The Velveteen Rabbit (2009) User Reviews

A senseless movie to be avoided by the sensible.

[alainsane-1 · 1/10 · 9 April 2012]

Movies like this steaming pile of rabbit droppings make me sad that money gets wasted on their production (and viewing) instead of just given away to the indigent. The story is wretched. The characters morph without apparent justification from one bad stereotype to another. Their actions are equally senseless. For example, the boy--who seems afflicted with dissociative identity disorder--fritters his time interacting with animals he only just met instead of dreaming up scenes with his missing mother and father.

While I hadn't read the book before, I did so afterwards (incredulous that this movie represented what the famous book was about), and I found that a charming story about love, faith, and the nature of reality had been perverted into something so treacly and cloying that they bore almost no resemblance to each other.

There are SO many better ways to spend one's time and money.

Disregard other reviews. This is a great family film.

[itisbygrace · 9/10 · 9 April 2011]

I enjoyed this with my 3 youngest children (4,7,10). We all thought this was a great film.

I liked how they intertwined real and cartoon in the movie. Speaking of cartoon, even though about half the film was in cartoon format, I did not loose interest in the film like I do with cartoons.

Great story, wonderful acting, beautiful surroundings, touching message (I saw my 7 yr. old boy crying, had a tear myself, and my 4 yr. old told me "a drop came from my eye"), and a reminder to all of us to remember to use our imagination with our young ones.

Nothing to complain about as far as inappropriate content for children.

Boring.

[invisibleunicornninja · 4/10 · 31 May 2018]

I remember we had to watch this at school a couple of times. Its really boring and I wouldn't recommend it.

One of the greatest book to film adaptations of all time

[roythedog · 10/10 · 26 September 2022]

Children's book based moves are like video game based movies in that there are very very very few good movies in their genre but once in a while there are diamonds in the rough. This is an extremely bright diamond in the rough.

The original book told a short but very poignant and sad tale of a boy who loves his toys especially his stuffed rabbit but when he comes down with a horrible infectious disease, he loses everything and because of his love and the rabbit's desire to become real, he's spared the destruction. The book gives a harsh and sad lesson that kids must learn, not all of our favorite and most beloved toys will join us in adulthood and sometimes we have to say hard goodbyes and we all have to grow up someday.

In most kids book based movies, given how short the book is, to fill out the runtime subplots, filler, and things must be made up and thrown in. That is where most of the hit or miss in kids book based movies come from. Often times said subplots and filler is completely out of place and has nothing to do with and wouldn't make sense in the source material.

However, this movie actually did it right. They made the boy's life believable in a way that fit the message, tone, and plot of the original story. They expanded the book's universe as opposed to rewriting it and that is what made this movie great.

The animated segments are also truly applause worthy as well. They used beautiful 2d animation as opposed to awful cgi which is such a pleasant surprise.

Overall, this is truly a book based kids movie done right, it's a movie that I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of the book because it truly did the book justice by keeping the message intact and expanding the universe rather than rewriting it.