Director: Will Gluck
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 95 minutes
Peter Rabbit (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
It’s hard to imagine that the tales of Peter Rabbit are already over a hundred years old, and that they are still fairly relevant to this day. While the stories may have faded to the background a bit, they are still known by many, be it because of merchandise that still pops up here and there, or a book that has been in the family for quite some time. This time Peter Rabbit gets bombarded all the way to the 21st century in a new tale, starring the very popular James Corden. We were quite eager to see how our inner child responded to a tale such as this.
Peter Rabbit (James Corden) lives in the English countryside together with his sisters Flopsy (Margot Robbie), Mopsy (Elizabeth Debicki) and Cotton-Tail (Daisy Ridley), and his cousin Benjamin Bunny (Colin Moody). They are good friends with Bea (Rose Byrne), a woman who lives nearby, who came to the countryside to express her creativity in modern paintings that frankly just look like shit. While the rabbits get along pretty well with Bea, they don’t get along with her neighbor Mr. McGregor (Sam Neill) at all. It might have something to do with them ruining his vegetable garden over and over again, but most of all, the rabbits hate Mr. McGregor because he killed their parents. When one day, Mr. McGregor drops dead in the garden after chasing the rabbits once again, Peter and the rest believe they are finally free to eat from his garden as much as they want, but little do they know that Mr. McGregor’s heir, Thomas McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) is just as much of a rabbit-hater as his great-uncle was.
When Bea introduces herself to her new neighbor, she immediately also puts in a good word for Peter and the others, and for a while it seems fine. It doesn’t take long before Thomas too begins to take measures against the rabbits, even though he has to do it in a rather sneaky way, as he has an eye on Bea and doesn’t want her to know. But if Bea gets involved with Thomas, how will the rabbits ever be safe again?
The flow of the story is quite nice. The tale trots along nicely without having too many redundant scenes being thrown into the mix. From start to finish the movie remains fairly entertaining by the usage of slapstick humor, rather adult remarks and of course enough to be seen for even a younger audience. Even though the movie is clearly directed towards children, adults will be able to enjoy themselves quite well with this film. The movie spans slightly longer than an hour and a half, and we feel that this is the proper length for a film such as this, without dragging out the process or leaving too many details out.
Peter Rabbit’s character is voiced by James Corden, who does a marvelous job. Peter is an energetic rabbit, never afraid of anything, and his energy really splashes off the screen. His somewhat more quiet counterpart is Benjamin, voiced by Colin Moody. Moody’s voice suits the fluffy, slightly overweight bunny perfectly. Overall, the voice actors really all did a great job to make the animations come to life. Domhnall Gleeson and Rose Byrne are two of the few actors that actually act on screen, rather than lending their voice to a character. They are both very enjoyable to watch, and certainly when considering that the animated characters were only added later and they were often acting with nothing actually there to interact with, we can only be impressed.
The extras on the Blu-ray edition of Peter Rabbit aren’t really that expansive, but they are nice nonetheless. There are bits about how the movie was made, and a small dance along clip, but other than that there aren’t that many noteworthy features. You can of course watch a short video that revolves around Peter’s three sisters, but it’s clear that the focus of this short movie was placed on children, rather than the broader audience the movie catered to.
Conclusion
Peter Rabbit proved to be a great addition to a story that is more than a hundred years old. We were treated to a funny movie that is fit for all ages, and where different age groups can laugh with different types of humor, be it simple slapstick jokes or some harder adult situations. While the extras didn’t sway us over that much, the movie stands quite tall on itself. If you loved the original stories, or are simply looking for a fun family evening, we can certainly recommend this title.
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