Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 30, 2021

Director Will Gluck (Easy A, Annie) follows up on his 2018 live action/digital hybrid family film Peter Rabbit with Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, a story that explores tired contemporary themes of identity, purpose, and belonging. It's not a bad film, but it's best enjoyed as a light diversion rather than as a serious bit of cinema art.

Things are changing fast in Peter Rabbit's (voiced by James Corden) world. Bea (Rose Byrne) and Thomas (Domhnall Gleeson) are getting married. Peter is also the star of Bea's new book all about him and his friends, which has become a local, self-published success. However, Bea and Thomas are approached by a big-time book publisher named Nigel Basil-Jones (David Oyelowo) who wants to bring Bea on board and run with the series, promising her full artistic license but gradually manipulating her to make changes to the material in order to sell more books, including painting Peter as a villain. Thomas in particular is all for that; he sees Peter more as a pest than a friend. Discouraged with his literary portrayal and Thomas' attitude, Peter runs off and finds himself mixed up with a mysterious rabbit named Barnabas (voiced by Lennie James) who talks Peter into participating in a scheme to steal dried fruit from a farmer's market.

Peter Rabbit 2 offers a fairly unimaginative follow-up to the original and follows two distinct plots: Peter's adventures after feeling "dissed" by the various humans in and around his life and the story following Bea's quest to publish her book. The main story is the main draw, of course, which sees Peter meeting up with an old family friend (supposedly) and getting himself mixed up in a scheme to steal from a local farmer's market. It's an empty plot if there ever was one, simply allowing for gathering more variety of talking animals on the screen and pulling off the film's big action scene. It also allows Peter to grow, of course, as he comes to realize the truth about Barnabas, his role in the heist, and how he truly feels towards Thomas, Bea, and all of his friends. While the superficialities may differ, the plot simply circles back to a basic opportunity for self reflection and growth that is about as generic as it gets.

The secondary plot is a bit more interesting (and more geared towards the adults in the audience), and it involves the widescale publication of Bea's books, transitioning from a small individual printing and binding to her work with a seemingly friendly, but obviously nefarious, publisher who doesn't care about Bea's artistic vision for the series but rather the best way to capitalize on the material and make money off of it. It's his vision of Peter as something of a "villain" that propels the rabbit's run from the world he's known. This plot line is fairly transparent -- the audience can see Nigel's scheming from the moment the character is introduced -- but there's enough dramatic interest at play to keep the parents occupied in the midst of the otherwise straightforward story focusing on Peter's distance from the ones he loves.

The film's technical construction is first-rate. The digital elements seamlessly integrate into the live action footage, so much so that even when human characters are holding digital ones the sense of volume and movement appears seamless. The characters look terrific, down to the last hair and clothing stitch, and the world around them is authentically flavorful, particularly the farmer's market where the film's big action scene takes place later on in the story. The voice work is excellent; the actors bring big personality to these small characters and these vocal contributions, as much if not more so than the digital work, are key to bringing the movie to believable, and agreeable, life.

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway hops onto Blu-ray with a highly proficient 1080p transfer. The digitally sourced picture is clear and crisp, exquisitely detailed considering both real and digital characters alike. Environments are tack-sharp for the duration, revealing exceptionally clean and well defined particulars, whether natural grasses or elements of human construction. Human faces are pleasantly complex and intricately revealing, allowing the viewer to catch the fine point intimacy of pores and hairs with screen commanding ease and efficiency. Likewise, the digitally built animals offer clear and sharp elements. Fur is particularly revealing for its overall clarity and individual strand definition. Little animal clothes are likewise beautifully sharp and true. Colors are bold and expressive. These sorts of family films frequently feature such robust palettes and this is no exception. Natural greens spring to life with healthy contrast and fruitful vividness while other real-world colors on clothes and city exteriors offer pleasantly accurate output with no fiddling to oversaturate or diminish output. Colorful rabbit clothes leap off the screen as well. Black levels hold serve, whites are crisp, and skin tones are authentic. The picture suffers from minimal noise and next to no obvious compression related issues. This is practically a picture perfect Blu-ray from Sony.

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sony brings Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway to Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack; the companion UHD features a Dolby Atmos presentation. The 5.1 track is certainly sufficient for the film's audio needs. It is not a meager track, but the sound design is not one of greater power and authority, either. It offers a well defined, if not often only essential, sound field, doing well to offer pleasantly spaced and detailed music along the front with mild supportive surround implementation; heavy subwoofer output is not necessary to deliver the score, but there is of course enough depth to carry the bottom end to satisfaction. Gentle environmental effects help to better define various scenes with well balanced volume and sound placement around the listener. A few more pointed elements play with excellent stage coverage, such as when one of the rabbits gets a "sugar rush" and bounces around a train car, hitting discrete spatial locations here, there, and everywhere. Dialogue is clear, front-center oriented, and well defined throughout the film.

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway incudes several kid-friendly extras and a making-of. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

• Bunnies, Baddies, and the Big City: The Making of Peter Rabbit 2 (1080p, 9:18): Exploring the cast and characters, making a "bigger and more special" sequel, sets and locations, crafting key scenes, digital character designs, and story themes.
• Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle's Wee Little Kitchen (1080p, 4:59): Making a micro-sized pie in Tiggy-Winkle's kitchen.
• Bea's Crafting Corner: DIY Bunny Bookmarks (1080p, 4:50): Making a bunny bookmark.
• Bea's Crafting Corner: Create Your Own Woodland Terrarium (1080p, 4:36): Another film-inspired craft with instructions to build a small habitat for plants and small critters.
• Fun from Peter Rabbit (1080p): Includes another craft video and a short film. Included are Make Your Own McGregor Garden (17:03), a piece instructing families on how to build their own garden (with additional trivia, facts, and interviews with cast), and Flopsy Turvy: A Peter Rabbit Mini Movie (4:00), a short film focusing on Cottontail, Mopsy, and Flopsy.
• Previews (1080p, various runtimes): Additional Sony titles.

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway delivers perfectly serviceable family entertainment. The film is not particularly big on legitimate laughs -- especially for the adults in the crowd -- but children will eat up the familiar, yet friendly, antics and animation. Sony's Blu-ray is very good. The 1080p video is excellent, the 5.1 lossless soundtrack is up to par, and the included supplements are mostly tailored to the kiddos. Recommended.