Review of Peter Rabbit (2018) by Bradley B — 13 Dec 2018

Peter Rabbit is a fun loving story about a rabbit and his transformation from villain to hero. He is loved by many children all over the globe but is not loved by the Thomas or Mr. McGregor. The movie Peter Rabbit does a great job at making Peter a fun loving protagonist, even though he and the McGregor family are no heroes. George R. R. Martian has a great quote that goes along with one of the major themes for this movie. He says that, "Nobody is a villain in their own story. We're all the heroes of our own stories". Along with themes about family and love, this theme is what this story is all about.

The movie Peter Rabbit starts off by telling us the story of the Rabbit family. It gives us a lovely storybook cartoon summary of the rabbit family and all the happy animals that live in the forest. During the summary we learn that the McGregor family had greedely taken over a major part of the forest and then prevented anyone from getting in. Peters father tried to get into the garden to get food for his family but was sadly killed by Mr. McGregor and made into a pie.

As the story continues, we see cut scenes of animals finding many other ways to get food apart from the garden. This shows that the garden is not the only cash crop in this forest. But Peter has such a strong desire to get food from THAT garden. This shows that Peter is abrasive and selfish and these traits grow as the story progresses. Peter is selfish and is a villian throughout the entire movie. He thinks he is a hero because he is getting food for his friends, but he is stealing it from an old man in the process.

After Peter continues to fail to get food from the garden with his friends, he tries one last time in an attempt to go in by himself and get as much food as he can. He forgets about his friends, who have helped him in each previous attempt, and rushes in blindly. But because he went in alone and unprepared, he was caught by Mr. McGregor and was taken to be made into a rabbit pie just like his father. Yet Deus Ex Machina steps in at the right moment and Mr. McGregor has a heart attack and dies. Because of the absence of a body in Mr. McGregor's house, his great nephew Thomas has to come in and take over the place.

This causes some issues because the animals that lived in the forest thought they had the whole garden and house to themselves. The animals were all praising Peter because he killed an old man so they could take the garden or themselves. When Thomas moves in, he and Peter instantly become mortal enemies and Peter says he is going to kill this one too. Peter and Thomas never try to use any other tactics other than brute force. Thomas refortifies the walls of the garden to keep everyone out and in retaliation Peter sabotages Thomas house with traps. They both think they are doing the right thing but they are just making themselves worse people.

Even though Peter and Thomas are polar opposites, there is one thing that they both have in common and that is their love for Bea, the next door neighbor. Bea loves the rabbits and wants them to be let in the garden. So Thomas lies to her face and says he will do just that so he can get close to her. Thomas falls for Bea and Bea falls for him too, but she also still loves the rabbits, so throughout the move there is this love triangle going on which doesn't end well. Bea is the connection between Peter and Thomas and through her they could have been great friends, but that is ruined because of their hatred for each other.

Thomas is no better at being good then Peter is. He tries to keep the rabbit out even though he was told by Bea to let them in. He sets up an electric fence to keep the rabbits out. He starts fighting Peter in Beas house and they both end up ruining one of her paintings. He even attempts to throw one of Peter's friends off a bridge because he wanted to make a statement about how he isn't afraid to hurt the rabbits. He thinks he is the hero that is saving the garden but he is only hurting the relationship he was trying to have with Bea.

The movie ends with Peter trying to break up Thomas and Bea for good. His selfish actions soon backfire and ends up making Bea want to move away forever because she thinks that Thomas is crazy. Thomas goes back home to London and Peter is left there with the knowledge that he destroyed all their lives. He was a character who could make the rashest of decisions and never have to deal with the consequences, but this time there was no one to save him. He thought he was a hero that was going to save the forest and bring food to his people. But the other animals were fine, and through his horrible actions he ruined any chance of a friendship he had with Bea and Thomas. Both Peter and Thomas did bad things and became the villain in each others lives.

In an attempt to right his wrongs, Peter is able to bring back the two lovers and rekindle the relationship that he ruined. He was able to grow as a person and look past his selfish ways to fix something that he had destroyed. Thomas comes back to his old garden to find Bea still there. He professes his love for her and she professes her love for him. Thomas got over his hatred for Peter and Peter realised that he needed to change his selfish actions. The movie closes with two people who only thought of themselves who end up helping each other. It has people and animals with real stories and real reasons why they should get what they want. And even though they both may be the villains at the start, they are able to come together in the end and become the heros they sought out to be.