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Hop Movie Review

Hop is a 2011 live-action/animated fantasy film directed by Tim Hill and starring James Marsden. It’s one of Illumination’s worst efforts.

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“You said some things,

I flooded some things.

Let’s start over, okay?“

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Fred, who has never taken life seriously, unintentionally injures an Easter Bunny and is forced to take him in as a guest. Soon, hilarity ensues as they struggle to deal with the situation. This is the only live-action/animated movie from the usually fully animated movie production studio, and overall the mixing of the two was superbly done. In fact, it’s one of the best-looking hybrids in recent memory as it looks smooth and polished with the rabbit looking fantastic. This is by far the highlight of the picture.

But the problem here is that the plot was very tiresome with the ridiculous crime-like elements in the third act really not working. The characters are stereotypical as well, though E.B. is definitely quite enjoyable and Fred is a wonderful protagonist. The two share a fine relationship and James Marsden did his best in what was a standard role for him. He usually gets typecast in these roles against cartoon animals, but ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ will be a much better fit for him a decade later.

There are many critics out there calling Hop horrible. It even has a Rotten Tomatoes score in the twenties. I disagree with this harsh assessment as the movie is far from terrible. It’s mediocre, but it has its strengths and it is definitely an excellent choice for kids, but just not for adults. Illumination usually makes kiddie movies, but at least the mature audiences can enjoy the slapstick humor in them as it is usually so well executed, but here that wasn’t the case and only the children can laugh this time around.

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Hop has weak dialogue and not that much emotional investment, which was surprising given that the setup for it was certainly there. The other characters are all forgettable, and the movie never quite captured the same level of enjoyment of that first act with the remainder devolving to unnecessary and boring action scenes, frantic pacing and badly imagined situations.

Hop is one of the worst Illumination movies. James Marsden was typecast in a typical role for him, but he did his best and the central human-bunny dynamic worked. The mixing of live-action and animation was also surprisingly well done. But the script is very mediocre, the humor is disappointing and the third act is quite subpar, leading to an uneven, uninspired mess.

My Rating – 2.5