Starring Domnhall Gleeson , Sam Neill, Rose Byrne and  the voices of James Corden, Margot Robbie, Daisy Ridley, Elizabeth Debicki, Rachel Ward

Directed by Will Gluck

Sony, out now

When farmer McGregor (a heavily-disguised Sam Neill) drops dead from a heart attack, mischievous Peter Rabbit and his siblings believe they have full run of his house and vegetable patch, unaware that a new McGregor has plans to rid the farmstead of ‘vermin’.

This is not the Peter Rabbit of your childhood, the beautiful watercolour bunny now being a very cheeky CGI-rendered rabbit voiced by James Corden, a long way from the whimsy and charm of the originals. But what we do get is consistently entertaining and I laughed pretty much throughout as the rabbits and other Beatrix Potter favourites (a hilarious Pigling Bland and a very Northern Mrs Tiggy-Winkle) join in the mayhem.

In one party scene where the animals turn the ordered farmhouse in a pigsty, it recalls Gremlins in the cinema, and Mr Tod’s naked walk of shame had me chuckling out loud. This is a post-modern and knowing film, its narration occasionally acknowledging that it’s not that film, at times even parodying Disney musicals and hand-drawn animation. I can’t imagine Beatrix Potter writing a scene where one of her characters is trying to stick a carrot in another’s buttock cleavage, but look at the cast (Margot Robbie, Daisy Ridley, Elizabeth Debicki, Rachel Ward).

Domhnall Gleeson and Rose Byrne are the live-action human leads, but ultimately it’s all about the animals, the former being subjected to a whole series of Home Alone-style electrocutions and indignities. The poor sap even gets surrounded by rakes which smack in his face like Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons.

The ‘animals vs the farmer’ stuff is very Shaun the Sheep, with similar slapstick japery to amuse the youngsters, while adults will pick up some of the pop culture references and Easter eggs. There’s a lovely running joke of a cockerel genuinely being surprised every morning that the world hasn’t ended, and he’s one of the many characters who acts like they might have escaped from Shrek’s Far Far Away.

Verdict: Bunny ha ha. This isn’t in the same class as Paddington in translating a children’s literature classic to the big screen, but there’s enough jollity here to take the family out for an Easter treat over the holidays. 7/10

Nick Joy