaws in relation to the story, like “I get into trouble and you always follow me, that’s your character flaw!” In another instance a couple comes to the farm and one of them remarks “It’s like a 3D version of a story book”. This is like a lazy comedy writer thinking they’re being clever, like they’re too cool for your conventional script writing, man!
Most of this stems from a really miscast James Corden, whose voice doesn’t compliment or suit the role of Peter Rabbit in the slightest. As mentioned before, the source material just doesn’t suit the film. The soundtrack doesn’t fit and there’s more than one joke that doesn’t belong. It’s like the filmmakers just made an animated film about animals and then just happened to slap the Peter Rabbit brand on top.
Maybe the strangest thing about this project is that, for all intents and purposes, it’s an Australian film. Nine out of the ten main cast are Australians, it was shot in Sydney, and most of the production and animation was done by Australian companies. So… hurray for Australians in film… I guess?
If you can look beyond the reputation that it gathered with its woeful first trailer and the nonsensical controversy over “allergy bullying” there are a few moments of joy and the odd laugh here. Domhnall Gleeson still can’t put a foot wrong and Rose Byrne is always nice to see, but this is the perfect and most aggravating example of pointless adaptation. Beatrix Potter should be turning in her grave.
Peter Rabbit is in cinemas from 22nd March through Sony Pictures.
