Review of Hop (2011) by Thomas W — 02 Jun 2013

(6/10).

Hop is a surprisingly enjoyable Easter-themed film starring James Marsden and the voice work of Russel Brand. The plot of this movie is very simple, but it works thanks to the comedic skills of Marsden and Brand. We have seen this story set-up a thousand times before: E.B. (Russel Brand) is the next bunny in line to become the Easter bunny, but he's a rebel and he doesn't want to be the Easter Bunny. Instead, he dreams of going to Hollywood and becoming famous. On the way, Marsden hits E.B. with his car so E.B. is staying with Marsden until he recovers. However, he annoys Marsden constantly and continually messes up his life. Hmmm, maybe they'll work out their differences and work together to save Easter this year?

As I said, this plot is fairly generic, cliched and predictable. I will cut it some slack because it is a children's movie though and it's not a bad one at that. The animation is spectacular, especially during the scenes where the live action and animation interact. There's a specific scene where a woman is holding E.B. thinking he's a stuffed animal and hugging him. This scene is superbly animated and you can hardly tell E.B. is animated.

The performances from everyone in the film are good, especially Russel Brand. Brand seems like the perfect fit for this bunny and his performance is charming and funny. It's also kind of amusing watching James Marsden bumbling about trying to keep E.B. from ruining situations for him. Brand's comedic timing is terrific, although not all of the jokes hit the mark.

I think children will probably love this movie and I have to admit, I was amused myself. I definitely think this movie deserves better than 26% on RT. Overall, I think this movie is a good children's movie that adults and teenagers can enjoy if they don't mind the uninspired script and the cliched, predictable story.