Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway

As Peter Rabbit falls in with the criminal underworld of Gloucester, the Beatrix Potter brand is thrown out with the bath water.

Bunny chop: Peter Rabbit (voiced by James Corden) gives Thomas McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) what for on his wedding day

Back in 1986 there was a public uproar over the bastardisation of Peter Rabbit by Ladybird Books, that cherished mainstay of children’s literature. The original watercolour illustrations by Beatrix Potter were substituted with photographs of stuffed puppets, while the author’s delicate prose was replaced with bland language. Richard Hough, the husband of Miss Potter’s biographer Judy Taylor, cried, “It is an outrage – a prostitution of the original.” That was then.

Thirty-two years later, Sony Pictures Animation, in collaboration with Screen Australia, released a film version in which animated editions of Peter, Flopsy Rabbit, Mopsy Rabbit and all interacted with human actors against a vista of New South Wales scenery. It was a charmless, madcap affair and grossed over $351 million worldwide. The inevitable sequel (Beatrix Potter wrote a lot of stories), was meant to blast out of its warren in February of last year, but has been delayed until now, the better to recoup its costs. And for those hoping that this Peter Rabbit follow-up was going to pull a Paddington 2 out of its hat will be sorely disappointed. It is worse.

After a jarring prologue in which Peter and the other animals attack the guests at the wedding of Bea and Thomas McGregor (Rose Byrne and Domhnall Gleeson) – which turns out to be a reverie of Peter’s making – the film settles down to its bizarre plot. Bea’s literary account of the animals that share her garden in the Lake District – which she illustrates herself – attracts the attention of a publisher in Gloucester, Nigel Basil-Jones (a smarmy David Oyelowo). She sees it as a chance to promote the harmony of man and nature; Nigel Basil-Jones sees it more as an opportunity to launch a franchise. And so what was originally a simple concept designed to appeal to the young at heart is turned into a marketing blitz, complete with such merchandise as Peter Rabbit backpacks and Bunny Puffs breakfast cereal. Bea is even persuaded to set her next story in outer space, which she seems prepared to do. But then this is a writer who can only name one novel by Charles Dickens. So, following the degradation of Peter Rabbit, we now have the humiliation of Potter herself (Bea McGregor being a modern-day embodiment of the author). Meanwhile, while the McGregors pop down to Gloucester to finalise the paperwork, Peter Rabbit falls in with a gang of thieves and the film is given a Guy Ritchie makeover.

Much play is made of the merchandising angle, as if to excuse the film’s own exploitation of the Beatrix Potter brand. In fact, The Runaway is constantly apologising for itself. Following Peter’s domestic assault on a Gloucester housewife – recalling the farcical brutality of Home Alone – Peter quips, “I may be terrible at foreign languages, but I’m great at cartoon violence.”

There is also an air of desperation about the comic antics, reaching its nadir with a slow-witted stag called Felix D’eer. With the encouragement of the other creatures, Felix perches on a roof overlooking a Farmers’ Market, where Peter and co plan to raid a dried fruit stall. And this is before the deer takes off on a parachute. One is also expected to swallow that the McGregors can pop into Gloucester from Windermere twice a day, even though – in reality – Gloucester is over 200 miles away. Ah, reality. When Peter starts talking to Thomas McGregor in English, the man is only momentarily taken aback. Of course, the film’s core audience will no doubt take this in their stride, along with the three-and-a-half hours it takes to drive to Gloucester. However, even a fantasy needs some grounding in reality.

Brand appeal is a double-edged sword. And this cultural appropriation cuts to the quick. Our cultural landscape is bloodied with such pillage, from the Broadway musical The Wiz to Burr Steers' baffling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Anything beloved from our childhood seems prey for reinvention. What really stings here, though, is the film’s knowing cynicism, dipping its hand in the candy jar while winking conspiratorially at the viewer. But even this might have been forgivable had the film betrayed an ounce of wit, sense or originality.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Rose Byrne, Domhnall Gleeson, David Oyelowo; with the voices of  Elizabeth Debicki, Lennie James, Margot Robbie, James Corden, Colin Moody, Damon Herriman, Hayley Atwell, Aimee Horne, Sia, Sam Neill, Ewen Leslie, Tim Minchin, Taryn Gluck.

Dir Will Gluck, Pro Will Gluck, Zareh Nalbandian, Catherine Bishop and Jodi Hildebrand, Screenplay Will Gluck and Patrick Burleigh, Ph Peter Menzies Jr, Pro Des Roger Ford, Ed Matt Villa, Music Dominic Lewis, Costumes Lizzy Gardiner, Dialect coach Charmian Gradwell.

Columbia Pictures/Animal Logic/MRC/2.0 Entertainment/Olive Bridge Entertainment-Sony Pictures
93 mins. Australia/UK/India/USA/Canada. 2020. Rel: 17 May 2021. Cert. U.