I can make my review of Hop short and sweet: don’t go. Not, “don’t bother to go; it’s lame,” but rather, you should not bring young kids to see this movie. It delivers an anti-merit message that’s disheartening to say the least. I saw a link from writer John Shore that intrigued me: his headline: “Hop”: So Racist It Hurts certainly raised my interest. Could this be? The cute little Easter-bunny-and-fluffy-yellow-chick movie? In short, yes.
The cute bunny movie’s plot explicitly shows that even though the chicks do all the real behind-the-scenes work, only the boss’s lazy, undeserving rabbit son may take over the “business.” Gee, what a wonderful message for the kids. (insert sarcastic Emoticon here) You might as well learn how the world works now, kids: it’s all about who you are on the day you’re born. Ugh! And while we’re on the subject, why does an Easter bunny movie even have a PG rating? For “some mild rude humor.” Taking kids to the movies is a lot of work; it should be as wonderful as it is exciting; don’t waste the effort on a dubious project like Hop.
What a disappointment! James Marsden gives his usual excellent (but wasted) performance, and is really shaping up into the kind of actor who can dominate the kid-to-tween market. I loved his affable dufus Prince Edward in Enchanted: loved when he got creamed by the bicycles in Central Park as he sang; loved how he didn’t know what “melodramatic” meant. Not every actor can make dimwit seem so charming. And what can I add to the assessment of Hank Azaria? He’s wildly talented and successful and doesn’t even have to report for wardrobe and make-up anymore. Hank, James, you’re too good for this. Read the script before you sign on the dotted line next time. The kids are depending on you.
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