LIKES:
Design Is Charming
Animation is Fluid
Some Funny Jokes
Very Short Runtime
Original Direction
Fun Voice Acting
Very Touching At Times
The Music
Summary:
Hitpig is an odd animated movie, but it's a cute film that has charming animation and design that is fun to watch. These anthropomorphized animals move like the humans they are mimicking, with a few extra animal nuances to mix things up. It's simplistic and fun, and we've seen it done a bunch of times, but it's still charming and perfect for families looking for a friendly movie to visit the theater. While talking animals do not seem like an original idea, Hitpig gives the protagonist an interesting job and background compared to most of the films we've gotten. A pig whose job is to retrieve fellow animals for the owners is kind of funny and certainly one of the odder plots they have presented. I had wished that they had pursued it more, but the movie goes down the Dr. Seuss meets Despicable Me mashup arc that pulls the heartstrings and makes you feel the power of friendship.
In regards to the other aspects of the movie, Hitpig is simplistic fun and funny at times as well. The film is juvenile in much of its delivery, but some adult jokes made me laugh, while some of the banter had me chuckling. Being a fan of some of the styles was hysterical at times, with just the right amount of silliness to make it amusing. The voice cast is doing their best to make their characters come to life. Most of the time, they succeed, sometimes going into those deeper character moments that are relevant and other times just being the biggest doofs you can imagine. The extremes do become annoying, but kudos to them for giving each extreme the best of their abilities and making each joke the best it could be. And if all of this does not sound appealing, then take solace in the fact the movie is only about 75 minutes of actual runtime. Just enough time to let your ears bathe in the sweet symphonies of the awesome soundtrack designed for the movie.
DISLIKES:
Plot is Scattered
Characters Are Shallow At times
Little Suspense Or Intensity
Incessantly silly
Random Inclusion of Characters
Tried Too Hard To Be Funny
World Building Is Mundane
Too Many Plot Conveniences
Not Original Enough
Summary:
Despite the fun I had, the movie is certainly not standing out amongst the bigger studio projects that Disney and DreamWorks have claimed. A smaller budget required cuts, and I felt a lot of them primarily in the story over anything else. The plot is adorable, but the movie is so scattered in plot, a buddy adventure that tries to test greed vs. The power of friendship. It's predictable, but the fight is not impressive, and the character development is small dips instead of plunging into deeper characters that are going on their journeys of self-discovery. There are very few moments of intense battles, moral tests, or climactic finales, with much of the danger sanded down to asinine skits with little recovery from the comedic bouts of humor. Characters seem haphazardly included, with only some fun background moments to proceed, suddenly becoming a big part of the movie. While they were cute (and again) a great comedic device, they held little point to the abrupt appearances but to design a team capable of the final plan. These plot conveniences become hyperbolic and soon distracting to the point of annoyance to the point it robs the story of full emotional investment. Mundane world-building does little to help support the movie, especially when it is too silly to the point of being stupid without any strategy or tact to execute it. And there is not enough originality to save it when the unique circumstances transform into a carbon-copy Dr. Seuss story.
The VERDICT:
While certainly cute and fun, HitPig feels more like a Nickelodeon special condensed into a seventy-minute runtime and sent to get some money before the end of this coming month. Its cute atmosphere and characters are perfect for the younger audiences (alongside the young at heart) to gravitate towards, and the humor is a perfect entry into the movie world without crossing any major PG lines. However, those very qualities are what also limit the movie from reaching its full potential, therefore making the movie less of a must-see. Its simple story, with reckless character use, mundane trials, and excessive comedy use, just didn't fully engage my interest and lacked a lot of the layers that some of my favorite animated films have managed to craft. Perhaps sticking to the original plot could have accomplished much, and adding a little more maturity into the film could have helped spice things up. Alas, I can't recommend this movie for the theater outside of a daycare field trip as the ideal way to view it, and I would encourage a stream at home when it comes out.
My scores are:
Action/Adventure/Animation/Comedy: 6.5
Movie Overall: 6.0.
