It’s early days yet, but the Beatrix Potter adaptation Peter Rabbit has just given 2018 its first contender for Most Controversial Film Scene of the Year. The moment in question features the eponymous CGI bunny using a slingshot to send a blackberry into the mouth of his rival, Tom McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson), who is allergic to the fruit. (The farmer goes into anaphylactic shock, but survives.) In response, Tom Mendez, CEO of the Asthma and Allergy Association of America, wrote an open letter saying the scene “encourages the public not to take the risk of allergic reactions seriously,” and noting that Sony, the studio behind Peter Rabbit, had previously mocked food allergies in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and The Smurfs. The Kids With Allergies Foundation also issued a warning on its Facebook page, where the post has been shared over a thousand times. In response, the filmmakers apologized via statement, saying, “Food allergies are a serious issue. Our film should not have made light of Peter Rabbit’s archnemesis, Mr. McGregor, being allergic to blackberries, even in a cartoonish, slapstick way.”
