Hoot (film)

Hoot is a 2006 American family comedy film, based on Carl Hiaasen's novel of the same name. It was written and directed by Wil Shriner, and produced by New Line Cinema and Walden Media. The film stars Luke Wilson, Logan Lerman, Brie Larson, Tim Blake Nelson, Neil Flynn and Robert Wagner. Filming took place from July to September 2005 in Florida, with additional shooting in California the following January. The project was released on May 5, 2006. Hoot was a box office bomb in its initial theatrical run, and received largely mixed to positive reviews from film critics and film-review websites.

The film is about a group of children trying to save a burrowing owl habitat from destruction. Its habitat is located on the intended construction site of a pancake house. The developer of the project intends to proceed regardless of the environmental damage it would cause. Hoot features live burrowing owls and music by Jimmy Buffett. Buffett is also listed as a co-producer, and he played the role of Mr. Ryan, the science teacher.

Plot
Middle school student Roy A. Eberhardt (Logan Lerman) and his family (Neil Flynn and Kiersten Warren) have just moved to Coconut Cove, Florida from Montana. Roy is mercilessly teased and bullied at his new school by Dana Matherson (Eric Phillips), until he accidentally breaks Matherson's nose while getting harassed on the school bus and is struggling to get free. As a result, Roy gets suspended from riding the school bus for three days and must write Dana an apology letter as a punishment. Roy slowly becomes friends with Beatrice "The Bear" Leep (Brie Larson), and her stepbrother "Mullet Fingers" (Cody Linley).

Meanwhile, someone is responsible for sabotage on a local construction site where a "Mother Paula's Pancake House" restaurant, overseen by corrupt regional manager Chuck Muckle (Clark Gregg), is about to be built. In order to catch the trespassers and prevent further vandalism, Officer David Delinko (Luke Wilson) has parked his police cruiser on the building site. Delinko falls asleep and an unknown prankster vandalizes the car by spray painting its windows black. The next day at breakfast, Roy and his parents read about the spray painted police car. The police chief then gives Delinko a small police scooter to replace the vandalized cruiser.

Soon, Roy learns that in order to build the pancake house, they must first destroy the burrowing owls living on site. Mullet Fingers has been covertly pulling pranks to stop construction (including the tagging of Delinko's car), but Beatrice must take Roy into their confidence when he is badly bitten by guard dogs. Roy joins their crusade to save the endangered owls. Leroy "Curly" Branitt (Tim Blake Nelson), the beleaguered construction foreman, is trying to keep the construction schedule going, despite the presence of the owls, due to daily abuse from Muckle over the phone, and later in person.

In the end, the trio reveals to Delinko and the rest of the town that there are burrowing owls on the lot. They then manage to get everyone to be quiet long enough for the owls to emerge. As Muckle is fired from his job and arrested for his actions, Kimberly (Jessica Cauffiel), the actress who plays Mother Paula, offers Coconut Cove the site as an owl preserve in the interest of damage control.

Ultimately Roy's parents decide to stay in Florida, Officer Delinko finally gets promoted to detective and gets an unmarked patrol car (until he accidentally backed it off a fishing pier), Dana is sent off to military school where he gets tortured by his drill sergeant, Muckle does community service for 90 days (But then gets sentenced to another 30 days by the judge due to lying down on the job after getting hit in the head with a coconut), the land becomes donated and turned into an animal sanctuary and the owls continue to live there, Curly and Kimberly leave Mother Paula's Pancake House to raise dogs, and Roy continues to be friends with Beatrice and Mullet Fingers.

