Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness

This film is definitely more Chicken than Hare.

Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness is an Animated, Adventure, Fantasy Comedy film made by Netflix and was released on June 10, 2022. It is based on the graphic novel series, Chickenhare and is the first installment of the Chickenhare film series.

Plot

Twenty years ago, hare brothers Peter and Lapin are on a quest to find the mystical Hamster of Darkness, to no avail. However, they find something else in their journey, a baby who is both part chicken and part hare. Peter adopts and raises him as his son, naming him Chickenhare. As he grows up, Chickenhare is enamored with plans to follow his father's footsteps.

In the present day, Chickenhare attempts to pass the Royal Adventure Society trials to become an adventurer, but his disguise used to cover his chicken features weighs him down, causing him to fail the test. Undeterred, he decides to search for the Hamster of Darkness to prove himself as an adventurer and visits Lapin, who has been imprisoned after attempting to overthrow Peter as the King of Featherbeard but has information on the artifact. Lapin escapes using one of Chickenhare's feathers and sets off with a crew of prisoners to find the artifact as well. Determined to stop Lapin, Chickenhare, joined by his tortoise servant Abe, follow him.

The duo arrive at a desert city to find a guide to get through the Desert of Death but are intercepted by two of Lapin's goons. The pair are rescued by skunk explorer Meg, who agrees to guide them through the desert.

The group is later captured in a bamboo forest by Pigmies, tribal pig-like creatures who mistake Chickenhare for a god and plan to throw the trio into a volcano as sacrifices for their god. While caged, Chickenhare blames his appearance on his misfortune, but Meg snaps him out of it by telling how she embraced her skunk nature in the past and encourages Chickenhare to do the same as they continue their journey.

At the Frosty Mountains, Chickenhare, Meg, and Abe enter the temple and go through three different trials to find the Hamster of Darkness. After passing said trials, the trio discovers the true artifact hidden in the icy tomb of the long-extinct hamsters, a scepter with a glowing shard of ice embedded in its top. However, Lapin and his crew arrive and take the scepter from the trio. Lapin uses the scepter's power to call forth the ghosts of the long-dead hamsters to take over Featherbeard, not before leaving the trio stranded in the temple. Meg reminds a depressed Chickenhare how his unusual features led them to the temple, and he taps into his innate ability to fly to save Meg and Abe and catch up to Lapin.

Back in Featherbeard, Lapin has taken over the kingdom with the help of the ghost hamsters. With the help of Abe and Meg, Chickenhare gets the scepter back from Lapin, but the scepter's power only responds to the one who first uses it. Chickenhare decides to destroy it and goes to the Royal Adventure Society testing grounds, where he hopes to drop the scepter into the massive pit beneath the area. After a battle, Chickenhare and Lapin go one-on-one for the scepter and fall into the pit. Chickenhare saves himself by flying away, while Lapin falls to his demise. With the scepter destroyed, the ghost hamsters disappear, and Lapin's surviving crew members are arrested by the wolf guards.

Afterward, Chickenhare decides to become an independent adventurer. Peter hands him his treasured golden machete as a sign of support before Chickenhare joins Meg and Abe on a new adventure.

Chicken Qualities

1. Unlike the original novel series, the dark tone for this film has been DRAMATICALLY toned down to make this film more light-hearted, while Chickenhare (as in the Novel series) did have light-hearted moments, those never over-stated their welcome.
2. The art direction, while nice, is somewhat generic and unoriginal when compared to their novel counterpart, as almost every character, besides Chickenhare himself, has a generic design seen in real animals, most of which look like their ripped straight out of Zootopia, Over the Hedge and/or Kung Fu Panda, whereas in the novel series, every character look like something out of Tin-Tin. Notably, Meg the Skunk is a blatant rip-off of Stella from Over the Hedge (specifically her second "cat-like" design, which is introduced after she gets a haircut and loses her hair due to it blinding her eyes).
3. This film is infamous for its mean-spirited nature, due to Chickenhare being treated like a laughing stock for his appearance by everyone, especially the two bully characters, and even a Butt-Monkey at times. Sound familiar?
4. Lapin and his villain minions are bland rip-offs of the villains from the Netflix original film made two to five years ago "Animal Crackers". Even Lapin is the same, being the older brother of the protagonist's father.
5. A lot of plot points are shown though out Chickenhare yet they never get resolve, one such example goes to Luther, one of Lapin's goons, who has a child, you would think that it would lead to an interesting writing choice of Lapin betraying Luther by kidnapping his son for failing his mission, and maybe Luther would reform and help Chickenhare and his friends get the scepter or even fight Lapin to rescue his son, yet after his defeat, Luther's never seen or heard of again.
6. Plot-Holes:
   1. Early on in the film, Lapin says that after he retrieves the Hamster of Darkness, no one will laugh at his left bent ear, what so funny about Lapin's left ear being bent?
   2. After a few years have past after Chickenhare's discovery, its revile that Pete is now the king of a kingdom. How did Pete become king?
   3. What happened to Chickenhare's parents?
   4. For some reason, there's this tortoise name Abe who is an aide servant of Chickenhare and Pete. What connection does Abe have with Pete and Chickenhare? When, were and how did they met?
7. Bland jokes, most of which come from fart jokes from Meg.
8. Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness rips of elements from other more popular films, mainly Indiana Jones, heck even some of the characters are wearing outfits that is the same as Indiana Jones.
9. The Pigmie segment serves nothing more than filler.
   1. As a matter of fact, this sequence appears the most in all of the advertisements of Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness, and even one of the posters shows the Pigmies, so its as if this is the main highlight of the film.
10. Abe is a rip-off of Bentley from the Sly-Cooper series, being that he's a generic geek-type character, and serves nothing more then a Comic Relief.
11. The random Chicken and Hare characters are bland and generic bullies and do nothing more then pick on Chickenhare and also serves as very minor Comic Reliefs much like Abe, they also does a repetitive gag of them saying "Chicken! Hare!" though out the second-half of the film.
12. Much like Arctic Dogs, the climax feels a bit lackluster as its nothing more then a generic "villain uses item to take over city and everyone must work together to stop him/her", not helping the fact that Lapin does nothing in the second halve of the climax and just sets up traps and has the Hamster Minions do all of the work while Chickenhare tries to get the scepter back.
13. While the ending is good and heartwarming, it feels very sequel-baiting, with Chickenhare and his friends setting off a new adventure.

Hare Qualities

1. The animation for Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness looks impressive.
2. Chickenhare is a likable and understanding protagonist.
3. The soundtrack is very pleasant to hear.
4. Great voice acting.
5. Good Moral: You are very special of who you are and don't let anyone say otherwise.
6. There are a few funny moments, such as the scene were Chickenhare falls down the stairs after attempting to dance in his boots, only for him to do a thumbs up at his father and says "Ow...I'm ok!".

Reception

Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness received mixed reviews by fans and critics alike. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 60% based on 5 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10.

Sequel

During an interview on The Inseparables, Zeller revealed that a sequel to Chickenhare and The Hamster of Darkness is in production, with an estimated release in early 2025.

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