Hitpig!

A perfectly mid piece of animation about a bounty-hunting pig and new friends; solid entertainment for small kids but anyone who counts their age in double digits will start to lose patience.

I try to include my two boys, ages 11 and 14, in as much of my movie-watching gig as possible. Earlier in their lives, it was a question of what material was too mature for them, but lately the hurdle is them aging out of stuff they see as too kiddie.

My big guy immediately passed on “Hitpig!,” the new animated flick about a bounty hunter Pig who experiences a change of heart when he tracks down a wayward circus elephant. My younger fellow signed on, but wandered away about halfway through the movie and did not return.

I think that’s about where it will land for most families: solid entertainment for wee ones, but anybody who counts their age in double digits — or triple; we value readers of every stripe! — will find themselves losing patience. I did.

It’s a perfectly “mid” piece of animation from British production company Aniventure and affiliated animation outfit Cinesite, who have produced films like “Gnome Alone” and “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank.” It doesn’t have that polish of cartoon giants like Disney-Pixar or DreamWorks, but the voice talent is solid.

It’s the storytelling where it most fails to measure up.

Jason Sudeikis voices Hitpig, a grim lone bounty hunter of runaway animals. The setting is a world where animals and humans can talk to each other, but the latter still have no compunction about subjugating the former. Hitpig mostly works for humans who are in some ways abusing their critters, such as the opening sequence where he captures Polecat (RuPaul), who acquires nuclear-powered flatulence after an experiment gone awry.

Hitpig used to work under a human mentor, Big Bertha (Lorraine Ashbourne), who unfortunately got snapped on a job chasing a golden-toothed crocodile named Fluffy. Now he tools around his customized van/domicile, which comes outfitted with flying rockets and a sassy computer (Shelby Young), wearing vaguely biker-ish leathers and using his special ‘catchgun’ to throw nets, grappling hooks and other cool gadgetry.

His nemesis is Letícia dos Anjos (Anitta), a Brazilian animal rights activist-slash-superhero, who goes about in her own costume and has leet computer skills. She uses the latter to drain Hitpig’s monetary nest egg to use to help purloined animals. So he’s thrilled when he receives a new job for a cool $1 million.

It seems the Leapin' Lord of the Leotard (Rainn Wilson), an evil Las Vegas entertainer, has lost his featured act, Pickles the dancing elephant (Lilly Singh), and needs her back for the big debut. He actually considers himself to be the star, despite being quite heavyset (to use his term) and utterly talentless.

“I lock you up because I love you so much,” the Lord says to Pickles, as well his supporting animal acts, a quartet of pink poodles, and a certain familiar reptile who acts as his muscle.

Like a lot of cinematic villains, cartoon or otherwise, Lord’s whole nefarious plan makes little sense, as he’s actually paying his audience to show up. Things get increasingly goofier and more science fiction-y as the movie goes on, until we’re in straight Gru-land from the “Despicable Me” franchise.

Hitpig quickly tracks down Pickles, but she mistakenly believes he’s come to rescue her and return her to her homeland of India, and hopefully be reunited with the family she barely remembers. It seems the pig’s tough old heart begins to soften, so he feels bad about lying to her about returning her to Vegas, and eventually he has a change of heart about the whole thing.

Perhaps their first point of connection is that the ends of their snouts, though very much on different lengths of appendages, are seemingly simpatico. This will come into play later during some of the more action/adventure-oriented sequences.

Various hangers-on appear, many of them old bounties of hitpig, including Polecat, Lola (Hannah Gadsby), a koala bear who lives for scrapping; Super Rooster (Charlie Adler), a TV cartoon superhero who turns out to be pretty much the real thing; and Lobster (Adler) again, an excitable crustacean who’s supposed to be part of the meal on the “King Chef for a Day” cooking competition that Hitpig and Pickles stumble into, and winds up joining the crew.

Based upon a story by Berkeley Breathed, author of the iconic “Bloom County” comic strip — look for a quick Polaroid of Bill the Cat — “Hitpig” feels less like a personal creation than a paint-by-numbers animated free-for-all that came out of a committee. Screenwriters Dave Rosenbaum and Tyler Werrin ladle in Borscht Belt-level puns and cheesy one-liners by the dozen, many of them playing off Hitpig’s animal family, such as after a tumble: “I just cracked a baby back rib.”

Directors David Feiss and Cinzia Angelina come from the television and short film realm, and it often shows as the movie, at only 84 minutes, feels like stitched-together episodes rather than a narrative whole. It’s essentially a series of encounters, each interspersed with rapid-patter jokes. The film often feels like it’s in a hurry, but we’re not quite sure where to.

Is it a bad movie? Not by any means. I think kids in the 3-8 years range is the sweet spot for this movie, and will find the combination of distinctive critters, visual jokes and focus on funny/farty body parts quite engaging. Older kids, and grown-ups, will probably be over it before it starts.