Peter Rabbit

Peter Rabbit – Peter and his friends long to enter Mr McGregor’s garden – a place once freely accessible but now secured behind a wall. When the mean old owner dies, hope is restored until Tom McGregor, his nephew, moves in. With a mutual friend wanting the best for both parties, can a truce be made to keep everyone happy?

Peter Rabbit (2018) – Director: Will Gluck

Rating: PG

Running Length: 95 minutes

Starring: James Corden, Domhnall Gleeson, Rose Byrne

Genres: Adventure, Comedy

REVIEW: PETER RABBIT

Based on the beloved and quintessentially British characters created by Beatrix Potter, ‘Peter Rabbit’ is a true waskily wabbit who just wants to eat the veggies in Mr McGregor’s garden. His constant attempts to steal the tasty goodies within put himself and his family members in danger, but he just can’t help himself! When the nasty and uncompromising McGregor dies, Peter and co have full access to the garden… until nephew, Tom turns up.

Personally, I have never seen a better character introduction than that of Tom McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson). At first he is seemingly officious and demanding, but quickly proves himself to simply have high standards (for good reason). Unafraid to roll his sleeves up and demonstrate what he expects of his subordinates, he even scrubs toilets to show them how clean they need to be. So, from the off, we know that although Tom will be a force to be reckoned with he is not evil nor villainous and thus his clashes with Peter are earned. Rose Byrne’s Bea is lovely and fully supports the animals’ desire for freedom, life, and full bellies. The light-hearted tension in Peter Rabbit therefore has plenty of push and pull as she is perfectly happy to call Tom’s out irritable perfectionism.

Peter (voiced by James Corden) leans a bit too heavily into ‘annoying jerk’ territory so it is often difficult to sympathise with him. However he does get pulled up on his reckless behaviour and learns from his actions. Overall this is a good family film, with lots of funny moments made all the better for the writing of Tom’s character and excellent acting by Gleeson.

CONTENT: IS ‘PETER RABBIT’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

McGregor kneels down and his trousers show the top of his backside, a gust of wind blows his shirt up which highlights this area. Peter, holding a carrot, says ‘I’m going to put this in here’, however he doesn’t get the chance to do this.

McGregor tells Peter ‘Rabbit, I’m going to put you in a pie like I did your dad!’ There is then an animated sequence showing Peter’s loving father getting killed and the old man’s wife bringing a pie to the dinner table as Peter as the rest of the family look on.

McGregor picks Peter up by his ears but suddenly passes away with his eyes open. While describing the old man’s lifestyle and poor eating habits, there are disgusting close-ups of him shoving food into his mouth.

When Tom McGregor is introduced, he is cleaning a toilet and states to his subordinates ‘Our toilets must be as clean as a drinking fountain!’ He promptly pulls out a straw and turns to take a drink from the toilet before someone distracts him.

Tom is given bad news and, unable maintain his composure for long, repeatedly punches a person-sized teddy bear, he then kisses it on the mouth and punches it again.

A fox is asleep and rabbits shave off patches of its fur.

Tom catches Benjamin Rabbit and puts him in a sack then goes to drop him into a river to kill him. After a few seconds of deliberation, he realises he can’t do it.

When Tom says that he is allergic to blackberries when offered a drink with them in, Peter has a rant about how people use it as a ‘crutch’ while looking straight at the camera. Benjamin reminds him that people do have genuine medical conditions to which Peter agrees stating ‘We don’t want to get any letters’ while again, looking at the camera. This may be poking fun at certain people who may use their medical conditions as excuses, however this dialogue may be uncomfortable and upsetting for parents and children with food intolerances, especially as Tom’s allergy is proven to be genuine, painful and dangerous later in the film.

It is established that rabbits gently put their heads together in order to apologise. When seeing their human friend, Bea talking to Tom, she demonstrates this too him but their attraction to each other means they linger like this for longer than necessary. The rabbits are baffled and Benjamin exclaims ‘She’s apologising the heck out of that guy!’

A cockerel is shocked that the sun has come up yet again. This is funny until he rants ‘If I knew this was going to keep happening, I wouldn’t have fertilised all those eggs! Now I have to stick around ’til they hatch and be present and involved!’ – A clear reference to the men who sleep around and feel angrily hard-done by for being expected to be decent fathers to the children they help to create.

Tom is asleep in bed and something wriggles under the covers, he giggles and playfully says ‘Stop it!’. He then sits up and screams when he puts his hand in a metal trap. There is then a slapstick scene involving more traps and rakes.

Tom puts peanut butter on an electrified fence to bait the animals. Mrs Tiggywinkle licks it and is electrocuted – she shakes, groans and her spines fly off. However, she is ok and goes back to do it again. Peter then rewires the electricity to Tom’s doorhandles – he gets several bad shocks and thrown across the room. At one point it looks like he is dead but he wakes up later.

The rabbits pelt Tom with vegetables and repeatedly hit him in the crotch which he covers with his hands. When he has to raise his arms Peter says to the others, ‘You know where to aim.’ He then encourages them to use blackberries which they all acknowledge he’s allergic to and happily do anyway. They hit his face and one goes in his mouth, causing him to sink to his knees and slam an epi-pen into his leg. The rabbits recoil as it looks painful. Tom suddenly gets up and has no after-effects.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘PETER RABBIT’ FOR KIDS?

While the film has a few problematic moments due to some lazy jokes, overall this is a fun family film that gives depth to an antagonist that could easily be a one dimensional villain. Some of the dialogue and imagery of the movie could be a little much for younger children and therefore we would recommend it to kids aged 7 and over.

• Violence: 2/5 (all slapstick in nature)
• Emotional Distress: 1/5 (the death of Peter’s father is sad and some characters are thought to be dead but get up unscathed)
• Fear Factor: 0/5
• Sexual Content: 1/5 (some mild innuendo which kids are unlikely to understand. Tom being unsurprised that someone is in his bed suggests a physical relationship has begun between him and Bea, however nothing is outright stated and it is quite a chaste courtship otherwise)
• Bad Language: 0/5
• Dialogue: 2/5
• Other Notes: deals with themes of rivalry, having opposite motives, love – romantic, familial and friendship, and entitlement to nature.

Words by Laura Record