Beatrix Potter’s children’s books may have been out of copyright since 2014, but that’s no excuse for this manure-scented take on her best-known tale. Using a crass mix of CGI and live action, this version bastardises her trickster bunny, reimagining him as a smirking “young rabbit in a blue coat, with no pants”.
Peter (James Corden) seems to take his cues from The Inbetweeners Movie, shoving a carrot into Old Mr McGregor’s bum and staging a vegetable garden heist set to Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP’s We No Speak Americano.
Every “joke” is explained witheringly (“I’m whimsical and hilarious!” Domhnall Gleeson’s Young Mr McGregor doth protest too much), and there is no real story, just a series of dated song cues, geographically confused set pieces and a subplot involving Harrods that try to conjure an exportable vision of Britishness dreamed up by an LA studio exec.
