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| “ | Stop, thief! | „ |
| ~ Mr. McGregor |
Mr. Jonathan Arthur "John" McGregor is a major antagonist in three of Beatrix Potter's children's books. He appears in The Tale of Peter Rabbit (as the main antagonist), The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (as a minor antagonist), and The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (again as the main antagonist).
He also appeared in the books' television adaptations and briefly appears in the 2018 film adaptation as the secondary antagonist where he was portrayed by Sam Neill.
History
Mr. McGregor is an elder Scotsman who owns a vegetable garden and dislikes pests trying to steal his vegetables, particularly rabbits. According to Peter Rabbit's mother, Mr. McGregor captured Peter's father and Mrs. McGregor put him in a pie. Peter disobeys his mother and trespasses into Mr. McGregor's garden. Peter is nearly captured by Mr. McGregor, but manages to escape leaving, behind his blue jacket and slippers which were made into a scarecrow.
In the Tale of Benjamin Bunny, Mr. McGregor plays a very minor role. He is seen only a few times driving his horse and cart to town with his wife to town and returning to his garden after Peter and Benjamin get Peter's clothes.
Mr. McGregor plays a much bigger role in The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, where he captures Benjamin and Flopsy's children while their asleep in his rubbish heap. Mrs. Tittlemouse saves the day by chewing the strings on the sack. To foil Mr. McGregor, they put rubbish in the sack. Mr. McGregor wanted to sell the rabbits for tobacco, but the wife intended to skin them to make a cloak. When they discover the sack has old rubbish and not the rabbits, Mrs. McGregor believes her husband tricked her on purpose. Mr. McGregor tries to convince his wife that he wasn't fooling her. Mr. McGregor returns to the rubbish heap angrily looking for the rabbits but fails.
2018 film
Mr. McGregor appeared only in the beginning of the 2018 movie. He once again tries to catch Peter and his sisters (Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail) and also his best friend Benjamin by setting bear traps in his garden. His plan was foiled when one of the bear traps got caught in his beard. As the rabbit finally made out safely before meeting up with their human friend Bea, Mr. McGregor angrily warns Bea that the rabbits won't be lucky
While Peter trespassed into the garden again, Mr. McGregor managed to capture him and prepared to put him into a pie similar to how Mrs. McGregor did the same to Peter's father. However, before Mr. McGregor could do so, he suddenly died of a heart attack, and fell to the ground, much to Peter’s surprise. It later turns out that the true cause behind Mr. McGregor's heart attack was due to 78 years of eating junk food, even after Mrs. McGregor died from unknown causes.
With both Mr. McGregor and Mrs. McGregor dead, their nephew Thomas moved into their house and developed a rivalry against Peter and the animals for stealing form the garden until the end.
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