“I can’t believe they kissed!” said my 7 year old sorrowfully, after watching this trailer. And he’s their target audience.
Yes the gang are back and this time it’s all about family. Bea, played by Rose Byrne (“that’s Emma Watson” the 7 year old movie expert said confidently to me) and Thomas McGregor (Domnhall Gleeson), great-nephew of Peter Rabbit’s nemesis, old Mr McGregor, are a couple now, and they’re planning a baby.
Which leads Peter (James Corden) and his friends feeling left out. So they leave the safety of the garden, and McGregor Jnr’s deliciously succulent vegetable patch, for an adventure.
I love rabbits. As children my sisters Flopsy and Mopsy (just kidding) kept them as pets and my mother fed them to us (not the same rabbits, even though this was the 1970s and parents did things differently then).
And I quite enjoyed the first film – it was fine if not amazing.
The Runaway looks slightly better than fine, as if it’s settled into its stride. My children adored this trailer, particularly the paragliding deer (still, as in the first film, declaring “headlights!”) and while the jokes aren’t side-splitters it all looks warmly humorous.
Once again it’s very attractively shot in a mix of live action and CGI. (Like its predecessor, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway was filmed mostly in Australia – the first film presented us with some rather odd hybrid Aussie-Cumbrian accents.)
I can’t fault the cast. I know people like to hate on James Corden, but I find him perfectly fine when he’s well-cast, that is essentially playing himself. And let’s remind ourselves that Peter is a daft and bumptious yet essentially well-meaning furball.
Returning with Byrne, Gleeson and Corden are Margot Robbie as Flopsy, and Elizabeth Debicki as Mopsy. (I don’t know if Daisy Ridley is back voicing Cotton-Tail. The bunny is in the trailer, though not listed on the IMDB cast list, and the film isn’t in Ridley’s IMDB filmography.)
The film is out in Australia on 19 March, in the UK on 27 March and in the USA on 3 April. Like its predecessor, this is directed by Will Gluck.
Gleeson also voices Jeremy Fisher, and Byrne, Jemima Puddle-Duck. David Oyelowo also stars as Percy McGregor, Damon Herriman as Tom Kitten and Keegan Joyce as Benjamin Bunny.
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