A Confused Animated Family Film With Poorly Developed Characters

Hitpig
had its sights set on becoming a family-friendly hit animated movie, but the film missed the mark. When it comes to animated family films, they have several hurdles to overcome to please and entertain audiences of all ages while still delivering emotion, fun, and an engaging story. However, Hitpig seems to have gone all in on the goofy humor and left the movie with an unappealing and unenthusiastic story that, despite the novelty of a bounty hunter pig, can’t make up for a movie with no stakes.

Hitpig, so named because he was adopted by a bounty hunter grandma and trained as her sidekick, is now on his own. After losing his only friend, Hitpig continues the family business, and while his expert skills make him a natural, he has grown tired of his work. Fortunately, when a job delivering a quirky elephant goes sideways, it also opens his eyes to the richer, fuller life he could be leading outside his usual routine. The pair is then joined by an eclectic variety of characters who help save the day.

A Star-Studded Cast Can’t Save Hitpig From Overwhelming Mediocrity

The movie stars Jason Sudeikis as the voice of the titular pig, and he is joined by a variety of well-known actors, including Rainn Wilson, Lilly Singh, Andy Serkis, and several more. However, it’s difficult to see beyond the flat and monotonous story that plays out, even considering the considerable talents attached to the project. In a landscape where kids’ movies are spectacular and sprawl out to create huge franchises, movies need strong leading characters to hold their ground against other popular titles.

Yes, Hitpig is a pig bounty hunter, and that is novel, but the character is less engaging and exciting than most other protagonists. There is a variety of other equally unique creatures, such as a dancing elephant and an odd polecat who farts a lot, but while this humor is clearly aimed at kids, it underestimates younger audiences’ ability to connect with emotionally driven and complex characters. Everyone here is one-dimensional, with a single quirk that defines who they are and nothing more.

Everything in the film had great potential, but when it came time to the script and characters, very little consideration was given. Instead, it seems the first ideas stuck, and nothing changed between the initial draft and the finished product, aside from Peter Dinklage leaving the project and being replaced by Sudeikis. Unfortunately, Hitpig is half-baked, and it’s hard to imagine even kids would be laughing out loud due to the awkward and unimaginative dialogue.

Hitpig Had More Potential

Some grace should be given to the fact that the studio that made the film is a fairly small operation from the UK, Aniventure. To date, one of the studio’s biggest hits was Klaus, which was released on Netflix for the holiday season in 2019. However, while that movie had a unique animation style, a unique approach, and an imaginative seasonal story, Hitpig misses the mark on all these fronts.

Instead of expanding on their earlier success, and establishing an in-house signature style that makes them stand out, the film appears to have an incredibly similar animation style to animated Dreamworks movies. It’s a shame that more time wasn’t spent refining and building the characters, style, and script because at it’s core, Hitpig has a good heart and a genuinely intriguing concept to build a movie around.

Instead, the movie feels like a poor imitation of something that would have been executed at one of the larger studios. There was room to make this movie better, and if Aniventure decides to double down on this title, which it shouldn’t, there is still time and means to make it better in the future. However, as Hitpig stands today, the movie is not likely to elicit much laughter from kids, and will likely fail to grab the attention of the adults who bring them.

Hitpig will release in theaters from November 1. The film is 86 minutes long and rated PG for action/peril, rude humor and some thematic elements.

4/10

Hitpig is an animated adventure film that follows the titular character, a bounty-hunting pig, as he heads on his next assignment to capture a show elephant named Pickles. When Hitpig meets his target, they soon find themselves on a whirlwind adventure that helps the two come out of their shells and find the best in each other.

Pros

• The cast includes many big names and incredible talent.

Cons

• The dialogue doesn’t give these big names much to work with.
• The movie feels hollow and unenthusiastic in its delivery.