Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway

image for Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway

Short takes

Parental guidance under 5 (violence and themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway
  • a review of Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 30 March 2021.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Parental guidance recommended due to themes and violence.
Children aged 5 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Very mild themes and violence
Length: 93 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

When Bea (Rose Byrne) and Mr McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) get married, Peter (voice of James Cordon) still harbours some resentment but tries his best to stay in line and help others stick to the rules. However, no matter what happens, Peter seems to be blamed for whatever goes wrong. When Bea’s books become noticed by a fancy publisher, they highlight Peter as the bad seed and, much to Peter’s dismay, everyone seems to think that this is a fine fit. Feeling misunderstood and uncared for, Peter heads off on his own where he meets Barnabas (voice of Lennie James), a street rabbit masquerading as an old friend of his father’s. Peter decides that if everyone thinks he is bad he may as well act like it and he helps Barnabas and his friends raid a family’s kitchen. The street gang is suitably impressed by Peter’s abilities and enlists his help to pull off a really big farmers market heist. In order to make it work, Peter must bring in his family but when things go wrong and Peter’s family is captured his new friends reveal their true colours and Peter must turn to an unlikely source to help set things right.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Being mislabelled and misunderstood; Being exploited; Animal distress; Running away.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Peter fantasises about attacking Mr McGregor during the wedding vows. He repeatedly punches, kicks and wrestles him until he becomes entangled in a bunch of balloons and is carries off into the sky.
  • Animals punch each other in the face and are thrown into the air.
  • Peter smashes a woman in the face with a refrigerator door and then blasts her with champagne.
  • Two humans chase and attack Peter and Barnabas, attempting to hit and whack them with brooms.
  • Mr. McGregor punches Nigel in the face.
  • The animals attack the famers at the market, taking them out one by one: using oil slicks; spices in the face; knocking them out with scales; slamming into their legs; smashing them with hard loaves of bread; and trapping them under wheels of cheese.
  • The hedgehog uses her prickles like flying daggers.
  • A moose is having his head measured to be mounted on a wall.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Some of the street cats look and act really mean. They try to convince Peter to kill a pig but it turns out they are joking. Peter is initially distressed by the thought and tries desperately to backpedal out of the situation.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • It is unlikely that children between the ages of five to eight would be frightened by this film.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Except for the stories of Beatrix Potter, no product placement was noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Bea and Mr McGregor kiss at their wedding.
  • A young boy and girl at the farmers market appear to like one another.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Cottontail discovers jellybeans and experiences repeated sugar highs. The candy is likened to a drug.

Coarse language

  • None noted.

In a nutshell

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway is an animated adventure based on the characters in Beatrix Potter’s beloved children stories. While the plot is predictable, the animation is excellent and the film is likely to be enjoyed by its target audience of young children, though parental guidance is recommended for children under 5 due to themes and violence.

The main messages from this movie are that families come in all shapes and sizes and that you should always believe in yourself and in the power of your dreams.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Taking responsibility for your actions and especially for your mistakes.
  • Teamwork.
  • Courage.
  • Forgiveness.
  • The importance of family.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Running away.
  • Constantly criticising someone without truly understanding what they are doing or where they are coming from.
  • Trading your integrity for flashy cars or material gain.