The O'Hare and the Bunny
E.B. knew from a young age that he was heir to a great tradition, that of becoming the much loved Easter Bunny just as his father is now, running the operation to make chocolate Easter bunnies and sweet gifts from the head quarters on Easter Island before journeying around the world to deliver them all in one night. But E.B. has grown up with less of an interest in being the Easter Bunny and more on becoming a great drummer. It is why when his father tells E.B. he needs to grow up that he runs away from home and ends up living with slacker Fred O'Hare who like wise is being told by his parents that he needs to grow up and start acting responsibly.
"Hop" opens with a narration from Fred whilst we see portraits of various Easter Bunnies and then we see his as we learn that he is the first human Easter Bunny and this is his story of how it happened. For me that is a spoiler, I don't need to know the ending of this children's movie before it starts but it appears that those who believe they know deemed it necessary to tell us what happens in "Hop" before it starts.
Now the needless spoiler is not my only issue with "Hop" because what we have here is a Christmas movie but one with Father Christmas switched with the Easter Bunny and of course with it being set at Easter. In fairness I don't know whether there is some proper story to the Easter Bunny and in truth this story works for its intended audience but it is for grown ups extremely familiar. From E.B. not wanting to take over his father's job to the human slacker who finds himself having to save Easter it is just a re-imagining of a Christmas movie.
But I did say it works and the mix of animated characters with human adds something extra to the movie and many of the jokes are reasonably smart. Having said that there are times when it seems to be trying to hard such as in an early scene of Fred as a grown up forced into an intervention which whilst it is meant to be funny only feels forced. But then every time you get something which is wrong you get something right such as E.B. trying to get entry to the Playboy Mansion declaring himself a sexy bunny.
What certainly helps matters is the recognizability of the cast be it the voices of Russell Brand and Hugh Laurie as E.B. and his father to James Marsden as Fred and Kaley Cuoco as his sister. Their characters may be stereotypical but these recognizable stars play them well and bring enough energy to their characters to make them amusing.
What this all boils down to is that "Hop" probably is a lot of fun for young children and there are times when it is fun for grown ups as well but the similarity to a lot of Christmas movies ends up a distraction.
