#Beatrix potter rabbit movie
#Beatrix potter rabbit full

Most would write that dangerously close-call off as a win and go home but not Peter. Peter temporarily manages to escape being the main course of the McGregor’s dinner that evening but in his state of heightened desperation, he loses his clothing and ends up having no clue where the hell he is. At first, it seems like Peter might get away with it, but he’s gluttonous and winds up needing to find parsley to help cure his stomach ache. Peter’s sisters wisely heed their mother’s advice and head off to safely pick blackberries elsewhere, but, like (or perhaps because of) his late father before him, Peter can’t resist trying to get some of the good eats growing in McGregor’s garden. He’s more Artful Dodger than he is Oliver, which means that he’s not a goody-two-shoes or a bore, but also that he’s not exactly admirable either. Like Bugs Bunny, his charm is derivative of his ability to wriggle out of a bad situation not his intentions. This is both understandable and important to keep in mind when considering Peter Rabbit as a character. They take what they can and concern themselves only with mortal consequences. The moral vectors of the story are interesting in that the Rabbit family does not ever really consider the problems with stealing. In a non-Marxist reading, he might best be described as a very bad dude. McGregor is a full-on sociopath who, in a Marxist reading, would be described as being engaged in the suppression of the disenfranchised. There’s a reason Peter’s mom warns him early on that he and his sisters better not steal food from McGregor’s garden. The antagonists are engaged in a battle of wits with life itself at stake. The titular bunny doesn’t just have a fraught relationship with Mr. Peter Rabbit, the book, has a sort of zany nihilism that people seem to forget on account of the nice illustrations and the general cultural amnesia on plot points. If Peter is the main character of the story, it would be fair to say that death, perpetually peaking out from behind thorny bushes, gets second billing. And it only gets more Mad Max-ian from there. Peter’s dad, it is clear on page one, has been eaten in a pie. Beatrix Potter had a charming name and could do wonders with watercolors, but she didn’t exactly have a rosy worldview.

#Beatrix potter rabbit full

Like many classic kid’s books, Peter Rabbit is dark, cruel, and full of ominous portent.

#Beatrix potter rabbit movie

And, yes, the film may be a ham-fisted attempt to update a beloved classic, but anyone who claims the movie somehow sullies the saccharine purity of Beatrix Potter’s book clearly hasn’t read it. The new live-action Peter Rabbit movie, which hit American theaters last week, has received mixed reviews from both critics and the sorts of parents who take to Twitter as the credits roll.