There's plenty of slapstick action to keep the young ones giggling (and some good gags for the oldies as well) but the carrots are planted rather shallow here and any semblance of plot-depth cough and splutter with mixed results.
Quite charming in parts and yet annoyingly episodic, the film attempts addressing issues such as "ownership" — the vegetable patch providing the film with a weak allegory about "living together" and "sharing" to which recent contemporaries, such as the superb Paddington, handled with far more heart.
Instead, Peter Rabbit becomes surprisingly spiteful in parts, to the point where you're not too sure who you're supposed to be rooting for and I suspect some of the young'uns might find the film's complex moral compass a little disorientating.
Peter Rabbit's attempt to appeal to the widest possible audience is understandable when you consider the generational appeal of the source material.
However, it can't quite contain all it surveys and the result is a rollercoaster ride of good and bad, making the whole experience rather flat. Call me a vegetable patch fence-sitter but the dust is still settling on this one.
Peter Rabbit
Director: Will Gluck
Cast: James Corden, Rose Byrne, Domhnall Gleeson, Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, Sam Neill
Running time: 94 minutes
Rating: PG | violence
