Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway

Well, we know what they say about sequels... or do we?

As a child, I was a huge fan of Beatrix Potter’s incredible book series of the same name. I had a collection of a couple plush members of the family, namely Mrs Rabbit and two Flopsies (who I treasured dearly), suffice to say I was equal parts excited and nervous when the first movie in this series was released. I wondered what will they do with the classic, beloved characters for today’s generation of young children? My worries were somewhat sated when I watched that first movie a couple years ago, I thought it was fun and amusing to watch and I thought many of the gags were rather comical and entertaining. The cast was great, I, for one really enjoyed Margot Robbie, Daisy Ridley and Elizabeth Debicki as the three sisters, they were easily my favourite characters. As a result I was itching to see the newest addition to the franchise.

So, a few nights ago, I finally got my chance to watch. And I liked it. I thought it could be funny at times. Some of the jokes made me roll my eyes a bit (but in the good way, where you have a chuckle, too) and I am honest when I say that I did not expect some of those twists. Maybe with this kind of movie (read: kid’s movie) you have to lean back and watch it as it is intended to be watched. Not as some ground-breaking revolutionary Oscar-bait, but as a bit of fun for the family. It was very light-hearted, which was refreshing in today’s context, especially when so much of the media is quite heavy, even within the realm of children’s film and TV.

This film had the same kind of droll humour as the first movie. It is what sets this film apart from other kid’s movie, in my opinion.

One criticism I did have of the film was that it felt like the only character that had any depth was Peter. I found him rather annoying and I found myself wishing that we could jump to the sub-plot (if you can call it that) and revisit the other characters at least a little bit more. Rather than feeling like a whole plot, it felt like his family was more of a ‘cut-to’ set of characters, used only for jokes rather than as concrete part of the story.

Moreover, I love the stable Benjamin Bunny and it would have been downright lovely to have him have a bit more agency than was afforded to him in the first film.

Other than that, I thought the animation was really impressive and the characters were very cute. I wish I could cuddle them all!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this flick and would definitely recommend to both families and older people alike. I would definitely say this is a good film to watch for teenagers or adults that feel that today’s offerings at the cinemas are a bit dark or need a bit of a laugh!

Thank you so much for reading! xx