PETER RABBIT

Thomas McGregor (played by Domhnall Gleeson) inherits his great-uncle’s country cottage in Hobbiton or Narnia or whatever idealised country British region it’s supposed to be, leading to an escalating vegetable arms-race as he weaponizes his garden patch, fending off the local wildlife who plunder it with abandon. His artist neighbour Bea, (played by Rose Byrne) is essentially a version of Beatrix Potter herself, who lives across the way and is something of a parent to the rabbits: Peter (voiced by James Corden) and his three sisters — Flopsy (Margot Robbie), Mopsy (Elizabeth Debicki), and Cotton-Tail (Daisy Ridley). MacGregor’s efforts to exterminate the rabbits become more and more insane and bear much resemblance to the Gore Verbinski film Mousetrap where Nathan Lane and Lee Evans destroy their inherited mansion to rid it of a single, hyper intelligent mouse.

There have been a lot of critics who’ve been very sniffy at this re-telling of Beatrix Potter’s beloved stories – some would call it a bastardisation – and that’s a valid argument, it’s a result of the studio movie machine’s search for ‘brand awareness’  - which means though it bears little resemblance to ‘Peter Rabbit’ stories of our childhoods, it’s irrelevant because those squishy nostalgic feelings were still enough to get you into the cinema with your kids to watch it.

The director and co-writer is Will Gluck, who up till this point has made his name with films such as the Emma Stone vehicle Easy A and Friends with Benefits starring Justin Timberlake, flips to working in animation, tailoring his humour for kids. He’s working with Sony Pictures Animation and Australian effects company Animal Logic to bring this story to life and it should be said, the effects themselves are brilliant. The animal characters are photo real, it’s just dependent on the child watching it as to whether the slapstick violence and ‘Tom and Jerry’ style antics will appeal. Personally, I laughed quite a few times, I enjoyed it - I took my two young boys and they reviewed it as the following: The 4-year-old said: “Very Good” and my 7-year-old said “I liked it because of all the explosions”. I think that about wraps it up really.