Hitpig

Hitpig is a delightful animated film that effortlessly blends humor, heart, and stunning animation. The voice acting is top-notch, bringing each character to life with personality and charm. The humor is both clever and silly, appealing to both kids and adults.

While the animation may not quite reach Pixar's level of detail, it's still incredibly impressive, with vibrant colors and fluid movement. If you're a fan of animal-themed films and enjoy a good laugh, Hitpig is a must-watch. It's a heartwarming and hilarious experience that will leave you smiling.

Whether you're a child or an adult, Hitpig offers a fun and engaging experience that will stay with you after the credits roll.

A new animated movie has snuck into theaters called HITPIG!. Based on a children's book called Pete and Pickles by Berkeley Breathed, This is a story about Hitpig (Jason Sudeikis), a pig bounty hunter who returns escaped animals to their owners. Right off the bat, the title doesn't make sense, the pig doesn't kill anybody like a hitman. It probably should be called something like PETE THE BOUNTY HUNTER or just PETE AND PICKLES. He's literally named Hitpig. Moving on, he meets Pickles (Lilly Singh) the elephant who escaped from deviously arrogant Leapin' Lord of the Leotard (Rainn Wilson). They form a bond that makes Hitpig question his career and life. This movie is fine. I understand it wasn't made with me in mind. The humour is all over the place, sometimes aimed lower for kids, sometimes aimed a smidge higher. Lotta butt jokes. The story moves a mile a minute, sometimes literally, not letting you breathe. The characters are all talking fast, I did enjoy hearing Hannah Gadsby as a sassy koala though. The movie looks low budget, and I'm actually surprised it made it to the theater. There are a couple of good enough scenes about the family you choose. HITPIG! Is a fine movie I guess, but instantly forgettable and not worth spending money on, unless you have a young kid with ADHD who loves loud noises and bright colours.

Hit Pig has an intriguing concept-combining a bounty-hunting pig with a runaway celebrity animal-but the execution leaves much to be desired. The animation is decent, with a colorful and energetic world, and the voice acting is solid. However, the film struggles with its tone, bouncing between slapstick comedy, action, and emotional depth without fully committing to any.

The dynamic between the main characters has its moments, offering some laughs and heartfelt interactions, but the humor can feel forced, and the story follows a predictable formula. While there are a few fun action sequences, they aren't enough to elevate the film beyond a standard animated adventure.

Overall, Hit Pig is watchable but forgettable. It has charm, but the pacing, humor, and storytelling don't quite hit the mark. Younger audiences may enjoy it, but for everyone else, it's just an okay ride.

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.

Some movies don't always follow the source material it's based on. Sometimes it can be for better or for worse. Unfortunately, this flick seems to be in the latter half.

It's super chaotic and hard to sit through, with each moment barely giving you time to breathe as they move to the next scene. And when they do, the parts that they want you to pay attention to are the worst parts of the movie.

That's not to say it's completely terrible, however. Some of the jokes and nice moments do land well enough to keep you halfway interested in the flick, and the actor's performances (despite the subpar and fast-paced dialogue), if anything, are good enough to keep you entertained for a few bits.

But for the characters and the rest of the humor, let's just say the laughs were a bit of a low bar. From an angry koala that constantly plays the Angry Australian trope to the letter, the flamboyant mutant Polecat who can fart nuclear flames, to the subpar in-universe celebrity that everyone loves, and the constant outdated pop-culture references and butt jokes involving Pickles, let's just say this flick doesn't really step out of the lame kid-cartoon gags that much.

Overall, nothing really special, but nothing too bad either.