Hop Review: A Candy-Coated Treat

Nestled on the island of Easter Land, located in the Pacific Ocean, the Easter Bunny monarch prepares jelly beans, chocolate bunnies, and marshmallow chicks and delivers them on doorsteps around the world on Easter morning as magically as Santa Claus delivers presents for Christmas Day.

Hop tells the milk-chocolaty, candy-coated story of E.B. (Russell Brand) and his impending coronation as this year’s Easter Bunny.  The tradition has been passed down by all the men in E.B.’s family.  The Easter Bunny factory is like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for Easter.  Chocolate bunnies are sculpted and filled with jelly beans.  Hershey’s chocolate kisses are smooched and wrapped.  Marshmallow chicks are sugared and packaged. With Easter only two weeks away, E.B. has other dreams of beating the drums in a rock band and not following the family tradition.  Like most young adults, when E.B.’s dad (Hugh Laurie) demands that he give up his dreams of drumming and take his place as the Easter Bunny, E.B. runs away from home to the land where dreams come true – HOLLYWOOD!

Meanwhile, Fred O’Hare (James Marsden) has no direction in his life after losing his job and moving back in with his parents and two sisters. He’s soon shoved out of the house by his family as an intervention to get him to take some responsibility and grow up.  Against the families’ pact, Fred’s eldest sister, Sam (Kaley Cuoco), gives him the key to her boss’s mansion (where she is supposed to be house-sitting), a lead for an entry-level job opening at a video gaming company, and a stern warning not to mess up.

Fred and E.B.’s lives intersect when Fred runs over E.B. with his car en route to the mansion.  Although Fred initially thought his encounter with a talking bunny was just a sign he was stressed, hearing him in the forbidden upstairs portion of the house the next morning let Fred know it wasn’t a dream.  Running late for his job interview, Fred had planned to leave E.B. in the wild with the other bunnies until E.B. pooped jelly beans on the hood of his car and revealed that he was the Easter Bunny. Fred then had an epiphany that E.B. was indeed the Easter Bunny he’d seen on Easter morning when he was a little boy.

With the pink berets sent by E.B.’s father and armed with G.P.S. devices hot on his trail, E.B. had to rely on Fred’s help to remain in Hollywood and evade his capture and forced return to the island.  However, against Fred’s warning, E.B. snuck into the building where the interview was held and wandered into a studio recording session with The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, who were awaiting their drummer to finish the recording.  Although the jam session was fun, they knew not only that E.B. wasn’t their drummer but that he was also a bunny.  Nevertheless, once they learned he was an aspiring drummer, they gave him a flier to audition for Hoff’s Talent Hunt.  Apparently, the Blind Boys weren’t the only ones who weren’t perplexed that E.B. was a talking bunny.  The Hoff (David Hasselhoff) explained that a talking bunny didn’t shock him, since his sidekick used to be a talking car.

Since E.B. didn’t want to go back to Easter Land and Fred had had so much respect and admiration for the Easter bunny since he was a little boy and since he didn’t get the job at the video gaming company, Fred had the idea to take E.B.’s place as this year’s bunny.  Fred helped E.B. get to his audition, and E.B. helped Fred prepare for Easter morning.  But with the pink berets getting too close for comfort, E.B. used a turkey to trick the berets into thinking he was dead.  Once captured by the berets and in Easter Land, Fred and E.B.’s dad had to fight a revolted group of chicks who had had enough of Easter baskets being delivered by bunnies and who wanted instead to replace chocolate bunnies with slimy worms.

Hop tells the hilarious tale of where Easter baskets come from, why Easter’s icon isn’t a chicken since it lays eggs, and how all the Easter candy is prepared.  Although the adult viewers will probably never want to eat any more jelly beans no matter how many flavors Jelly Belly makes, and the film never mentions the Easter Bunny’s affiliation to the sacred religious holiday, Hop lands on the sweet spot of the hearts of moviegoers, etching a permanent impression of the classic American holiday icon.

Images courtesy of Universal Pictures and IMDbPro