By Tania Phillips
Peter Rabbit
Starring: Rose Byrne, Domhnall Gleeson, Sam Neill, James Corden, Daisy Ridley, Elizabeth Debicki, Margot Robbie
Once upon a time there was a beautiful set of books written a very long time ago and featuring beautiful paintings of woodland creatures – it was sweet and lyrical and lovely.
While the paintings are still there (thanks to artist Bea – Rose Byrne who lives next to McGregor’s farm), this Peter Rabbit is wisecracking, contemporary, irreverent, mostly funny and not quite as charming as it could have been (Paddington Two this isn’t).
When Peter’s (James Corden) nemesis farmer McGregor (Sam Neill) dies it looks like the woodland creatures finally have control over the vegie patch – enter the farmer’s long-lost nephew played by Domhnall Gleeson (who’s dad Brendan was ironically one of the stars of Paddington). The younger Gleeson makes a pretty good fist of his performance as one of the two main actual human characters.
Peter’s feud with McGregor escalates over both the vegetable treasure in McGregor’s forbidden garden and their rivalry for the affections of the warm-hearted animal lover Bea and their battle ends up like a kind of woodland Home Alone.
Behind the scenes this one has quite the voice cast including Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, and Daisy Ridley as the triplets, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail and it’s fun to play ‘whose voice is that?’ (I didn’t pick Robbie).
This is a serviceable kids movie that tries to appeal to adults too and ends up not doing either that well. But while it doesn’t have the charm and appeal of Paddington, the animals are cute and there’s plenty of music and giggles to keep the young kids entertained.
However while my teen came out of Paddington gushing that she wanted to get it on DVD, this time she just shrugged said Gleeson was cute but was disappointed she chose the Rabbit over going to Love Simon with her sister. So this might not appeal to the whole family.
