Hop (also known as Hop: The Movie) is a 2011 American Easter comedy film directed by Tim Hill and written by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, and Brian Lynch, from a story by Paul and Daurio. Produced by Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment and Relativity Media, it stars James Marsden, Kaley Cuoco, Gary Cole, Elizabeth Perkins, David Hasselhoff, and Chelsea Handler, with the voices of Russell Brand, Hank Azaria, and Hugh Laurie. The film follows a young rabbit (Brand) who would rather drum in a band than succeed his father (Laurie) as the Easter Bunny, and befriends a human slacker (Marsden) seeking a job.
Hop was based on an original idea by John Cohen; production began in 2009 under the name I Hop, with Cohen and Chris Meledandri serving as producers. It was announced as a live-action animated hybrid feature, a first for Illumination, originally aiming for a spring 2010 release date. Cohen later departed Illumination, with Michele Imperato Stabile producing alongside Meledandri, while Cohen remained part of the project as executive producer. The animation and visual effects were provided by Los Angeles-based Rhythm & Hues Studios (R&H), while Christopher Lennertz composed the score, marking his second collaboration with Hill after Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007).
Hop premiered at Universal Studios Hollywood on March 27, 2011, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 1 by Universal Pictures. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and grossed $188 million worldwide on a $63 million budget. It was nominated for Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Live Action Production at the 39th Annie Awards.
Plot On Easter Island, a young rabbit named E.B. is destined to succeed his father as the Easter Bunny. Ignoring his father's orders, E.B. runs away to Hollywood to pursue his dream of becoming a music drummer. In Van Nuys, E.B. is hit by Fred O'Hare, an out-of-work, job-hopping slacker who was driving to his sister Sam's boss's house to house-sit after his parents forced him to move out. Feigning injury, E.B. persuades Fred to take him in whilst E.B. recovers. But when E.B. causes trouble, Fred attempts to release him in the wilderness. However, E.B. persuades Fred to let him stay by claiming to be the Easter Bunny, who Fred witnessed delivering eggs as a child; since then, Fred has been infatuated with Easter.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bunny sends his royal guards, the Pink Berets, to search for him and bring him back. In Hollywood, E.B. sees the Berets closing in on him and hides inside a business where Fred is having a job interview. E.B. enjoys a successful recording session as the substitute drummer for The Blind Boys of Alabama, but ruins Fred's job interview. In the process, E.B. gets a tip about a possible audition for David Hasselhoff. After E.B. performs for him, Hasselhoff invites him to perform on his show.
Afterwards, Fred attends his adoptive younger sister Alex's school Easter pageant with E.B. hiding in a satchel. E.B. spots three bunny suit shadows on a wall and assumes the Pink Berets have found him. Disgusted by Alex's awful rendition of "Peter Cottontail", he dashes out and disrupts the show. Fred fakes being a ventriloquist with E.B. as his dummy, and the two upstage the show singing, "I Want Candy." Both Fred's father, Henry, and Alex are angry and upset about the upstaging, but Fred is inspired to be the Easter Bunny himself. Although skeptical, E.B. agrees to train him and finds that Fred has some genuine talent for it.
Meanwhile, the Easter Bunny's best friend and second-in-command, Carlos the Chick, secretly plots a coup d'état against him to take over Easter, inspiring the chicks to uprise against the bunnies, and begins training to become the "Easter Chick". The next morning, as E.B. is about to go to Hasselhoff's show, he notices the Pink Berets and prepares a decoy to fake his death, leaving Fred behind. The Berets see the decoy and, horrified that Fred has apparently killed E.B., capture him and take him to Easter Island. Fred is confronted by Mr. Bunny and Carlos. Carlos then seizes control of the Easter factory, tying up Mr. Bunny and placing him and Fred on a conveyor belt to be boiled alive. Meanwhile, E.B. starts to feel guilty for leaving Fred, and is convinced by Hasselhoff on his show to go back and help his friend.
E.B. races back to the factory to confront Carlos, but he is immobilized in gummy candy and tossed into the chocolate bunny carving line. E.B. survives by dodging the blades of the machine, while Fred eats through the black-licorice ropes, escaping with Mr. Bunny. Carlos turns into a mutant anthropomorphic chick-bunny hybrid due to the magic of the Egg of Destiny, and battles E.B., easily defeating him due to his size. Carlos then tries to lead the Egg Sleigh out with one of his assistants Phil directing, but E.B. improvises a drum session that drives Phil to uncontrollably dance to the beat and provide the wrong signals, causing the sleigh to crash and subdue Carlos. E.B. and his father reconcile, and he and Fred are crowned co-Easter bunnies. Back at home, Fred reconciles with his father and his family, and then takes off with E.B. back to Easter Island.
Cast
Live-action cast James Marsden as Frederick "Fred" O'Hare, a slacker who is trying to find work Coleton Ray as Young Fred Kaley Cuoco as Samantha "Sam" O'Hare, Fred's sister Gary Cole as Henry O'Hare, Fred's father Elizabeth Perkins as Bonnie O'Hare, Fred's mother Tiffany Espensen as Alexandra "Alex" O'Hare, Fred's adoptive younger sister David Hasselhoff as himself, a talent show host Chelsea Handler as Mrs. Beck, a video game company representative and Fred's interviewer Dustin Ybarra as Cody Russell Brand as a "Hoff Knows Talent" production assistant
The American gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama make an appearance in the film as themselves.
