There have been plenty of movies made about Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Halloween. But “Hop” is one of the few movie ever made about Easter. It came-out in theaters nearly a year ago and made over $100M. Universal Studios has been holding onto it all this time, waiting for a big Easter 2012 DVD/Blu-ray release.
“Hop” stars comic-actor Russell Brand as the voice of E.B. He’s the son of the Easter Bunny (who’s voice by Hugh Laurie). E.B. is next in line to take-over for his father and become responsible for running the Easter factory (on Easter Island) and delivering Easter baskets, once a year, to everyone around the world.
But E.B. doesn’t want the job. He wants to be a great drummer. So he leave home and heads to Hollywood, where he meets-up with a human named Fred O’Hare (get it?), played by James Marsden.
Fred also is disappointing his father. He doesn’t have a job, is still living at home, and doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life. At first Fred is freaked-out at meeting a talking rabbit, but these two eventually become friends and try to help each other get their career’s going – E.B. as a drummer and Fred, well, he decides he wants to become the first human Easter Bunny. And don’t think I’m giving anything away by telling you that. Marsden gives that plot point away in the first 30-seconds of the film.
Oh yea, and there’s a sub-plot about an evil chick who wants to take over Easter.
It sounds like there’s a lot going-on in “Hop”, but actually the story is very simple. In fact, way too simple. There are no twists, no dramatic scenes. Everything is very predictable. Even though “Hop” is being advertised as coming from the creators of last year’s hilarious and heart-warming “Despicable Me”, clearly the same writers that worked on that film didn’t have anything to do with “Hop”. There’s no wit or charm in the script and I laughed only a few times, mostly at the cameos, which include Hugh Hefner, David Hasselhoff and Brand, who makes an appearance as a stage manager. In fact, the funniest part of the film is a brief appearance by two “Despicable Me” minions in the opening credits.
On the plus side, the animation of the E.B. character, in the real world, is fantastic – maybe the best ever. And the voice work is solid. The acting is over-the-top silly all the way around, but that’s what a movie like this calls for.
The main problem is that the producers of “Hop” didn’t care to put in the effort to make it better. A lot of what happens in the story just doesn’t make sense. For example – when Fred first meets E.B., a talking bunny wearing a flannel shirt, he screams. He can’t believe what he’s seeing. Which would be how you and I would react. But at other times in the movie people see E.B. in the street or in a restaurant and they aren’t amazed at all.
And another thing: the vehicle that the Easter Bunny uses to deliver eggs and baskets on Easter Sunday morning is a sleigh, shaped like an egg, that has dozens of little chicks pulling it. Come on – you couldn’t come-up with anything more original than a rip-off of the Santa Claus sleigh?
That’s what “Hop” needed – some originality – some creativity. Intead, this is a lazy effort that becomes boring rather quickly. Even the little ones at the screening I attended sat quietly throughout much of the film.
“Hop” is rated PG. There’s really no reason it shouldn’t be G. The 8-and-under crowd might enjoy it, but older kids and adults will find it dull, and everyone will be disappointed.
On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, “Hop” gets a C. Which is a shame, because with a little more effort it could have become one of those “must see” films every Easter season.