Cast

 * Luke Wilson as Officer David Delinko, a police officer in Coconut Cove.
 * Logan Lerman as Roy A. Eberhardt, a boy who helps to save the burrowing owls.
 * Brie Larson as Beatrice "The Bear" Leep, a girl that Roy befriends.
 * Tim Blake Nelson as Leroy "Curly" Brannit, the construction foreman.
 * Neil Flynn as Mr. Eberhardt, the father of Roy.
 * Robert Wagner as Mayor Grandy, the Mayor of Coconut Cove.
 * Cody Linley as Napoleon Bridger "Mullet Fingers" Leep, the stepbrother of Beatrice who Roy befriends.
 * Clark Gregg as Chuck Muckle, the corrupt regional manager of "Mother Paula's Pancake House."
 * Kiersten Warren as Mrs. Eberhardt, the mother of Roy.
 * Jessica Cauffiel as Kimberly Lou Dixon, the actress who portrays the titular mascot of "Mother Paula's Pancake House."
 * Dean Collins as Garrett
 * Eric Phillips as Dana Matherson, a bully who picks on Roy.
 * Damaris Justamante as Mrs. Matherson, Dana's mother.
 * Jimmy Buffett as Mr. Ryan, the science teacher.
 * John Archie as Captain
 * Robert Donner as Kalor
 * Carl Hiaasen as Felix, Muckle's Assistant.

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. 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. Hoot was shot during hurricane season, and the set did not 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.

Theatrical release
New Line and Walden Media pushed the film's initial release date of April 14, 2006 back to May 5, 2006, as only Mission: Impossible III and An American Haunting were opening wide that weekend. The gambit failed and Hoot opened at #10 at the U.S. and Canadian box office on 3,018 screens. The film's opening U.S. and Canadian box office was $3.4 million. 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. In 2007, Walden Media's The Seeker: The Dark is Rising nudged Hoot into second place in terms of 'biggest theatre drops'. 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. The film'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. Hoot entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in 2009.

Home media
DVD sales were more successful than the box office gross. The DVD was released on August 15, 2006 and sold 114,528 units, bringing in $2,058,068 in the opening weekend.

A newer figure indicates that 703,786 units have been sold, translating to $10,972,266 in revenue.

Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "rotten" rating of 26%, with a consensus that "Lacking energy and humor, Hoot is a ho-hum story of eco-awareness that falls flat as a pancake." On Metacritic, it has a score of 46, indicating "mixed or average reviews". One of the most positive reviews came from the Boston Globes 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." San Francisco Chronicles 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." Roger Ebert gave Hoot 1.5 stars (out of 4) and 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". 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".

Accolades
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.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Hoot (as appears on the accompanying soundtrack CD) has three elements: an original score, pop songs sung by a variety of artists, and pop songs (covers and originals) sung by Jimmy Buffett. The original score "Happy Ending" was composed by Mac McAnally, Michael Utley and Phil Marshall.

The pop songs sung by a variety of artists are:
 * "Lovely Day" - performed by Maroon 5, featuring Bill Withers and Kori Withers. Written & originally performed by Bill Withers.
 * "Back of the Bus" - performed by G Love and Special Sauce. Written by Garrett Dutton.
 * "Let Your Spirit Fly" - performed by Ry Cuming. Written by Ry Cuming.
 * "Coming Around" - performed by Brie Larson. Written by Brie Larson, Jacques Brautbar and Rami Perlman.
 * "Funky Kingston" - performed by Toots & the Maytals. Written by Frederick Hibbert.
 * "Florida" - performed by Mofro. Written by John J.J. Grey.

The songs sung by Jimmy Buffett are:
 * "Barefootin'" - performed by Jimmy Buffett and Alan Jackson. Written & originally performed by Robert Parker.
 * "Floridays" - performed & written by Jimmy Buffett.
 * "Good Guys Win" - performed by Jimmy Buffett. Written by Mac McAnally and Roger Guth.
 * "Werewolves of London" - performed by Jimmy Buffett. Written by LeRoy Marinell, Waddy Wachtel and Warren Zevon; originally performed by Warren Zevon.
 * "Wondering Where the Lions Are" - performed by Jimmy Buffett.  Written & originally performed by Bruce Cockburn.