In this modern update of the classic children’s tales The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, Peter (James Corden), his sisters Flopsy (Margot Robbie), Mopsy (Elizabeth Debicki), and Cotton-Tail (Daisy Ridley), and their cousin Benjamin Bunny (Colin Moody) take on the next generation of the McGregor family. After the elder Mr. McGregor (Sam Neill) meets an untimely end (for which Peter morosely claims credit), this young Mr. Thomas McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) moves into his great-uncle’s house in the country with the intention of selling it. In the meantime, he has to undo the damage from the woodland creatures, who had been enjoying the place, and finds a rival in Peter, who feels territorial over both the garden and animal-loving next-door neighbor Bea (Rose Byrne.) Fans of the original tale by Beatrix Potter will recognize plenty here—the use of Peter’s jacket as a scarecrow, the elder Mr. McGregor, appearances by Jemima Puddle-Duck (a moonlighting Byrne) and of course Peter’s father’s fate in a rabbit pie—though there’s plenty of updating too, with a contemporary soundtrack that even features some adaptations made especially for the movie. One of the best sequences is a flashback about Peter’s parents, animated in the style of Potter’s original drawings, as opposed to the more lifelike animation of the present-day critters. Those drawings surface again in the diversionary artwork of Byrne’s other character, the enjoyable and live-action Bea (surely a reference to Potter’s first name), who loves the wildlife, particularly the rabbits, and thinks that Peter is sweet and innocent. It’s unfortunate that in this adaptation, Peter Rabbit crosses the line from brazen, rebellious little rabbit to outright jerk. He lies, takes his vendetta way too far before the narrative recognizes it, brags constantly, and is mean to sweet Benjamin Bunny, his cousin and partner in crime. There are so many magnetic characters in the animal world—his sweet, dumb, dutiful cousin; the refined pig who can’t help but pig out; the faux-vicious party animal fox; scene-stealing confused hedgehog Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (Sia)—but our hero isn’t one of them. There’s plenty of clever humor here—some of the best scenes are when the animals let loose on their own, whether ransacking the garden, or partying human-style in the house. A great recurring gag involves the animals incorrectly interpreting the human world based on their own experience, like when the rabbits decide that the workers in the English equivalent of a Lowes or Home Depot must be hedgehogs, because like Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, they also wear aprons. Gleeson has a rather thankless role of being the famed Mr. McGregor’s great-nephew Thomas, the cad that Peter and company mock mercilessly throughout. But Gleeson brings a level of charm and humor that is quite winning, even as we wrinkle our noses at his persnickety preferences. He pairs well with Byrne, and his odd brand of dweebishness charms the audience as well as her, from his intention to drink toilet water to his London bird-watching log, which is just the word “pigeon” over and over again. Gleeson tries rather gamely to make so many scenes with animated animals look reasonable, which is a tall order during his physical hand-to-hand fights with the bunnies. While many of the supporting characters are charming and do their best to make up for Peter, his sisters were a missed opportunity. For the first hour, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-Tail are virtually indistinguishable from one another, aside from their tiny bunny clothes and the fact that one of them is oldest (but good luck remembering which one until much later). It’s remarkable that the sisters have no defining character traits for so long, considering the amount of screen time they get, the talented actors portraying them, and how specific the characters become in the latter half of the movie, especially the delightfully weird Cotton-Tail. This feels like a mistake of editing, and a misguided belief that more arrogant/Corden-styled jokes was just the ticket, rather than fleshing out the consistently funny and charming rabbit sisters, two things Peter was not. Ultimately, there are a lot of things working in Peter Rabbit’s favor, despite its dedication to dickishness. But in a world where Coco took theaters worldwide by storm and Paddington 2 enchanted all comers, there are kinder, funnier, better animated worlds to spend your time in.