From the outset, Peter Rabbit takes great pains to tell the audience that it is not the old-fashioned whimsical Beatrix Potter film it might expect, which in many respects proves to be a mistake. Unlike Paddington, this film fails to nail a consistent tone, making it a rather odd experience, from its anachronistic modern pop soundtrack to shoehorning in modern filmic motifs (e.g. from an action team slo-mo/training montage to an R&B song to a mid-credits scene and even a peculiar bit of fourth-wall breaking), together with a script that veers from pathos to pantomime. Rose Byrne is chirpy, Domhnall Gleeson plays the antagonist with comedic effectiveness, but the performances also exhibit the wild swings insisted upon by the wayward script that also sometimes lacks internal logic in the presentation of human/rabbit relationships. The CG animals are superbly integrated into the action, but the inconsistencies undermine the potential charm, making Peter Rabbit more of a generic modern children's/animated film in style.
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