Peter Rabbit
Transformation of character and plot twist is, without a doubt, one of the ways of making interesting and engaging movies, at least according to words from great writers, producers, and professors in film schools. Diverting from normal behavior and expectation is always a mystery that makes human life interesting. One of the movies that exploit this phenomenon in its production is Peter Rabbit, a computer-animated and action comedy movie released on February 9th, 2018, in the United States. The movie is directed by Will Gluck, produced by Zareh Nalbandian, and written by Rob Lieber under the Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation production companies (Sari et al., 2019). The movie shows the rabbits Peter Rabbit, his cousin Benjamin Bunny and Peter’s triplet sisters Mopsy, Flopsy, and Cottontail planning and eventually stealing Mr. McGregor’s vegetables. These rabbits torment Mr. McGregor, who goes no to set traps to catch them. He eventually catches Peter, who had gone to get vegetables from his farm, but in that process, Mr. McGregor dies of a heart attack due to his unhealthy lifestyle. The farm and its manor are inherited by Mr. Thomas, who is McGregor’s great nephew who is previously a workaholic at Harrods where fails to get a promotion, gets ballistic, and indifferent on hearing his great uncle’s death. He agrees to inherit his great uncle’s manor with the intentions of selling it, but while setting it up for sell, he has a rough encounter with the rabbits who are trying to steal the vegetables and a love affair with Bea, who loves the rabbits and asks him not to kill them. Mr. Thomas has a deep altercation with Peter’ rabbit and the other rabbits that think he is stealing away Bea, and in the process, their tree bunker and part of Mrs. Bea’s glasshouse gets destroyed by a dynamite explosion. This incident ends Thomas and Bea’s relationships, and peter rabbit sets out to help rebuild the relationship again.
The character that goes through transformation is mainly Peter Rabbit, who, throughout the movie, is against the humans that deter him and his family of animals from entering and stealing Mr. McGregor’s vegetables. He purports to the group’s leader and egocentrically makes decisions for them that, at times, put them in danger. He hates McGregor because he killed his father and feel happy when he died of a heart attack. He is majorly a sadist that tries to make Thomas, the new owner of the manor, life unbearable even when Thomas had claimed to had changed. He sets traps that electrocute him, blames him for destroying Bea’s house.
Peter Rabbit went through a transformation when he had blown the dynamites that Thomas had put in their burrow. He was intentionally blowing the dynamites so that Bea could know how evil Thomas was and stop loving him (Stables, 2018). However, the dynamites end up blowing their burrow that leaves them homeless, as well as Mrs. Bea’s paintings of them. This incident ends Thomas and Bea’s relationship, and that’s when it dawns on Peter Rabbit that he had made a blunder that needed to be changed. The scene showing the transformation is when Peter Rabbit is in the house, speaking to his parents’ painting and telling them how he had messed up. He then goes forward to explain to his siblings and Bunny that he had failed them and had to do something about it. The major obstacle he has to overcome in the transformation is having to go to London and convince Thomas that he needs to come back to the countryside and reunite with Bea. He also has to overcome Bea’s intentions of leaving. The transformation can be explained by Aristotle’s recognition phenomenon where peter rabbit internally recognized his mistakes and decided to change. This aspect is because his character changed after his thoughts, feelings, and impressions had changed (Lawtoo, 2018). The character teaches the viewers about self-intelligence and controlling emotions because he let his urge for vengeance ruin his home and Bea’s home.
This film has many incidents that create catharsis in viewers, especially when Peter has succeeded in uniting Thomas and Bea, and they are now living happily amongst them as friends (Lawtoo, 2018). The main lesson people can learn from the character and transformation is that hatred and vengeance can blind you from even understanding that you’re harming yourself. The destruction of their burrow, Bea’s house, and sending just shows the adverse effects of hatred and vengeance on an individual. This character relates to some incidents in my life where my emotions took control of me and caused bigger damage than expected. I can use the movie’s lessons to control my emotions and compromise with people even when it is not a popular option.
References
Lawtoo, N. (2018). Violence and the Mimetic Unconscious (Part One): The Cathartic Hypothesis: Aristotle, Freud, Girard. Contagion, 25, 159-192.
Sari, I. P., Emmiyati, N., & Asnur, S. M. (2019). IMPOLITENESS STRATEGIES IN PETER RABBIT MOVIE. English and Literature Journal, 6(2), 222-237.
Stables, K. (2018). Peter Rabbit. 71-71