Wil Shriner's Hoot tells the story of three young environmental warriors who band together to save a colony of Burrowing Owls from the bulldozers of development in Florida. Hoot is based upon a young adult novel by Carl Hiassen.
The story revolves around new kid in town Roy as he tries to overcome local bullies and fit in to his new school. Roy befriends classmate Beatrice and her oddball brother Mullet Fingers. The three young adults band together to stop goofball construction foreman Curly (Tim Blake Nelson) from razing a Burrowing Owl colony in favor of a pancake restaurant.
Hoot is a comedy with a serious underlying message of conservation. The kids use some questionable methods to try and save the owl colony (like releasing potentially owl-eating snakes to combat guard dogs) and confrontations between the conservationists and those who would kill the owls range from silly to over-the-top dramatic. Looking over these goofy plot conventions, I enjoyed Hoot for the most part. The owls were cute (of course), the kids were passionate about their cause, and the anti-development message was clear.
The Hoot DVD is full of extras, including short documentaries on costar Jimmy Buffet and the three young stars, backyard habitat and animals in action. The most enjoyable for me was a short piece entitled "Visit an Animal Rescue Center." Bloopers and deleted scenes are also included in the extras. The DVD has one of the cutest menu navigations I've ever seen.
I give Hoot 3.5 Goldfinches out of 5.
Some new titles of note are available on Netflix for instant watching. Remember that titles are often on Netflix for a limited time, so watch 'em while you can! Only two of the titles from my previous posts (Netflix Instant Watch for birders and More Netflix...
Netflix has been in the news a lot in the last couple of weeks, mostly because of the outrage they faced from customers after an announced price hike. We're still happy with Netflix, although we'll probably switch to streaming-only before the price hike deadline. Since my post Netflix...
This short promotional video does a good job of explaining how some birders use birding smartphone apps in the field.
The official trailer for the upcoming movie The Birder, starring Tom Cavanagh, Mark Rendall, and Jamie Spilchuk, was just released! Check it out below.
