Hop

Starring: Russell Brand, James Marsden, Kaley Cuoco, Hank Azaria (voice), Gary Cole, Elizabeth Perkins, Hugh Laurie (voice), Tiffany Espensen, David Hasselhoff, Chelsea Handler
Directed by: Tim Hill
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: E.B. (Russell Brand) refuses to follow in his father's footsteps and become the Easter Bunny. He runs away to Los Angeles, where he meets a slacker (James Marsden) looking for a job (and purpose) in his life.

Review:

Tim: Hop is the second Illumination animated film, after the box office smash (and terrible movie), Despicable Me. I didn't see it for years because, well, obvious reasons. I finally convinced my five year-old son to watch it with me. Humorously, I had to basically beg him to watch it, he didn't want to. Illumination needs to get their act together. I found the movie to be not as bad as I expected, indeed, it's even a slight improvement over Despicable Me (low bar, to be fair). My son really enjoyed it.

I guess the story is kind of clever. The Easter Bunny's son doesn't want to follow in his dad's footsteps, so he runs away. He meets Fred, an aimless young man not able to find a job he wants and unclear what he wants to do with his life. The parallels between these two men are stark. They both are struggling under the expectations of their fathers, both trying to chart a new course in their lives. That was actually fairly well done. The story is cute- the Easter Bunny and his team live on Easter Island (that's funny, I give credit where it is due) and Easter hangs in the balance of what these characters do. It allows the story to focus on bunnies and chicks, which will be appealing to younger viewers. There's some not-bad aspects to this movie.

Unfortunately, being Illumination, there's a lot of ineffective aspects to this movie. The whole subplot of the chicks attempting a coup of the Easter Bunny, led by an evil, Mexican chick voiced by Hank Azaria was problematic for multiple reasons. The plot is scattershot. It actually features David Hasselhoff in a role (not a cameo). That by itself isn't terrible, but the movie is a bit of a mess. It also features these pink beret bunnies, who are apparently like the ultra-militaristic bunny group. I don't know, the whole thing is all over the place. It lacks the focus that the best animated films have.

The movie did offer an interesting mix of live action and animation. This works more than it doesn't. Russell Brand is good as the voice of E.B. I like that he showed up for a quick cameo as well. His voice is distinct and it gives the movie a nice unique spin. James Marsden deserves a ton of credit for his constant grinning in a performance that felt like he put in everything he had. He had to suspect this movie wasn't going well, but you cannot fault him at all. His slightly over-the-top performance fits the film and he brings a funny earnestness to everything he does. The movie is greatly, great helped by Marsden. Kaley Cuoco was okay in a supporting role. Gary Cole did some nice work. Elizabeth Perkins was underutilized as Marsden's mother. She really needed to be given more to do. Hank Azaria does his thing, which by 2019 standards was uncomfortable to listen to. Hugh Laurie's voice work was strong.

I feel like I should keep going into detail about this film, but I'm not really sure what else to say. I've never been a fan of Illumination, and going back to their 2nd film doesn't change anything for me. Their movies are continuously subpar. I know they often make a ton of money, but they are obviously second-tier films behind the ones that Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks put out. They all have their duds, too, but they are more consistently strong than Illumination. Hop isn't quite a bad movie, but it's a disappointing one. My son had fun, so five year-olds are likely the target demographic. I appreciated that this movie wasn't too scary for him. However, it could have been so much better. It actually has a solid idea, it's just poorly executed.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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