8 Upcoming Movies That Have Sparked Massive Controversy

7. Peter Rabbit

Peter Rabbit 2018 Movie
Sony Pictures Releasing

Release Date: 16 March 2018

The Controversy: Well... everybody hates it.

Okay, maybe not everybody - but a heck of a lot of people. Peter Rabbit's debut trailer has amassed over 5,000 dislikes (to 3,000 likes) since its release, with the footage painting the title character as a party-loving delinquent, and not the sweet, gentle child he is in the Beatrix Potter books.

And that's where the controversy stems from - the fact that this doesn't really look like a true Peter Rabbit movie. This is more your stock, flashy, pop-song-infused kids film than the thoughtful, mellow tale a true adaptation would be.

This has raised a key question about the project: should the filmmakers be allowed to interpret the source material in this way, or should they have remained more faithful to Potter's work?

Unfortunately for Peter Rabbit, it appears most people agree with the latter sentiment. The comments below that trailer range from "this ain't Peter. This is Adam Sandler as a rabbit" to stating that Potter must be rolling in her grave, and overall, the film seems to have made a critical error in following that formulaic kids movie framework of dancing animals and recycled gags.

It's easy to imagine that a smarter adaptation would have gone over much better with fans, and though Peter Rabbit will probably make a lot of money (let's face it, most young kids don't care about the source material) the hate this adaptation has received may have ended a potential franchise before it's begun.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!