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A slacker (James Marsden) takes in the Easter Bunny’s equally slothful son, E.B. (voice of Russell Brand), who aspires to be a drummer. Tim Hill directs this not-very-funny comedy, a mix of digital animation and live action. First, Hop makes up a silly backstory about the Easter Bunny, who is a sort of springtime Santa with a candy-making factory on Easter Island. The factory manager there is a baby chick with a grotesque Hispanic accent (voice of Hank Azaria). E.B runs away to Los Angeles, where the film puts him through some rabbit-out-of-water humor, including a stop at the Playboy mansion, a jam-session with the Blind Boys of Alabama and a pep talk from David Hasselhoff. I don’t want to overthink this piece of junk, but Hop takes a decidedly Western Christian bent, presuming that celebrating Easter is the default setting. (It mocks the Chinese for not getting it.) Of course, I found Hop to be too religious simply because it’s about Easter, but really religious people should be offended by its crass commercialism and non-stop pimping of candy.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.
