Unpleasant, unfunny and uninspiring, “Hop” is so much more awful than I’d originally predicted primarily because it took my rock bottom expectations and dashed them by delivering an even worse movie than my optimism would have allowed. I had hopes for “Hop” originally, and I’d opted on giving it a fair shake, but found myself genuinely annoyed by every inch of this disingenuous holiday commercial that is about as much about the holiday as Garry Marshall’s “Valentine’s Day” was in 2010. “Hop” is such a corporate tool that it feels like upon its original conception it was marketed to Hallmark and American Greetings for the sole sake of EB.
See he doesn’t want to be called Easter Bunny, he wants to be called EB! And when he’s not rebelling against his destiny he’s a hip hopping punk rocking bunny with an attitude who sports a wicked British accent and a propensity for weakly mimicking Bugs Bunny bits to do over his human and non-human nemeses. Basically, he’s the rabbit equivalent of Poochie the Talking Dog who garners all the corporate pandering you can imagine with non of the genuine characteristics of an iconic creation. He has a flannel over shirt over a white tee, you know, just to show us how non-conformist he is with his 1993 fashion choices.
He’s funky fresh. “Hop” garners a confusing and muddled premise based around an unnecessary live action/animation hybrid that teams poor James Marsden in yet another role failing to live up to his true talents. Basically this is another film where Marsden is capable of doing so much more than mugging for the camera and double taking to a CGI rabbit, and he collects an easy paycheck in the story of the first human Easter bunny. Why does it have to be an animated hybrid? We’re never quite told, because I guess it emphasizes the first human bunny concept more than animation would.
And worse it wrangles top talent like Gary Cole, Elizabeth Perkins and Caley Cuoco to pretend they’re not just increasing their stock with their nieces and nephews as they do nothing but stumble around looking absolutely bored through most of the run time. Particularly Cuoco who displays a keen sense of being a truly unlikable character in a slew of unlikable characters including hero Fred, a lousy lush who does nothing but leech off of his family, while EB (ugh) is a lazy good for nothing looking for any excuse to avoid responsibilities. But they both have “dreams” so the script attempts to justify their selfish despicable behavior as much as it can. “Hop” wants to be many things.
It wants “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” fame with Bugs Bunny wit and fails to deliver on both counts as an absolutely dreadful holiday wannabe. For the adults, they’ll find nothing but an easy time at the movie theaters that can stimulate their young ones while stuffing their faces with sugary treats and having a day off thanks to an easy twenty dollars. Kids however will love what “Hop” has to offer, furthering my opinion that kids are stupid and have no concept of the idea of taste. “Hop” is an awful movie with unlikable characters, a polarizing conflict, a confusing premise, and humor that falls flat on every occasion, but at least it’s a commercial for the holiday. And that’s all that counts right, Universal?