Formula: (Peter Rabbit - Daisy Ridley) * Josie & The Pussycats * Ocean's 11
Let me state the obvious and say that the Peter Rabbit movies are in no way targeted toward me. I'm a bottom tier demographic they are targeting. These are children's movies with children’s jokes and children's complexity. When it comes to ways to get me into a movie theater though, casting Rose Byrne and Domhnall Gleason is a great start. Byrne is probably my biggest celebrity crush and Gleason is my reigning favorite actor*. In addition to them, there's a stacked voice cast including Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, and Hayley Atwell. It is disappointing to see Daisy Ridley replaced with Aimee Horne. Not devastating though. David Oyelowo hams it up in a human role too. From casting alone, Peter Rabbit remains the champagne of children's movies.
*Again, I should clarify that "favorite" doesn't mean that I think he's the best. It's more about presence and ability to pick projects I like.
The story is a somewhat meta take on the franchise. Peter (James Corden) and the other animals have mostly made peace with Tom McGregor (Gleason) who is happily married to Bea (Byrne). They run a shop in town now. Bea has self-published the Peter Rabbit book which has interest from a major publisher in the form of executive Nigel Basil-Jones (Oyelowo). He immediately starts suggesting changes to the book series. Most notably, he wants to market Peter as "The Bad Seed", which Peter takes personally. As a result, Peter gets involved with some, well, bad seeds in town. They set up a heist for a local farmers market. Will Peter see the error of his ways before it's too late? Will Bea and Tom resist the allure of publishing riches at the expense of artistic integrity? You'll have to watch the movie to know, but yes. Yes to all of that. This is a kid’s movie. They aren't reinventing the wheel here.
The movie has a lot of the over-the-top humor of the first movie. Several more CGI Domhnall Gleasons get very hurt. Peter makes numerous self-aware quips. Cotton-Tail discovers jelly-beans. It's all very silly and stupid in an intentional way. The children at my screening found it all very funny. This doesn't have the overwhelming goodness of a Paddington, which is a shame. Then again, I'm not convinced that kids actually like the Paddington movies. I get the sense that adults like them and actually like watching them with their kids. Peter Rabbit 2 is much more a kid’s movie that adults will put up with.
Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend
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