Review of Peter Rabbit (2018) by Bevan B — 09 Dec 2018

Disclaimer: I love the Beatrix Potter books and read them longer than most young boys. There's something so wonderfully simple and quaint and honest about them. So when one of those books gets turned into a film like this, my heart rejects it.

Make no mistake: if you've no familiarity with Peter Rabbit coming into this, it's not a bad film at all. There's nice gags in there, some knowing adults-only bits, crazy action and nothing that children should object to.

But there's also a lot that really got under my skin, and it largely centers on the rabbit of the hour. It's a similar situation as with Alvin, from the chipmunks. Kids like him, but to an adult he's a POS.

To put it plainly, Peter Rabbit is a bell-end. He's crass, cocky, violent, uncaring and selfish. He's an unrepentant thief. He kills a man early on and jokes about it, after poking him in his dead eyeball to make sure.

He (now infamously) attacks a character with the blackberries that he's allergic to in order to induce an anaphylactic shock. The whole film has an unlikeable crassness about it that means that the little things that might be overlooked in another film stand out here like little annoying rabbits.

If you want to make a film like this, just come up with your own story. Why tarnish Peter Rabbit? Also, if you want your character to be likable, don't get James Corden to voice him. Just a tip.