Apple TV+
Can you remember the best toy you received as a kid? Maybe it was a stuffed animal. Perhaps you can still feel the soft fur against your fingertips and the warmth it brought you when you snuggled it in bed. I’ll never forget the silky orange fuzz on a beloved tabby cat Beanie Babie I once received as a child—nor will I cease to think about the feelings I had when, after we unwrapped presents, my mother read me The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco for the first time. This classic story made me want to trade my kitten for a plush little hare.
Apple TV+’s new adaptation of the classic children’s book, a 45-minute special released Nov. 22, has reignited those feelings. There have been a number of Velveteen Rabbit adaptations in the past: Meryl Streep narrated the story for a 1985 video recording, the same year that Christopher Plummer also narrated a TV movie version. In the 1960s, Maurice Sendak also illustrated a new edition of the book, replacing William Nicholson’s original drawings from 1922—but this 2023 installment feels special.
Our new Velveteen Rabbit takes place in between three different settings. The little boy, William (Phoenix Laroche), lives in “reality,” which is filmed as a live-action story. But then the Velveteen Rabbit (Alex Lawther), which he received for Christmas, also comes alive thanks to stop-motion animation, which is used to show the rabbit chatting with other toys like the Wise Horse (Helena Bonham Carter) and the Playroom Fairy (Nicola Coughlan). When the rabbit and the boy interact, magic happens: They fall into an illustrated world where reality and imagination are one.