“It was better than ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks.’ ” I don’t think I can improve on that assessment — delivered by my son in the wake of a Saturday morning sneak-preview screening of “Hop” — and I certainly can’t contradict it. Connoisseurs of the school of cinema in which fuzzy animated creatures interact with hard-working, slightly desperate-looking human actors may find themselves, if not exactly delighted, then at least pleasantly tickled. The rest of us, who endure such movies in the name of family harmony, masochism or lack of leisure-time imagination, may be happily surprised to emerge from the theater in something other than a state of murderous rage.
And yet it is possible that “Hop,” a peppy, artificially sweetened little romp with no great cultural ambitions, may give offense to some of the people who get worked up every December about a supposed war on Christmas. The movie, a mild rip-off of “The Santa Clause” and its ilk, imagines a world of Easter-time joy from which even the slightest trace of Christianity is absent.
At one point the Easter bunny patriarch (Hugh Laurie) worries about the decline of a “4,000-year tradition” of jelly-bean and basket delivery, which is either a startling mathematical lapse or a stunning revisionist assertion. Apparently, in the worldview of “Hop,” which was directed by Tim Hill — also the director of “Alvin and the Chipmunks”! — pagan rabbit candy rites predated by nearly two millenniums the events in Roman-occupied Jerusalem that they have long been supposed to commemorate.
Not that I’m trying to whip up a culture war, as much fun as that might be. As I said, “Hop” is innocuous, though occasionally annoying and also, less expectedly, occasionally funny. Both types of occasions are mostly provided by Russell Brand, who specializes in collapsing the distinction between the exasperatingly silly and the charmingly naughty. He will have a chance to do that in his own shaggy, elongated person next week in “Arthur,” but here he makes the most of the incongruity between his Cockneyish drawl and the plaid-shirted, cotton-tailed body that has been rendered for him by the Illumination Entertainment animation team.
They produce a few decent sight gags, most notably the spectacle of a power-mad chick (voiced by the versatile Hank Azaria) astride one of his colleagues trying to whip up enthusiasm for a coup against the rabbit dynasty that rules both Easter and its functional North Pole, Easter Island. Mr. Brand’s character (E. B.) is the reluctant heir to this tradition, but he would rather be a rock ’n’ roll drummer.
His human counterpoint is a slacker named Fred (James Marsden, with the pained smile of a man resigning himself to several years of being mistaken for James Franco), who lives with his parents (Gary Cole and Elizabeth Perkins). Fred and E. B. meet up in Los Angeles, and high jinks ensue, the most memorable of which include a voice cameo by Hugh Hefner (the kids will be in stitches) and an appearance by David Hasselhoff (the grown-ups will weep softly).
There are also some bunny ninjas. Also Chelsea Handler. The whole thing raises questions of the type it is almost embarrassing to contemplate; it’s almost like “Donnie Darko,” for little kids. Why would rabbits deliver eggs by means of a sleigh pulled by chicks when they seem to have a global warren of teleporting tunnels at their disposal? And since there seem to be no female bunnies, how exactly do these rabbits breed?
“Hop” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). Some mildly crude humor; for instance, the excreting of jelly beans by an animated rabbit.
HOP
Opens on Friday nationwide.
Directed by Tim Hill; written by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio and Brian Lynch, based on a story by Mr. Paul and Mr. Daurio; edited by Peter S. Elliot and Gregory Perler; music by Christopher Lennertz; production design by Richard Holland; costumes by Alexandra Welker; produced by Chris Meledandri and Michele Imperato Stabile; released by Universal Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.
WITH: James Marsden (Fred), Russell Brand (E. B.), Kaley Cuoco (Sam), Hank Azaria (Carlos/Phil), Gary Cole (Mr. O’Hare), Elizabeth Perkins (Mrs. O’Hare), Hugh Laurie (E. B.’s dad), Chelsea Handler (Mrs. Beck), David Hasselhoff (himself) and the voice of Hugh Hefner.