Peter Rabbit movie review

Here's what you need to know; after years of trying to fly under the radar of Mr. McGregor and numerous raids on his garden, Peter Rabbit and his family think they've finally won, until a younger, leaner, and far more dangerous McGregor moves in and makes it his mission to end Peter and his family's raids for good. But while Peter and McGregor wage a new, more vicious war for the garden, Peter and his family learn that there's more in this fight for Peter than he's willing to admit.
Every once in a while, a film comes along that I have absolutely no intention of watching, a film that repulses me for some reason or another, a reason that makes me recoil at the very prospect of watching it. Yet despite the alarm bells going off in my head, I watch them, and usually the results are messy. The fact that this film is from Sony Animation and stars James Corden was throwing up all sorts of red flags from the minute I knew of this film's existence, because like all who saw it, I still remember The Emoji Movie, and I still remember the pain. What also worried me was the fear that this was simply a Paddington ripoff, a prospect that makes me, from my position of immense bias, naturally, though perhaps unjustifiably hostile. Well, yesterday me and two friends sat in an empty cinema and watched Peter Rabbit, and I must ask myself the question; was I right, or will I have to eat crow and admit to liking a film that I wanted to hate, so no more delays, it's question time.

Peter Rabbit, in all honesty, caught me off guard a bit in its opening scene, not in the sense that it was extraordinary in any way, but more in the sense that I realised that it wasn't the film I was expecting. The film opened with a gag that I actually found funny, a gag that was considerably smarter than I was expecting, which I guess says more about my expectations than it does the film. The opening does what it needs to; it introduces Peter Rabbit and his family, Mr. McGregor and Bea, played by another one of my celebrity crushes, Rose Byrne, and provides a bit of backstory on the Rabbits and McGregor's mutual hatred, in a manner very meta and clearly attempting to be heart-felt, which it mostly pulls off. Then the plot kicks in following the early and surprisingly sudden demise of Mr. McGregor, and the introduction of McGregor 2.0, a control freak from London played by General Hux. Here is one of the ways that Peter Rabbit surprised me; it's story, which went to places I didn't think it would, and to depths that I, in all honesty, didn't think possible for a film starring James Corden. The first half of the film is what I thought it would be pretty much; Peter Rabbit and McGregor trying to kill each other, all while a spine destroyingly soppy romance develops between McGregor and Bea, which only intensifies Peter's resentment for McGregor. Even during this half of the film however, I found that I was actually enjoying myself, the film's jokes were more hit than miss, and some of them were remarkably funny, most notable in this regard is the film's handful of meta jokes, which I really wasn't expecting, but even the recurring jokes, which are much harder to pull off, were making me chuckle. Granted, one of my favourite recurring jokes in the film is a spin on a strikingly similar joke from Paddington and Paddington 2, that being the Calypso band that makes numerous appearances and provides diegetic music, only this time it's a group of birds that always get interrupted before they can finish their song, it's smart, it's meta, and I found it really funny. The film is far more self-referential and self-deprecating than I was expecting, and, like Paddington, pokes fun at itself and the conventions of its genre, sure it's not exactly original, but it works, somehow. Remarkably, the biggest issue I have with the film's humour is that the film doesn't really establish any sort of rules; for instance, later in the film, when Peter and McGregor have a conversation, McGregor questions whether or not it's in his head, meanwhile earlier in that very scene a little girl acknowledged that the rabbits could talk, meanwhile again Bea seems to never acknowledge that they can talk, even though they talk around her all the time, even insisting at one point that they're just rabbits, even though they're all wearing clothes, though you could very easily argue that I'm just nitpicking there, the point is I thought this film would be about as funny as a funeral, when in reality, I was laughing quite a bit.

It's in the second half of Peter Rabbit however that I had to throw everything I expected about this film out of the window. The latter half of the film, as well as carrying on the comedy, tries to hit the feels, as Peter Rabbit, in a move unprecedented for a Sony film starring James Corden, does some self-reflection, and decides to try and right his wrongs. This marks a substantial change in the film's tone, and one that would very easily collapse if the characters weren't good, so I guess that needs addressing. Peter Rabbit and his crew were not annoying, to my everlasting surprise, James Corden in the lead role somehow didn't make me want to drive pencils into my ear canals, in fact I warmed to Peter over the course of the film, I don't know how accurate to the source material his character is, as like Paddington before it, I know pretty much nothing about said source material, but I liked Peter Rabbit in this film (did a lot of hesitating before writing that.) Daisy Ridley also has a voice role in this film, so that's another crush of mine in this film, and like the rest of the rabbits, I didn't find her annoying. There was a rivalry between three of them, the triplets, that I thought was cute, and for some reason Benjamin was really funny to me, I liked the relationship he had with Peter, and when the film goes for feels, and that relationship sails into stormy waters, it was impressively heart-felt. However that doesn't compare to McGregor and Peter's feud, which was at first a point for the film to squeeze out some comedy, but at the film goes into its latter half, and Peter tries to right his wrongs, the uneasy friendship that they develop was really sweet, and the vomit educing soppiness of the first half actually had a pretty decent payoff in the end, I went from finding it sickening to being genuinely moved by it. The film opts to be nuanced in its characters, first painting McGregor as the villain, but then putting him and Peter on the same page, as they unite with the common goal of holding onto what they love, and Peter's attachment to Bea was, like the romance, a little on the soppy side, with Bea also coming across as a naïve hippy, but as the film explores the extent of that attachment and the reason for it, it adds massively to Peter as a character, making him surprisingly compelling, and making the conclusion of his story in this film surprisingly heart-warming.

I have a vermin problem
So, the answer to the question is no, I was wrong, Peter Rabbit was an enjoyable film. The film's comedy was considerably less insulting to the intelligence of its audience than I was expecting, actually having some remarkably funny jokes and a sizable dose of self-awareness that made the film a lot fun. But what surprised me even more was the film's heart; hidden beneath this film's talking rabbits and slapstick gags is a heartfelt story about love, and about overcoming ego and selfishness for that love, and I'll be honest, it got me. The film is hardly original; taking a lot of ideas and jokes from Paddington and its sequel, but the film pulls it off well enough that I can look past that and enjoy it for what it is. Yes, I wanted to hate this film, and yes, I actually really liked it, though I can feel my spine getting shorter just from admitting that. Peter Rabbit's alright, and it's worth watching, now if you'll excuse me, I'm having another whiskey.