Educational Hoot Missing Appeal

     As an animal movie, Hoot is almost a complete failure. Moviegoers looking forward to seeing cute baby owls in this flick may have better luck stepping out into their own backyard. While Hoot does feature a few glimpses at these creatures, it is far too little for a movie with a plot that revolves around them. Much of the appeal of such movies as My Dog Skip and Milo and Otis is seeing the cute little animals and, since we hardly see any owls in Hoot, a significant amount of its appeal flies away.

     Hoot is the first motion picture produced by singer Jimmy Buffett, who plays marine science teacher Mr. Ryan in the flick. The movie is a product of Walden Media, who also brought Holes and Because of Winn Dixie to the big screen, and based on the best-selling children’s book of the same name written by Carl Hiaasen. On the surface, Hoot appears to be a wonderful little gem of a family flick… that is, until you try watching it.

     The movie stars Logan Lerman as Roy Eberthardt, the new kid at a high school in Florida. Having moved from Montana, Roy acts as an immediate magnet for the school bully and quickly gets stuck with the nickname Cowgirl. Instead of dwelling on his troubles, though, Roy develops an interest in a strange, barefoot kid that he often sees running alongside his school bus but never sees at school. Roy follows him one day but is diverted by the kid’s sister Beatrice, played by Brie Larson.

     Eventually, Roy makes friends with Beatrice and is allowed to meet her brother, known by the nickname Mullet Fingers and played by Cody Linley. Mullet Fingers and Beatrice explain that a pancake restaurant is set to be built on land that is home to owls and that they want to try and stop it from happening. Roy joins their fight against the company, which, up until his enlistment, had consisted of basic hoodlum-type pranks. When the pancake restaurant owner moves up the date of the groundbreaking ceremonies, it is up to Roy, Beatrice and Mullet Fingers to stand up for the little guys.

     Hoot is hearty family entertainment with one major flaw – it isn’t very entertaining. While it teaches important moral values about friendship and nature, the movie is unable to conjure up enough charm to keep children busy or to satisfy adults. What we are given are the barebones of the story, which begins as a mystery and transforms into a fight-for-what’s-right picture, but the elements that would have made the story funny, endearing or even interesting were all left on the cutting room floor.

     There are a few big-name actors in Hoot but none of them have much screen time. Luke Wilson plays Officer Delniko, Robert Wagner plays the town’s mayor and Time Blake Nelson plays Curly, a man ordered to watch over the construction site and make sure all things go smoothly, and each of them give very fun performances. However, the majority of the screen time is devoted to the kids, as it should be, whom we don’t recognize. They are more than just decent actors but their story is simply not enough.

     Hoot is fine educational cinema but its efforts are futile without being able to make the audience fall in love with the characters (or, at the very least, the owls, had they made a few more appearances). There is absolutely no reason to see this movie on the big screen. When it comes down to it, Hoot looks an awful lot like something destined for a PBS special and for that I can only recommend it as a DVD rental for parents with children between the ages of 6 and 11. Anyone outside that age range won’t give a hoot.