Movie Review: Hop

Have you ever had a dream, but have been told it's not in your future? In April 2011, E.B. decided to change his future.

Directing this 95 minute animation/comedy/family/fantasy is Tim Hill.

Getting ready for Easter is: James Marsden as Fred O'Hare, Russell Brand as (voice of) E.B., Kaley Cuoco as Sam O'Hare, Hank Azaria as (voice of) Carlos/Phil and Hugh Laurie as (voice of) Easter Bunny.

All E.B. wants to do is play the drums in a band. Unfortunately, this floppy eared bunny is destined for other things: Like taking his dad's place as the Easter Bunny when the time comes. Since that's not what E.B. wants, he decides to make a quick exit from Easter Island, follow his dreams and heads to Hollywood.
That's how E.B. meets Fred, a human that's having a little trouble finding his spot in life. This unlikely pairing inspires Fred and helps him figure out what he wants to do. Fred wants to be... the Easter Bunny! Which I guess could work since E.B doesn't want the job. Thing is, while E.B.'s away, who knows what's going on back at the Island.

Russell Brand is an individual that takes a while to grow on you if you're not into his kind of... comedy, I guess you would call it. For that reason I wasn't really looking forward to watching this one. I've found even when a person or star that I don't like is doing just voice work in a film I still can't stand them. This rule of thumbs has only been broken a few times to my surprise. Luckily, by the time I had finally gotten around to seeing this one Brand had grown on me a bit so it wasn't so bad. Now, I don't know if it was Brand that toned it down a bit since it was a kids movie. Or if it was a smart play by Cinco Paul, Brian Lynch and Ken Daurio that put together a clean script, either way Brand wasn't the usual "Brand" that bothered me.

                                               

Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul sat down and came up with a storyline that was slightly imaginative and for the most part pretty funny. As the story keeps moving and with everything going on as the plot builds it'll entertain the kids. I will say the cast does a good job, for the most part. Even though this wasn't Marsden best go at a comedy (unlike his role in Death at a Funeral), he still holds up his end of the work load. While Brand actually pulled off a fun and light character.

Really I think part of the problem the cast had came more from the script. It was lacking that little bit extra something to push it over the line to be a really good movie. I like visual gags and jokes but at times they went on to long, passing funny and entering stupid or annoying. I guess though, when you're talking about a kids movie, as an adult you can find a lot of things stupid or annoying. Especially when you compare today's kids entertainment to stuff when we were kids (or at least when I was). I find today's entertainment rarely measures up to the past.

As for the animation, it looked really good and blended smoothly with the live action part of the film. Really for everything the movie has to give it's not that bad. So, yeah if I was just sitting around waiting for the sugar highs to wear off so the kids could go to bed, I'd throw this one on for kicks. Besides, what kid doesn't like watching a CGI bunny play the drums?

It's rated PG.

3 stars