Voice cast Russell Brand as E.B., a teenage anthropomorphic rabbit who dreams of becoming a drummer rather than following his father's footsteps to be the next Easter Bunny Django Marsh as Young E.B. Hank Azaria as Carlos, a Spanish-accented chick who is the Easter Bunny's good friend and assistant, secretly scheming to take over Easter Island Azaria also voices Phil, one of Carlos' assistants. Hugh Laurie as Mr. Bunny (credited as "E.B.'s Dad"), E.B.'s father who is the current Easter Bunny Hugh Hefner as Voice at Playboy Mansion
Production Development
Hop was based on an original idea by producer John Cohen. On April 3, 2009, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, the screenwriters of Despicable Me, were hired to write the script under its original title, I Hop, as a live-action animated Easter-themed feature with Chris Meledandri and Cohen producing, aiming for a spring 2010 release. On July 14, 2009, its release date was moved to March 4, 2011, and Tim Hill was attached to direct, marking his third live-action animated directorial effort after Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006) and Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007).
On September 3, 2010, the release date was moved to April 1, 2011, and its title was changed to the current one. In addition, it was announced that Brian Lynch would be penning the screenplay with Paul and Daurio, after signing an exclusive deal at Illumination Entertainment. Cohen later departed Illumination, but he was credited as an executive producer, with Michele Imperato Stabile joining Meledandri as producer. Relativity Media joined co-production before the film's release.
Casting On July 14, 2009, the same day the film's release date was moved, Russell Brand was cast in the lead voice role. In an interview with Rebecca Murray of About.com (now People Inc.), Brand stated: "That's a great deal of pressure for me. I now know how Colin Firth felt playing George the V. It's a great deal of duty, a lot of heritage, and a huge obligation to get it right." Brand also remarked: "I think because he's a cheeky little bunny and I've described as such even before the casting." When asked if it was tough to keep the film at a PG-rated level, Brand said: "That's not up to me. I just say anything I like. I think if I said anything unusual, they just cut it out."
James Marsden was cast as Fred O'Hare on January 25, 2010. Marsden stated in an interview to Rebecca Murray of About.com: "It's me and Russell Brand. He plays the Easter Bunny who doesn't want to be the Easter Bunny. I'm a sort of slacker, still living at home, late 20s/early 30s year old who's trying to find his purpose in life. They stumble into each other - and then I would ruin it for you if I went on." On the topic of Marsden being cast as Fred O'Hare, Tim Hill stated in a behind-the-scenes featurette: "He's not only really funny, but he's a really grounded actor. He always wants to know where the truth is... ...about the character and where it's coming from."
Animation and design Los Angeles-based Rhythm & Hues Studios (R&H) handled the film's animation and visual effects. Artist Peter de Sève, who designed the characters for Blue Sky Studios' Ice Age franchise, designed the animated characters for Hop. Ray Chen was the visual effects supervisor, and Andy Arnett was the animation director.
Rhythm & Hues looked at the actions of real rabbits for some scenes. Arnett said, "One of the things that can happen with these faces is that if you don't put a lot of detail into the entire face, their mouths and cheeks can look kind of stiff. So it was important to us to be able to get a lot of flexibility in the face to make them feel alive and fleshy." The easter egg factory involved Rhythm & Hues completing 250 computer-generated shots. Chen notes, "It's almost like a little full CG film inside the big film. The biggest challenge there was actually designing the factory. It originally had more of an underground feel with roots and rocks before we settled on something that looked more cathedral-like."
As of 2026, this is the only film produced by Illumination Entertainment that combines live-action imagery with computer-animation, as most of the studio's features following Hop were fully animated at Illumination Mac Guff (now Illumination Studios Paris) after Mac Guff's feature animation unit was acquired by Illumination on November 14, 2011; Universal Pictures, however, stated in a February 2013 report by TheWrap that Illumination "will, at some point, make a live-action movie".
Music
Christopher Lennertz was revealed to be composing the score for Hop on March 6, 2011, marking his second collaboration with director Tim Hill after Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007). Back Lot Music released the soundtrack on iTunes, Amazon Music, and Spotify on March 29, 2011, while Varèse Sarabande released it on CD on April 5.
Australian pop singer Cody Simpson performed a cover of the Strangeloves' 1965 standard "I Want Candy" for the film (with Bow Wow Wow's 1982 version previously being featured in some trailers for the film).
Release Hop held its world premiere at Universal Studios Hollywood on March 27, 2011, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 1 by Universal Pictures. It was previously scheduled for release in spring 2010, though on July 14, 2009, the release was pushed back to March 4, 2011. It was then pushed back again to its current release date on September 3, 2010.
Promotion and marketing Universal teamed up with 92 major companies to promote Hop, including Holiday Inn, Krispy Kreme, Lindt, Kraft Foods, The Hershey Company, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Comcast (which acquired Universal's parent company NBCUniversal two months before the film was released), Kodak, Hallmark, HMV, and Burger King. A large range of licensed merchandise was released in connection with the film, including toys, stuffed animals, many sorts of candy, T-shirts, cookie decorating kits, baked goods and other products from Kraft Foods. Some items were available exclusively at Walmart stores.