Peter Rabbit (2018)

[LotsoA113]

The trailer for the new Peter Rabbit movie is so bad it defies comprehension. What in the name of God is this garbage???

[Dacey]

Compared to the trailer for The Star, this looks like Citizen Kane, actually.

Also, Peter looks exactly as he did in the book illustrations.

[Ben]

As a huge fan of Beatrix Potter from, like basically, before I could properly read (and having it, as with so many British kids, wired into our DNA), I was so worried they would **** this up.

And, yeah. They have so truly and royally ****** Peter Rabbit with this.

Potter must be turning in her grave. At least Paddington, to use the nearest comparison, retained a charm and tone in keeping with Michael Bond's books. This simply takes Potter's watercolors and pastel, pastoral scenes and reduces them to lowest common denominator garish CGI.

So it's got better rendering than The Star. Big deal. Such a shame that this will be the Peter Rabbit a generation of kids grow up with now.

[Randall]

I thought you guys were over-reacting.... until I actually watched the trailer.

Oh. My. Lord.

There is just... no reason for this.

Why even name it after Potter's creation?

[Ben]

I think the estate of Beatrix Potter has made it clear that they don't care about the quality of her legacy with that awful Nickelodeon series they licensed a while back. At least Peter is actually English this time, even if it is bland man-of-the-moment and zero-nuance voice "talent" Corden.

Yet another Sony Animation film I'll be passing on (out of the big three or four studios, they are the only ones that I haven't got all of their animated output, and this even after sticking with the Ice Ages!).

[EricJ]

The trailer for the new Peter Rabbit movie is so bad it defies comprehension. What in the name of God is this garbage???

If it was British, it would be as snarkily "clever" about dismissing its material* as Paddington--
But no, this is Sony in the good ol' USA, who discovered in the 10's that Childrens-Book titles sell CGI and "Open Season" doesn't, so just rewrite your Chris Rock hip-critter characters into Beatrix Potter, court the parents, and make those bookstore tie-in deals.
After last summer, we're in the Sony Deathwatch stage, and every time they try to keep the Animation division flagging as their last corporate hope, the betting heats up.

(* - Well, okay, the "A rabbit without pants" joke would be hip/self-aware common in both countries.)

[Dacey]

Wait, Paddingdon was "snarky"?

Did I see a different movie or something?

And I tend to like Cordon in a Russell Brand kind of way. But he might be better suited for supporting comic relief than leading man (er, bunny in this case).

[EricJ]

Wait, Paddingdon was "snarky"?
Did I see a different movie or something?

"Dismissively self-aware quirky", then, from British writers who wanted to distance themselves from "kiddy tea-time", and "apologize" to the grownup parents in the theater by playing the source half-faithful, half-hip:
I could have done with a little less of the fourth-wall narrating street band for stylistic-cleverness's sake, or the deconstructionist need to make the Browns more of a "modern" dysfunctional London family.
(And you don't have to be a new Doctor Who fan to cringe at seeing Peter Capaldi's Mr. Curry reduced to comedy villain-lackey.)

And I tend to like Cordon in a Russell Brand kind of way. But he might be better suited for supporting comic relief than leading man (er, bunny in this case).

And Russell Brand only brings up bad memories of "HOP", which pretty well emphasizes how much other US studios have had only one image of mainstream CGI comedy ever since Eddie Murphy played Donkey.
I could imagine a more literate Brit-comic of the week doing a witty fast-talking Peter, but a "Brand-like" wiseass because he wants to outsmart his enemy?....No. I'd hasten to add "Oh, dear gods, no. "