"Hop" Review

2.1/5.0 Stars

While watching the new film “Hop” I could practically hear a studio executive saying that they wanted a movie to get some families into the theaters during the Easter season. What is the result? About what you would expect: a less than terrible, but overall forgettable two hours. It tells the story of E.B., the new Easter Bunny (voiced by Russell Brand). E.B. is destined to take over the family businesses from his father, but all he wants to do is drum.  It is then that he runs off and befriends a struggling slacker (James Marsden) from Hollywood and the comedic hijinks ensue.

At least that’s what’s supposed to happen.

The problems with “Hop” are pretty evident right off the bat. It’s a familiar story that audiences have heard many times before, usually in the form of a Christmas holiday movie. At times the movie even feels like it was rewritten from a script meant for a Christmas film. In this world the Easter Bunny lives on Easter Island instead of the North Pole, drives a sleigh pulled by chicks instead of reindeer, and works year round in a candy factory instead of a toy shop. 

“Hop” is a paint-by-numbers movie with enough gags to entertain young children, but with nothing really new to say. For those in the proper age group, “Hop” will probably work. The movie is rife with jokes about animals defecating jellybeans, men being attacked by dogs, and unbearably cute rabbits. 

If “Hop” had been kept as a kids-only spectacle, its flaws like unbearable simplicity, familiarity, and a lack of logic and focus, could be forgiven. Yet the film tries desperately to be hip, and inserts jokes intended for older audiences that ultimately fall flat. When David Hasselhoff appears in an extended cameo, how many five-year-olds will know who he is, much-less understand a Knightrider reference?

Not that there is anything wrong with a kids movie with some jokes added for adults. Films aimed at kids have been doing that with regularity since the first “Shrek” film. Last year Illumination Entertainment, who made “Hop,” had their own success using that formula with the well-rounded “Despicable Me.” But what made “Despicable Me” work was a strong sense of originality and fun where everything about “Hop” seems manufactured and contrived.

There could have been more to “Hop;” the animation is well done and the voice actors bring some life to their roles, but the live action portions coupled with a chronic lack of creativity and a poorly constructed script keep the movie mired, meandering, and staggeringly predictable.