Hop (Universal Pictures)

Synopsis: Hop is the story of two characters fighting to keep their dreams alive. One is the son of the Easter Bunny who's dream is to one day be a famous drummer, and the other is a human who's dream is, apparently, to not actually do anything worthwhile. They meet when, on the eve of E.B. (voiced by Russel Brand) taking over his dad's position as the Easter Bunny, E.B. runs away to Hollywood and is run over by Fred O'Hare (James Marsden). Fred reluctantly takes in E.B. and helps hide him from the Pink Berets, the Royal Guard of the Easter Bunny, sent to bring him home. Also, Fred is simultaneously trying to: find a job, hide the mess made in the house he watches for his sister's (Kaley Cuoco) boss and win his father's (Gary Cole) approval. Meanwhile, Carlos (Voiced by Hank Azaria), a power hungry chick, is sick of living in the shadow of the Easter Bunny and plots a coup to take over Easter and the candy factory on Easter Island. Hop is directed by Tim Hill (The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, Garfield: A tail of Two Kitties), and includes Elizabeth Perkins, the voice of Hugh Laurie and a cameo by David Hasselhoff.

 My take: Hello? Suspense? Where are you? This movie gives away its entire basket of goodies right up front. Plus the plot was so formulaic, I think Mad Libs needs a royalty. I mean, take the character Fred. He lost his job a year ago and is still out of work. Why? Because he found a phantom reason to dislike each decent-paying job. And, low-and-behold, his dad is disappointed in him. WOW! Who would have seen that coming? Then there's the plot to take over Easter by Carlos and his chick workforce. I'd love to meet the genius who thought "Ya know what would really draw them into the story? Let's take the most exciting part of the movie and cram it all into the last 10 minutes of the film! Don't worry, we'll sporadically elude to it earlier in the film, but we'll do it so obviously that we'll spoil the surprise, but not so much that people get drawn into that part of the storyline!" Brilliant! Either develop it further, or leave it as a surprise twist.

Then there's the lack of character depth. Fred spends the entire movie being a slacker. That's pretty much it. They don't even give him a love interest. That's the one formula, for this kind of movie, that they DIDN'T follow. They take the one hot chick and make her his sister! What the hell?  Kaley Cuoco shows excellent comic ability in The Big Bang Theory, but is left to hang out to dry here. The best they could come up with is to have her eat jellybeans crapped out by E.B. (you know, the scene in ALL the trailers). That's it? What a waste.

Speaking of waste, why hire one of the best voice actors in Hank Azaria, if all you do is marginalize his character and cram his big scene to the end where it seemingly becomes nothing more than an add-on? THAT"S where the REAL story lays. Which is more exciting: A) Will Easter be taken over and changed forever? or B) Will a bunny get to play drums and will a douchewaffle get a job? See my point? Instead, they devote more time to storyline B, perhaps so they can include a pointless cameo by the Hoff, wherein he plays himself, bleary-eyed and all, and leaves us wishing for the days he played across from a car instead of an animated rabbit.

One more thing. Why the hell did they spend the entire movie having Fred try and hide E.B. when anyone who ever interacts with him doesn't even bat an eye that he's a TALKING BUNNY? Not the waitress, not the audience of the kids play and not even the Hoff, though he may have thought it was just a drunk hallucination. Great idea, fellas. let's have a storyline and not follow it.

Verdict: Those of you with young kids will probably still take them to this movie. I wouldn't. It's a safe movie for them to see, and they'll probably love the scene where Kaley eats a jellybean, but the overall message is flawed. It's OK to let your kids dream big, but this movie says that, if you dream big enough and long enough, you can be a bum until the day you "fail-up" and your supernatural dream job falls into your lap.

Rating: Avoid it

Genre: Animation, Family, Comedy(?)
Rated: PG - for some mild, rude humor
Run Time: 90min.