Title: Hop Director: Tim Hill Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Studio: Sony Pictures Genre(s): Family Rated:       (For some mild rude humor)   Buy From Amazon.com: Coming Soon

CONSUMER ADVICE

Parents, there is only some mild crude humor. Recommended for ages 5 and up.

When “Hop” begins we see a young bunny playing a pair of bongo’s. He is called down by his dad so that he can see where his dad works. His dad, it turns out, is the Easter Bunny. The star of the movie itself is E.B., who will one day take over the job. The beginning of this movie is very good. It has lovely animation and characters. The factory is colorful and has lots of imaginative ways that the bunnies make and package their candy. It presented the kind of wonder I remember seeing when I first saw “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” I was not surprised to learn that the animation was done by Chris Bailey.

Bailey has been an animation supervisor for some Mickey Mouse cartoons (like the Academy Award-nominated "Runaway Brain") and the short lived cartoon “Clerks.” His talent is on full display here, creating something wonderful and magical. It’s so good that I wish the entire movie had been animated. However...E.B. grows up into a teenager and decides he doesn’t want to be the Easter Bunny anymore, he wants to be a rock star. So he runs away from home and ends up with Fred (James Marsden), who is a man in his mid-twenties and with no future job prospects. Of course he’s an idiot, and E.B. is no longer cute but an annoying bugger who just causes trouble for the poor man, so this movie dives straight into being obnoxious very fast.

I give the animators credit that they created a unique world for the Easter Bunny and even managed to explain his job in a fanatically logical way...you know, all things considered. The problem is this movie becomes unimaginative when it goes to the real world. It loses its sense of wonder and enchantment. What’s more, E.B. turns out to be extremely annoying. Despite the fact that a major star was not hired to voice him, the damn rabbit won’t shut up. What’s worse is that Fred puts up with him and is, in and of himself, also a bit of a nuisance. These characters just aren’t funny or likable, but we have to spend a majority of the time with them. Okay, I know that the movie inside the candy factory isn’t that much better.

There is a Mexican chick who wants to take over Easter, and that isn’t all that interesting either. But at least the world on Easter Island has some creativity behind it. The real world scenes are just that: The real world. There’s nothing there that’s more interesting then what you would see in another live action film, and to top it off the character are just. So. Very. Unlikable! When “Hop” started the first ten minutes of the film were so good I thought I was watching a new family classic unfolding. Once the movie got into gear though this quickly became one of the most vile, stupid, annoying things I’ve ever seen. It’s a film at odds with itself and tried to be clever when it should try to be charming. I think the Easter Bunny deserves a better film than this.

Spaceriffic Review

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