Peter Rabbit (2018)
Taking Beatrix Potter's genteel little watercolours and turning them into a wisecracking, action-scored family romp was always going to be a gamble, and Will Gluck's Peter Rabbit lands somewhere in the awkward middle. Not a disaster, not a triumph. Just a very expensive, very polished shrug.
On a purely visual level, mind, it is lovely. The CGI rabbits are beautifully rendered, the whole film carries a bright, expensive sheen, and the blend of animation and live action is genuinely seamless. I did keep wondering, though, whether a straight, old-school hand-drawn take might have served Potter better than all this modern gloss. There is a warmer, simpler film hiding somewhere behind the polish, one that might have actually felt like it belonged in the same world as those watercolours rather than alongside every other loud, quick-cut kids' blockbuster of the last decade.
My real trouble is the voice at the centre of it. James Corden is, to my ears, a grating screen presence at the best of times, and as Peter he is precisely the wrong flavour of smug and shrill. The character wants charm and mischief and instead gets a smirk. There is a lightness this role needed, something closer to a Daniel Radcliffe or a Tom Holland, someone who can do roguish without tipping into irritating. Instead, Peter spends the whole runtime mildly getting on your nerves, which for a Peter Rabbit is close to fatal.
The humans do their level best to haul things back up. Rose Byrne is genuinely warm and funny, and Domhnall Gleeson is a long way from the chilly, controlled work I admired in Ex Machina, gamely hurling himself at the slapstick with a commitment that goes well beyond what a by-the-numbers kids' film strictly demands. He is, quietly, the best thing in it. Even Margot Robbie turns up in the voice cast, which gives you some sense of the budget and ambition behind the whole enterprise. Shame that ambition didn't stretch to casting the lead.
Their effort only carries you so far. The script keeps reaching for that sweet spot between something kids will love and something parents can actually enjoy, and it finds it occasionally, in flashes, before lurching back into chaos. There is a manic quality to the action sequences that feels less like fun and more like a film terrified of losing your attention for even thirty seconds. Potter's world was built on quiet and stillness and gentle humour. None of those are qualities this film has much time for.
But here is the thing that genuinely rescues it from a lower rating: children absolutely adore this film. Mine certainly did, giggling the whole way through without pause. And there is real credit due for that. A kids' film that actually works on kids is not as common as it ought to be. The best ones, the ones I have a soft spot for, like A Goofy Movie, manage to work on multiple levels at once. Peter Rabbit mostly doesn't manage that, but it lands where it needs to land most.
For everyone else it is handsome, harmless and almost instantly forgettable, which makes it about as tidy a two-and-a-half-star film as you could hope to find. Not a waste of an afternoon. Not something you'll be thinking about by Monday.
Two and a half stars.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2018 | Watched: 2026-08-14
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Sky Go · Now TV Cinema
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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