Hoot is a 2006 American family comedy film based on Carl Hiaasen's novel of the same name. It was directed by Wil Shriner and produced by New Line Cinema and Walden Media. Hoot was released on May 5, 2006 for its initial theatrical run in North America, received theatrical distribution in many other parts of the world, and has subsequently been released through many other channels of distribution.
The film is about a group of children trying to save a burrowing owl habitat from destruction. The habitat is located on the intended construction site of a pancake house. The greedy and corrupt developer of the project intends to proceed regardless of the environmental damage it would cause; and the workers he employs are, for the most part, simply attempting to do their jobs, unaware of the larger issues at stake.
Hoot features live burrowing owls and music by Jimmy Buffett. Buffett was also listed as a co-producer, and played the role of Mr. Ryan, the science teacher, in the movie.
The film was generally regarded as unsuccessful in its initial theatrical run, and received largely negative to middle-rated reviews from notable film critics and film-review websites.
Plot
Roy A. Eberhardt (Logan Lerman), the main protagonist, has just moved to Florida from Montana, and makes the mistake of telling everyone. So he is teased mercilessly, and is pretty fed up, until he makes the acquaintance of Beatrice "The Bear" Leep (Brie Larson), and her stepbrother, "Mullet Fingers" (Cody Linley).
Meanwhile, the corrupt and ruthless CEO of a pancake company is attempting to construct a new pancake house on a nearby vacant lot. There is a problem though - a group of burrowing owls live on the site, and they will be killed if their habitat is bulldozed.
The trio embark on a crusade to save the endangered animals. Mullet Fingers continually sabotages construction efforts on the site, while Roy is drawn deeper and deeper into the effort to save the owls. Meanwhile, Delinko (Luke Wilson), an incompetent police officer, is assigned to find out who is vandalizing the site; and Curly (Tim Blake Nelson), an inept construction foreman, is trying to keep the construction schedule going, despite the presence of the owls. Also while Mullet Fingers is trying to strike again he gets bitten by one of the dogs and ends up having a fever.
In the end, the trio shows Officer Delinko and the rest of the town that there are burrowing owls on the lot. They manage to get everyone to be quiet long enough for the owls to emerge, and the CEO is subsequently arrested by Delinko. The construction site eventually becomes an owl preserve.
Cast
Production
The principal filming locations were in Fort Lauderdale and Lauderdale by the Sea, on Florida's Atlantic Coast, and the Gulf Coast hamlet of Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island.[2]
Most of Hoot was shot in Florida between July 6, 2005 and September 2, 2005. Some new scenes were shot in Los Angeles on January 21, 2006. For example, the scene where Mullet Fingers leaps out of a tree after dropping a bulldozer seat was actually shot in Los Angeles.[3]
Hoot was shot during hurricane season, and the set didn't escape Hurricane Katrina, which struck Southern Florida on August 25, 2005. Brie Larson and Cody Linley were moved from their beach-front hotel (Marriott Harbor Beach) to another hotel because of the storm.[4]
Distribution
New Line and Walden Media pushed the film's initial release date of April 14, 2006 forward to May 5, 2006 as only Mission: Impossible 3 was opening wide that weekend.[5] The gambit failed and Hoot opened at #10 at the U.S. and Canadian box office on 3,018 screens. Hoot's opening U.S. and Canadian box office was a disappointing $3.4 million - well below forecast. Hoot held on at #10 for its second week then the movie broke a record set by Gigli for biggest drop in cinemas screening the film as it lost 2200 screens and came in at #19 on its third weekend. The film grossed $8,224,998 worldwide.[6][7] In 2007, Walden Media's The Seeker:The Dark is Rising nudged Hoot into second place in terms of 'biggest theatre drops'.[8] Hoot topped The Seeker:The Dark is Rising in reaching number one in the "worst super-saturated (3000 plus screens)" openings in the US and Canada: Hoot opened in almost 42% of all screens.[9] Hoot's production budget was $15 million, although the costs for such a wide opening would probably have made the film considerably more expensive to distribute than it was to produce - the cost of its prints would have been twice as much as the production budget, according to respected industry opinions.[10] Hoot entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in 2009.[11]
Reception
The movie scored mostly negative to mixed reviews and has a Rotten Tomatoes "Rotten" rating of 26%[12] and a Metacritic score of 46 (mixed or average reviews).[13] The movie performed poorly at the box office, ranking as the poorest super saturated opening week since 1982,[14] the film managed to recover $8,117,637 gross revenue worldwide.
One of the most positive reviews came from the Boston Globe's Ty Burr (3 stars out of 4), saying, "Hoot tells kids they can make a difference in this world, and that's worth a hundred Ice Age 2s."[15] San Francisco Chronicle's Ruthe Stein gave the film a positive review (3 stars out of 4) and said, "...the film does nothing to dilute the save-the-Earth-and-every-creature-on-it message of Carl Hiaasen's ingeniously plotted award-winning children's book."[16]
Roger Ebert gave Hoot 1.5 stars (out of 4) and has included Hoot in his 2007 book - Your Movie Sucks - where he says 'Hoot' has its heart in the right place, but I have been unable to locate its brain and ... the kids (especially Mullet Fingers) are likeable but not remotely believable.[17] Michael Medved panned Hoot (2 stars out of 4) saying that ...the lame plot centers around a greedy developer who wants to bulldoze a lot inhabited by rare burrowing owls and though I'd like to root for 'Hoot', its entertainment value is moot.[18]
Awards
Logan Lerman, who played the lead role of Roy Eberhardt, won a Young Artist Award for his performance in Hoot. He received the nomination & win in early 2007 for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actor.[19]
DVD Sales
DVD Sales were more successful than the box office grossing. The DVD was released on August 15, 2006 and sold 114,528 units, bringing in $2,058,068 in the opening weekend. As per the latest figures, 703,786 units have been sold translating to $10,972,266 in revenue.[20]
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Hoot has three elements: an original score, pop songs, and songs sung by Jimmy Buffett.
The original score was composed by Mac McAnally, Michael Utley and Phil Marshall.
The pop songs are sung by a variety of artists:
The Jimmy Buffett songs are:
References
External links
