Movie Thoughts: Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness (2022)

• Released: February 16th, 2022
• Directed by: Benjamin Mousquet, Ben Stassen
• Running time: 1h 31min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

Chickenhare, a who is half hare, half chicken, dreams of becoming an adventurer like his father. When his evil uncle breaks free from prison and is after an artifact called the Hamster of Darkness, Chickenhare and his friend Abe the tortoise go on a quest to find it before his uncle. On their way they meet a skunk named Meg, who joins them in their efforts.

My Thoughts

I didn't have a lot of expectations going into this one, didn't watch any previews or trailers or anything. It just looked like a movie that might be entertaining and fun to me, but also nothing grand. But I am pleased to say, this film is actually quite decent and likable. 

Don't get me wrong, it's definitely very trope-heavy and uses a lot of old clichés, but at the same time it does manage to use them quite effectively. The movie also can be quite entertaining (with lots of interesting set pieces and action scenes), it has a heart (particularly regarding the relationship between Chickenhare and his adopted father) and was just fun to watch. The message about embracing each other's differences was also quite well done.

The visuals are also really nice. This is legit some really nice-looking animation, and the character designs are really neat as well. Aside from some re-used character models here and there I genuinely really liked the style this movie had going on. It may not be Disney- or Dreamworks-level quality of animation or anything, but it still looks really good.

So is there anything I don't like? Eh, some things could've been done better. One, I don't like how the main character's name is literally just Chickenhare. I think this is mostly an issue with the English dub (as he is called Hopper in the Dutch dub, and that seems to be his name in the OG language as well), but it's still rather odd. The movie makes it clear that Chickenhare struggles with his identity, so it doesn't make sense for his loving adopted father to name him after something he clearly struggles with. If his name had been Hopper like in the OG, his name would come across as far less cruel and frankly just odd. None of the characters in this are named after their species, so why Chickenhare has to be called that just doesn't feel that realistic for this world's standards. It's like naming a human "Human", just odd.

I also think that the movie could've gone a little more into Chickenhare's origins and the mystery regarding him. Because there's a lot of setup here that would be interesting to explore. Where did he come from? How is he a hybrid? Are other hybrids possible? Who are his parents? Was he born or hatched from an egg? Where is he originally from? How did he show up in that boat? Lots of questions regarding this character and it's barely explored here. Maybe they'll go into this more in the sequel, but honestly I feel that it'd have been more satisfying if at least a bit more had been answered in the first movie. Or at least hints had been provided. Because right now Chickenhare is this huge mystery and the questions regarding him are never really answered. So a bit of missed potential for them not to answer most questions this character sets up.

But despite this, yes, I do think this is a solid movie. Maybe not the most original, but I think children and cartoon-watching adults alike will get something out of this movie. Not perfect, but a fun watch nonetheless.