If you treat Hop as mindless kids' entertainment, it's pretty bland. The gimmick of replacing Santa Claus with the Easter Bunny as an annual "magic dude travels the world with presents for the kids" schtick, complete with sleigh, elves, and a secret factory, is cute, but the plot devolves into incoherence from there.
E.B. wants to drum, but his dad doesn't understand. Fred (O'Hare, ha ha) wants to be a slacker, but his dad doesn't understand. The two pair up, have some wacky hijinks, then Fred decides he wants to be the Easter Bunny. Ironically, on Easter Island, Carlos, the Hispanic-accented foreman of the chick workers, aspires to be the Easter Bunny as well, but is told he can't because... he's a chick. David Hasselhoff fails to rescue his career by Adam Westing, then we have a showdown in the factory. In the end, E.B. decides he wants to be the Easter Bunny after all, Fred (whose sole useful contribution to the plot is eating through a licorice rope) gets to be co-Bunny, and Carlos is humiliated and has to help fly the sleigh.
What makes this so terrible is the underlying message. "Don't try to rise above your station through hard work and loyalty, instead, be a dreamer and do a favor for an aristocrat." The villain is a Hispanic labor foreman/union boss who wants to rise above his station. Yeah.
A serious mixed message
If you treat Hop as mindless kids' entertainment, it's pretty bland. The gimmick of replacing Santa Claus with the Easter Bunny as an annual "magic dude travels the world with presents for the kids" schtick, complete with sleigh, elves, and a secret factory, is cute, but the plot devolves into incoherence from there.
E.B. wants to drum, but his dad doesn't understand. Fred (O'Hare, ha ha) wants to be a slacker, but his dad doesn't understand. The two pair up, have some wacky hijinks, then Fred decides he wants to be the Easter Bunny. Ironically, on Easter Island, Carlos, the Hispanic-accented foreman of the chick workers, aspires to be the Easter Bunny as well, but is told he can't because... he's a chick. David Hasselhoff fails to rescue his career by Adam Westing, then we have a showdown in the factory. In the end, E.B. decides he wants to be the Easter Bunny after all, Fred (whose sole useful contribution to the plot is eating through a licorice rope) gets to be co-Bunny, and Carlos is humiliated and has to help fly the sleigh.
What makes this so terrible is the underlying message. "Don't try to rise above your station through hard work and loyalty, instead, be a dreamer and do a favor for an aristocrat." The villain is a Hispanic labor foreman/union boss who wants to rise above his station. Yeah.