Growing up, I was obsessed with Berkeley Breathed’s “Bloom County” comic strip. Its mixture of absurd humor and social commentary felt revolutionary to my young mind. Breathed came up with the story for Hitpig!, which can best be described as an animated movie with attitude. That quality helps it stand out from most of 2024’s other animated fare.
Jason Sudeikis voices the title character, a slightly traitorous bounty hunter who tracks down animals that have left their owners. He’s hired by an abusive, weirdo circus performer named Leapin’ Lord (Rainn Wilson) after his prized dancing elephant, Pickles (Lilly Singh), is freed by an animal rights activist. Hitpig is able to retrieve Pickles, but getting her back presents a series of wacky challenges. Along the way, the two develop a friendship, leading Hitpig to wonder if he’s working the wrong side of the coin by betraying his fellow animals.
The movie is filled with clever jokes that often contain pop culture references or intentionally revel in the outrageousness of the characters and situations. Most animated pictures these days seek to add a dose of “heart” to their comedy. Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot are recent examples that did this magnificently. Hitpig! is different, in that it has one sole aim -- to make viewers laugh with a non-stop barrage of one-liners and visual gags. That gives it broad appeal. It's silly enough for the kids, while having enough sophisticated humor to satisfy the adults, too.
The voice actors do a fantastic job giving life to the characters. Sudeikis is obviously a master of sarcastic delivery, a skill that’s well utilized here. In his hands, Hitpig is like a porcine version of the characters Chevy Chase and Bill Murray played in their ‘80s movies. He’s always got a smart remark on the tip of his tongue, and he comments ironically on the events taking place. Wilson is the other standout, providing Leapin’ Lord with a hilariously cringey quality. Also on board are Andy Sirkis as a newscaster, RuPaul as a polecat, and Flavor Flav as the host of a TV cooking show. And yes, that last piece of casting is just as delightfully zany as it sounds.
Hitpig! doesn’t have the huge budget of a Pixar or DreamWorks production. Nevertheless, the animation is solid, with pleasingly designed characters and wittily staged mayhem. The film’s running time is super short, clocking in at about 73 minutes without end credits. For what it seeks to be, though, that’s perfectly acceptable. You get a lot of laughs in that amount of time.
out of four
Hitpig! is rated PG for action/peril, rude humor, and some thematic elements. The running time is 1 hour and 26 minutes.
© 2024 Mike McGranaghan