I’m a fan of animated movies and James Corden. When I saw the trailer for “Peter Rabbit” and recognized Corden’s voice in the animated movie, I was excited. I expected the movie to be cute and comical, but probably not very deep or meaningful, which is the case for many animated films.

This movie met my standards — which weren’t set too high.

“Peter Rabbit” (2018) follows the storyline of the classic Peter Rabbit books by Beatrix Potter. The family of rabbits — Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter — and their cousin, Benjamin Bunny, create mischeif by sneaking into Mr. McGregor’s garden and stealing his food. When McGregor dies, the rabbits think they’ve hit the jackpot. Their fun is soon spoiled with McGregor’s distant relative Thomas moves into the house. As Thomas becomes closer to their human-friend Bea, Peter struggles to accept their new relationship. A war is waged between Thomas and Peter for not only the garden, but Bea’s attention.

The overall plot was extremely predictable, but since this is a family movie, I wasn’t expecting some dramatic plot twist at the end. The acting was fairly decent, especially considering that for most of the movie, the actors had to pretend that their CGI rabbit co-stars were real.

While some parts of the movie were funny, it felt like the humor was forced in many scenes. It is important, though, to consider that the movie is aimed towards children and families. There was adult humor dispersed throughout the movie and sly jabs at controversial topics, which I appreciated, but has caused media backlash. The film addresses deeper topics than most animated movies do, such as the death of parents and the struggle of accepting loneliness and pain.

Overall, ‘”Peter Rabbit” is a cute and heartwarming movie that was enjoyable, but not one I’d see multiple times.

3/5 stars

Chelsea Tyler is a senior English and communication studies double major. This review reflects the views of the author only.