Brie Larson's First Major Movie Role Was A Surprising Box Office Flop

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Brie Larson began her professional acting career when she was still a kid, appearing on 1990s TV shows like "To Have & To Hold" in 1998 and "Touched By an Angel" in 1999. One of her first big breakout roles was playing one of the lead characters in the short-lived WB 2001 sitcom "Raising Dad." That same year, she made her feature film debut in the hydroplane racing movie "Madison." That led to small roles in 2004's "13 Going on 30" and "Sleepover." Those experiences made Larson reluctant to play Captain Marvel years later. 

In 2006, though, Larson landed her first leading role in Will Shriner's 2006 activism drama "Hoot," based on the novel by Carl Hiaasen. In "Hoot," Larson played Beatrice "The Bear" Leep, one of three teen protestors who have to stop the construction of a local pancake house, as the construction would obliterate the habitat of a rare breed of burrowing owl. The movie starts from the perspective of Roy, played by Logan Lerman, who stumbles into construction sabotage efforts by the handsome and athletic Napoleon (Cody Linley). Roy is bullied at school, but Beatrice becomes his friend. Beatrice and Napoleon, it turns out, are step-siblings, and the three combine their efforts to stymie construction and protect the owls. 

"Hoot" was a box office bomb. On a modest budget of $15 million, it only earned $8 million back. I suppose it was a hard sell. Larson, Linley, and Lerman weren't huge stars yet, with the film's only "big" actors being Tim Blake Nelson as the beleaguered construction foreman and Luke Wilson as a local cop. And while Carl Hiaasen was well-known to adult readers, kids were less enamored with his book "Hoot."

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Jimmy Buffett did the music for "Hoot," and he has a cameo role. As we all know, kids LOVE Jimmy Buffett. I remember when my own son was seven and really wanted to have a birthday party at Margaritaville. [sarcasm] Oh yes, and Clark Gregg is perfectly cast as the bitter, corrupt manager of the pancake house, and he just can't wait to wipe out those pesky owls himself. As kid movie villains go, Gregg does the job well. Incidentally, Gregg, Brie Larson, and Tim Blake Nelson would all go on to play noted roles in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. 

The tone of "Hoot" is a little strange for a kids' movie. It's about characters who are relentlessly decent, and who use their adolescent sense of shenanigans to help an endangered species of cute li'l birds. "Hoot" is essentially about teens' first means of protest, and how they have to learn the ins and outs of local civics to get anything done. "Hoot" is the kind of movie your local librarian or city councilperson hopes you watch. That is certainly inspiring for kids who take an interest in political action, but it's not a scintillating enough premise to draw in giant crowds of kids to theaters. 

Anyone who can remember the 1980s might also find some real-world echoes in "Hoot," as there was some controversy surrounding the endangered spotted owl and what would be needed to restore it. Local environmental groups noted that if humans left the owls alone and didn't cut down their old-growth forests, their numbers would rise. Anti-environmentalists saw this as foolish, and the owls became villains in conservative circles. "Hoot," written by someone born in 1953, is certainly meant to evoke the spotted owl controversy. 

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An element of "Hoot" that isn't addressed in the script is the implied sexuality of Roy, played by Logan Lerman. When he is being bullied on a bus, he sees Napoleon for the first time, running down the sidewalk barefoot, his hair billowing behind him. The filmmakers made Napoleon look like a shimmering demigod, and the implication is that Roy is romantically attracted to him. In the script, Roy is merely intrigued by him, but a small tweak could have made "Hoot" a sweet queer love story. Or perhaps I was just filtering through my own bisexual brain and misreading things. 

Critics weren't kind to "Hoot," and the movie has a 26% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 98 reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film a mere one-and-a-half stars (out of four), writing that the film had its heart in the right place, but that he had trouble locating its brain. He continued: 

"I suspect the movie's target audience will think it plays suspiciously like an after-school special, and lacks the punch and artistry of such superior family films as 'Millions' and 'Shiloh.' The villains are sitcom caricatures, the kids are likeable but not remotely believable, and it is never quite explained why anyone would build a pancake house in a wilderness area that seems to be far from any major road." 

If "Hoot" had the glossy, empty-headed sheen of a Disney production, maybe it would have worked, but it was too grounded in real-world civics to reach that point. The film is enjoyable, but, like the burrowing owl itself, is an odd beast.