Hoppers Review

What if I told you that Pixar's Hoppers is the hardest I've cried in a film in recent memory? Pixar is, of course, known for marrying the hilarious with the heart wrenching, but we'd all be lying if we told ourselves that the studio has been up to its usual standard over the last several years. That's not a shot on Pixar, either, given that Disney's meddling in their storytelling has been widely reported over the last several years. All of this is to say that Hoppers signals an exciting return to form for Pixar.

The film follows a rambunctious, animal loving teen named Mabel (Piper Curda). She's got fire in her heart and a desperate need to protect her grandmother's glen and keep the animals' habitat intact. That takes us to Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm), whose name should be uttered with the same disdain as one would expect from any Parks and Rec character not named as such. You see, Mayor Jerry — a walking parody of California Governor and presidential hopeful Gavin Newsom — is widely beloved and deeply skeevy, and his reelection plan hinges on the completion of an overpass that will cut four whole minutes off of his constituents' commutes and destroy an entire habitat for scores of animals (read: grandma's glen).

Mabel does everything she can to stand in Mayor Jerry's way through traditional means, but no one hears her voice. She's forced to take matters into her own hands when she discovers that her mentor Dr. Sam (Kathy Najimy) has developed a proprietary new technology (hopping) that allows the user to transfer their mind into a robotic animal. You can guess where the story goes from here.

The comparison's to James Cameron's Avatar are not unfounded. The thing is, it's Avatar if the franchise had a heart or literally anything meaningful to say. Daniel Chong's film isn't just prescient, it's a gutting reminder of hope and togetherness. Mabel's rage plays a key role in the story not just to give the character some depth, but to mirror the frustration of an audience experiencing the same kind of helplessness on a global scale across all ranges of political frustration. Every day we keep fighting, and every day it feels like none of it matters. Hoppers is here to hold your face and tell you that it does, and that's what makes a movie about beavers and their neighboring animals being little weirdos so damn emotionally devastating. And yes, also very silly.

If you're curious about the tiktok famous lizard, his name is Tom. He's not annoying, that's just a tiktok feature. He is, in fact, a very helpful little friend.

Pixar's known for its animation, so it won't surprise you that Hoppers looks just great. There's a massive sequence in the film's climax that's as impressive as it is devastating, but it only works as well as it does because the animators understood how to illustrate the beauty of nature as well.

The real magic, though, is in Chong and Jesse Andrews' script. It questions just what in the heck it will take for people to stop focusing on their own self interest and come together to do something that's actually good, and leans into a similar premise of Verbinski's Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die in the idea that progress is only progress if it helps people (and other living creatures) rather than continue their paths to destruction. It's a beautiful story that will leave both kids and adults engaged throughout its runtime, and its silliness only elevates its big emotional swing.