Quantcast
Review: Hop - FLIXIST
DestructoidJapanatorTomopopFlixist
REMOVE ALL ADS?
Guaranteed contest entry?
A new video show?
Something else?

Vote in our membership poll


Hop  


News & VideosGalleries

Review: Hop


12:00 PM on 04.02.2011
Review: Hop photo



Most holidays have a family-friendly movie to capitalize on the massive over-spending parents will do. Despite the mass production of chocolate and synthetic grass, Easter must have been feeling a bit left out of the loop. I mean, really: does anyone have fond memories of sitting down with their families and watching an Easter movie? 

 

Hop tries to remedy this situation with a story about ambition, friendship, and cute baby animals dancing around. While it will likely be a big hit with the younger crowd, adults may find the movie severely lacking.

 

When E.B. (Russell Brand) was a child, he was all set to take over the family business: bringing baskets of sweets around the world as the Easter Bunny. When the time comes to assume the role, however, E.B. realizes that he has other goals in life. He runs off to Hollywood in search of his dreams, where he meets Fred O'Hare (James Marsden), a young man unsure of his path in life. The two must work together to find a balance between responsibility and life fulfillment, and they have to do it in time to save Easter.

 

Drums

 

You know those Christmas movies about the Kid Who Believes that has to share the magic of Christmas with his or her family and friends? Hop wants to parody this type of movie, but it fails horribly. Easter does not have the same "magical" feeling of Christmas, and trying to give it that just feels forced. Generally in movies like that, the faith of a few must sway the cynicism of the many, but so many of the human characters in Hop are unswayed by the appearance of a talking rabbit that the "special magical reveal" doesn't seem terribly special at all.

 

There is clearly supposed to be a focus on the budding friendship between E.B. and Fred, but it's hard to care about it. They are the same bland, selfish character, and their self-realizations are sudden and predictable. There is no reason they should be friends, and no change in character to inspire said friendship. They seem like two characters thrown awkwardly together because their problems are vaguely similar. The shoddy dialogue doesn't help with this, and neither does Marsden's terrible acting. Rather than feeling sympathetic for their plights, I wanted to smack them in their faces and tell them to grow up. 

 

Chicks

 

There is a side story about the chicks at the Easter Factory staging a revolt, and the movie could have been a lot more interesting if this were more of a focus. The beginning of the movie implies that the chicks are a class below the bunnies, doing the hard factory work with little recognition while the bunnies are idolized and live a life of luxury. The leader of the chick revolution, Carlos (Hank Azaria), is passed over as the new Easter Bunny despite being the next-in-command for twenty years simply because he's not a bunny. This may sound silly, but given the events later in the film, it's doubly insulting. This story seems very promising, but quickly turns from a darker look at class differences and racism to silly chicks dancing. 

 

Pink berets

 

The animation quality is fairly good. The bunnies and chicks are very cartoonish but blend well with the human actors. Still shots of the animals make them seem a bit creepy, but when in action, they're really quite cute. The facial expressions are well-done, and there are some genuinely funny slapstick moments with them. 

 

Hop tries to be something special, but overall falls short. It's not absolutely terrible, however; its worst crime is simply being boring. Kids will love it, but you'll want to get someone else to bring them if you can.

55
This film had many flaws, didn’t try to do anything special, or was poorly executed. You might be better off renting it. Check out more reviews or the Flixist score guide.






Did you know? You can now get daily or weekly email notifications when humans reply to your comments.

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)


Is that header really a still from the movie?
It certainly is!
huuuuugghgrhghgrgahrhghagrhhhhh
Best header ever.

10:00 AM on 06.19.2013

Trailer: The LEGO Movie

Morgan Freeman as a Godlike character, Chris Pratt as an everyday hero, Will Arnett as Batman, the Ninja Turtles, NBA All Stars, and Liam Neeson all in the same movie? Yes, the dreams you didn't even knew you had are coming ...

Nick Valdez

9:00 AM on 06.18.2013

First images of Disney's Frozen are eerily familiar

A few months back there were a batch of faked character posters for Disney's Frozen we had to take down. I believed they were fakes because the character designs looked so much like the designs from Tangled, I figured th...

Nick Valdez

3:00 PM on 06.14.2013

See Monsters University early and free

All right time to get the kids, pack them up and bring them to grandma's because you're going to watch some Monsters University. Kid's movie? No frickin' way. You know you're going to enjoy it more, and anyway our passes are ...

Matthew Razak

10:00 AM on 06.13.2013

BFF Short Film Roundup 2

I didn't get to see as many films at the Brooklyn Film Festival as I'd hoped to due to other obligations and personal matters, but I did get a chance to catch a few more shorts last weekend, two of which preceded the document...

Hubert Vigilla

12:00 PM on 06.10.2013

Flix for Short: The Mad Scientist (Fleischer's Superman)

With Man of Steel coming out this week, it just makes sense to highlight something with Superman. And where better than the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons? These are bona fide classics that feature some of the best Superman...

Hubert Vigilla

9:00 AM on 06.04.2013

BFF Short Film Roundup 1

Over the weekend I caught five short films at the Brooklyn Film Festival. One called Good Grief played before the feature-length documentary Furever (review of that later in the week); the other four (Love Letter, The Phantom...

Hubert Vigilla

1:00 PM on 05.29.2013

Trailer: Planes

Here's the trailer for the not subtle not secret not sequel to Cars 2, Disney's Planes. I have to write the title as Disney's Planes each time to remind myself that Pixar wanted nothing to do with Disney's Planes. Like the f...

Nick Valdez

3:00 PM on 05.28.2013

New images for Miyazaki's next film, The Wind Rises

Reportedly getting a trailer sometime this week, The Wind Rises is Hayao Miyazaki's next upcoming project and like anything he does even a few stills/posters are gorgeous. The film is based off of a manga of the same nam...

Matthew Razak

11:00 AM on 05.22.2013

Two new Smurfs 2 posters have smurfs in them

Sometimes I just get tired of writing things I care about and want to write about something almost no one should give a crap about. To that end, here are two new posters for the upcoming abomination of a movie The Smurfs...

Matthew Razak

1:00 PM on 05.21.2013

Flix for Short: Oswalt's Star Wars rant gets animated

A while ago comedian Patton Oswalt appeared on the TV show Parks and Recreation as a citizen of the town of Pawnee who made a filibuster rant... about Star Wars Episode VII, and all that it could be. And the internet went cr...

Liz Rugg













timeline following:
Hop



More Hop News

More Reviews













View all Reviews





Back to Top


Advertising on Flixist is available: Please contact them to learn more