Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway: Film Review

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway: Film Review

Cast: James Corden, Domnhall Gleeson, Rose Byrne, Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki

Director: Will Gluck 

Almost two years to the day since the first release, Beatrix Potter's rambunctious rabbit is back in a tale that revels more in his mischievous ways but sidelines many of the original characters.

Heading back to the rolling green fields of England and opening with the wedding of Gleeson's McGregor and Byrne's Bea, the second outing for the rabbit concentrates more on the notion of Peter struggling with his identity in the new world.

Whereas before, Peter was the tearaway who stole from the gardens, it's a fragile peace between Peter and McGregor. However, when a suave publisher (David Oyelowo, upping the sonorous tones and playing on his good guy reputation) tells Bea she could make more money from future rabbit books by modernising the story, the calm is shattered.

And things are further fragmented when Peter, looking to return to his rapscallion ways, falls in with a gang, led by the Fagin-like Barnabas (Lennie James), who has his eye on one big score, and who claims to have known who Peter's dad was.

There's a message of being true to yourself strewn casually through Peter Rabbit 2, but it's slightly lost in the somewhat more chaotic edges of an undercooked script.

Most of the rest of the cast are sidelined in this frivolous story, and the script's the worst for it by jettisoning them out of the picture and gifting them only one-liners or nonsense non-sequiturs within.

That's not to say that Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway doesn't have moments that amuse.

In among a contemporary soundtrack that meshes up the Ting Tings with Green Day via the vocals of a singing squirrel, there are moments that expand any potential Beatrix Potter Cinematic Universe (via way of one particularly amusing Avengers-style team-up) and proffer a few laughs.

Having the script make nods to its own meta edges is fine, but that's not enough to keep the adults in the audience amused (even if the kids will be) and while the heist overtones of Peter Rabbit 2 are engagingly presented, they're not quite enough to keep all ages amused during the 93 minutes.

Gleeson dials up the pratfalls, Corden dials up the annoying edges of Peter Rabbit and Margot Robbie and Elizabeth Debicki are disappointingly dialled back in the occasionally disjointed and jarring proceedings.

The cuteness and sweetness of the original Beatrix Potter stories have been jettisoned here for more of a caper; for purists already enraged by the first film, this will be the final nail in the coffin in the treatment of their heroes' world. 

Younger kids may enjoy the knockabout nature of Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, but for adults, this Covid-delayed sequel isn't quite the Easter bunny you'd want to see this time of the year.