The New Adventures of Peter Rabbit (1995) Online

Peter Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit in Beatrix Potter's books. As a character, he is best known wearing a jacket and shoes. As the copyright for the book expired some time after its release, various adaptations of The Tale of Peter Rabbit have been made. But if there's anything I can't understand about some of those adaptations, that is some of them depict Peter without shoes. And this show is one of them. I wonder why? Even the 2012 Nick Jr. series has a similar style. Could it be that the shoes Peter wears in the original books are invisible to some readers which is why they made him shoeless in some adaptations? I don't know why but there's certainly nothing wrong in giving him footwear. It's either the omission is purposely done or those who seen the books need their eyes check. This show is certainly a disappointing rendition of the character.

I actually say this as someone who has enjoyed most of Golden Films' animations. The New Adventures of Peter Rabbit didn't work for me in the same way Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio, The Night Before Christmas and The Three Musketeers. It is better though than The Jungle King and Anastasia. I am well aware from the word new in the title that this was not an adaptation of Beatrix Potter's timeless story, and I wasn't expecting that. And The New Adventures of Peter Rabbit certainly has its good points. The animation is mostly bright and colourful, especially the background art. The music is really lovely, the title song is very catchy and helped by the cheery vocals while the classical music choices, including Dvorak's Humoreske, Offenbach's Can Can, Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream Scherzo, Rossini's Largo Al Factotum, and Borodin's Polotsvian Dances, are well chosen. There were also some little quirks I liked, such as Peter's ear twitching when he lied, Peter's little patter song in the garden and the "you're a liar" bickering exchange. However, the character designs could have done with being less crude sometimes, and the voice acting was mixed, the rabbit that sounded that Christine Cavanaugh was quite nice but I personally would have preferred a younger-sounding voice for Peter. The dialogue has its witty parts but I would have loved to have seen a little more of the simple charm and childhood innocence that made Beatrix Potter's original stories such a delight, that way for a character that originated from her Golden Films would have stuck to her storytelling in spirit. The story is sweet but also too thin with scenes in the middle that seemed rather padded out. So all in all, disappointing but not bad still. 5/10 Bethany Cox

First off, I want to state that this is not an adaptation, hence the title The New Adventures of Peter Rabbit. With that said, I find the whole thing to be very charming on the whole. The story is charming, droll, simple, and sweet, just like the book and others in the series such as Benjamin Bunny, Squirrel Nutkin, Jeremy Fisher, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Two Bad Mice, and Tom Kitten. Add to that the fact that the animation is colourful and whimsical and like the Beatrix Potter books has good lessons without feeling preachy. The songs, while not masterpieces, are very enjoyable, and some parts are very funny such as when Peter's sisters (although I was under the impression that he had three rather than four) are trying to warn he and Benjamin of Mr McGregor's cat and they think it's a prank, when Benjamin says that Mopsy needs to lose weight before getting stuck in the fence, Mr McGregor's quips about rabbit stew, and the "rabbit inspector" joke, to name but a few. In addition to the songs, there is also some very lovely background music. I was able to recognize Papageno's entrance from The Magic Flute in the background during the scene where they meet Fluff and the Russian Dance from the Nutcracker when Benjamin is about to be cooked. All in all, not the best thing ever but I enjoy it.