FILM · 2018 · UK
Peter Rabbit
36 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (36)
- #001
Most of the live-action scenes were shot in Australia. Fortunately the rabbits were not real, since they are an introduced pest there (the country was overrun with rabbits in the 1800s) and, with very few exceptions, live rabbits could not be brought into the country.
- #002
In the 1930s, after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Walt Disney considered making an adaptation of Peter Rabbit, but author Beatrix Potter turned down the offer.
- #003
The character Bea (Rose Byrne) is based on Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit.
- #004
According to director Will Gluck, filming the live-action scenes took about 60 days, as long as a normal film shoot. Animation work began during the shoot and lasted almost 12 months; they finished only six days before the film's release, in early February 2018.
- #005
The film's development first came to light in April 2015 through email leaks resulting from the Sony Pictures hack. The film's official announcement came in December.
- #006
Half of the rabbit family is voiced by British actors and the other half by Australian actors. James Corden (Peter) and Daisy Ridley (Cotton-Tail) are British, while Margot Robbie (Flopsy) and Elizabeth Debicki (Mopsy) are Australian.
- #007
Live-action cast members Domhnall Gleeson, Rose Byrne and Sam Neill also voice some of the film's animal characters: Mr. Jeremy Fisher, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Tommy Brock, respectively.
- #008
The character Felix D'eer (voiced by Christian Gazal) did not appear in any of Beatrix Potter's original Peter Rabbit stories. He was created for this film.
- #009
Production began in December 2016. The live-action scenes were shot in Centennial Park in Sydney, Australia. In March 2017, filming took place at Sydney's Central railway station, standing in for London Paddington station, and at the Mortuary railway station, standing in for a country station in the film.
- #010
Domhnall Gleeson and Rose Byrne, who play the live-action roles, worked alongside computer-generated characters, staring at tennis balls, popsicle sticks and men in unitards for much of the shoot. Of the process, Gleeson said: "One of the most important points of the film is that humans don't know that animals can talk in the world we're in, so in a way it's good that there aren't back-and-forth conversations like the scenes talking with the rabbits." Byrne simply said: "You have to adjust yourself, you have to be committed, don't you?"
- #011
Director Will Gluck produced the film together with Zareh Nalbandian of Animal Logic, which handled the film's visual effects and animation. The team grew to 80 animators working as six core teams, each made up of a lead animator and a technical animator.
- #012
While Bea (Rose Byrne) and Tom (Domhnall Gleeson) play with letter tiles, Bea uses the word "Potter," a nod to Beatrix Potter, the original author of the Peter Rabbit books on which the film is based. It may also be a nod to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in which Domhnall Gleeson played Bill Weasley.
- #013
In the end title sequence, Bea (Rose Byrne) and Thomas (Domhnall Gleeson) are shown opening a toy shop and artist's studio together in Windermere, where Bea begins writing and illustrating books based on Peter and his friends. This is a nod to Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit on whom the film's Bea is based.
- #014
Production designer Roger Ford created two houses for the film — Mr. McGregor's and Beatrix Potter's — which gave him creative freedom while also reflecting the usual lake-house architecture of England's Lake District (the film was actually shot in Australia). Ford "lifted" the interior of McGregor's house, making it brighter and more child-friendly than the dark wood-panelled manor of the books.
- #015
This was Margot Robbie and Domhnall Gleeson's third collaboration, after About Time (2013) and Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017).
- #016
At one point Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle says that hedgehogs are not designed for running. This may be a joke aimed at the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog.
- #017
In February 2018 — 24 hours after its release — Sony apologized to advocates from food allergy groups, who said a scene in which a farmer goes into anaphylactic shock was not funny and also promoted food bullying.
- #018
Before the film's release, people assumed the McGregor character in the film was the same McGregor as in the original stories, but it turned out that this character is actually his great-nephew, played by Domhnall Gleeson, while the "real" McGregor has a much smaller role in the film, played by Sam Neill.
- #019
Lily Bobtail, one of the smartest characters in the 2012 Peter Rabbit TV series, along with her recognizable Just In Case Pocket, is one of Peter's best friends and the only one who does not appear in the film. However, while Peter talks as he eats a carrot by the fireplace, she may have appeared in a secret cameo with her red dress and white fur.
- #020
Daisy Ridley and Domhnall Gleeson appeared together in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) and Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
- #021
This was the first of James Corden's two voice roles in 2018; the other was Smallfoot (2018).
- #022
The film was originally scheduled for release on 23 March 2018 but was pushed back to 9 February, and Sherlock Gnomes (2018) took the originally intended date.
- #023
Elizabeth Debicki (the voice of Mopsy) and Sacha Horler, who has a small role in the film as Taxi Driver Betty, had previously appeared opposite each other in the Australian series The Kettering Incident (2016), in which Debicki played the lead.
- #024
Like Mopsy Rabbit, who is believed to be the eldest of the triplets in the film, Elizabeth Debicki is in real life the eldest of three siblings; she has a sister and a brother. Likewise, Margot Robbie (Flopsy) is one of four siblings — which is how many rabbit siblings there are in the film if you include Peter.
- #025
This was Sony Animation's first film of 2018; its next films were Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018), Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018) and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).
- #026
It was actor James Corden's fifth theatrical voice performance, after his roles in Planet 51 (2009), Animals United (2010), Trolls (2016) and The Emoji Movie (2017). It was, however, his first time in a live-action/computer-animated hybrid film.
- #027
This was the third film after Hop (2011) and Zootopia (2016) to feature a computer-animated rabbit as its main protagonist.
- #028
Will Gluck, Rose Byrne and Sia had previously worked together on Annie (2014), and later worked together again on this film's sequel.
- #029
This was the second live-action/computer-animation hybrid film after Hop (2011) to have a rabbit as its main protagonist. James Corden was among the actors considered to voice EB before Russell Brand, his co-star in Trolls (2016), took the role.
- #030
It was Sony Pictures Animation's fifteenth feature film to be released in cinemas.
- #031
The song James Corden sings at the end bears a striking resemblance to Neil Diamond's Forever In Blue Jeans; the bus is a nod to Peter's blue denim jacket.
- #032
This was Australian singer-songwriter Sia's third voice performance, after Charming (2018) and My Little Pony: The Movie (2017).
- #033
Actress Daisy Ridley (who voices Cotton-Tail in the film) was born in 1992, the year the British animated anthology series The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends (1992), which adapted Beatrix Potter's stories, first aired on television.
- #034
Peter's face reddening after an attack by Mr. Thomas McGregor (played by Domhnall Gleeson) is somewhat reminiscent of the injured rabbit in the British animated film Watership Down (1978). That film also deals with rabbits in England and stars John Hurt, who had previously worked with James Corden on the animated film adaptations The Gruffalo (2009) and The Gruffalo's Child (2011).
- #035
The song "When Life Gives Me Lemons I Make Lemonade" appears in two Will Gluck films: Peter Rabbit and Easy A.
- #036
It was actor James Corden's second Sony Pictures Animation film, after The Emoji Movie (2017).
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