In the new Pixar feature film Hoppers, a young woman driven to save animals learns some unexpected lessons when she poses as one. It's packed with fast-paced comic scenes ... and a few light concerns for kids.
Hoppers comes from director Daniel Chong, creator of Cartoon Network’s hit show We Bare Bears, which helps explain how different this flick feels from A Bug’s Life or Finding Nemo.
Mashing up science fiction and fish-out-of-water comedy, Hoppers has a fun yet edgy take on suburban environmental themes.
Pixar often lets newcomers change up their formula, all the way back to animator Brad Bird shaking things up with The Incredibles in 2004. Current Pixar head Pete Docter (Up, Monsters Inc.), executive producer of Hoppers, is now making room for Gen Z and Alpha.
Helped along by veteran producer Nicole Paradis Grindle (Incredibles 2) and screenwriter Jesse Andrews (Luca), the message-driven comedy works overall. Yet a few very scary moments and some gaps in character development make it ultimately less memorable.
Bold experiment
Soon after her beloved grandma passes, headstrong 19-year-old Mabel (Piper Gurda) feels her world caving in, as freeway construction begins to encroach on a local natural habitat where the grandmother and granddaughter found solace.
Mabel’s months of seemingly solo protests against city mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm), backer of the project, have fallen on deaf ears.
Thankfully, Mabel pauses her mad organizing long enough to let Dr. Sam (Kathy Najimy) have a word. Her science mentor explains that the exit of beavers, a keystone species, prompted that once-serene glade to waste away.
The earnest-yet-kinda-angry college student is driven to find out why and bring them back.
Mabel then discovers “Doc” –- yes, a nod to Back to the Future –- has developed tech to allow a person’s consciousness to “hop” into a robot beaver and interact with animals as if she’s one.
Hilarity and self-discovery ensue.
Together in a tough world
With typical Pixar visual depth and imagination, environments families encounter every day comes to vivid life. It’s hard not to think of recent hit The Wild Robot, though Hoppers keeps a breakneck pace with less time for scene-setting.
In beaver form, Mabel learns the natural world is brutal. She’s introduced to the pond rules, which include, “When you got to eat, eat.”
Some young viewers may be shocked by several minor animal characters meeting untimely ends, whether caused by another creature or accidental.
Amiable King George (Bobby Moynihan) gives newcomer beaver Mabel the lay of the land, admiring her spunk and even teaching her to swim.
“In back, we’re kicking,” he says, “In front, we’re kicking back.”
Gradually, the out-of-body student cracks the mystery of why the glade has been abandoned.
“Everything’s broken,” she confesses at one point. “And I can’t fix this one little thing. I’m so tired of doing this all alone.”
But her solution goes awry when the animal kingdom -- reptiles, birds, insects and the like -- decide to eliminate pesky Mayor Jerry. It’s a dark turn, and it gets darker still.
Funny but frightful for youngest viewers
Mabel tries to protect Mayor Jerry while still trying to get him to change. Not to spoil anything, but running from poisonous snakes and even a shark are involved.
Notably, she never refers to him as mayor –- and disrespect of authority is there from the start as young Mabel, rescuing a turtle from classroom captivity, bites a teacher.
If parents find that dubious, consider the third act has been called “light gateway horror.”
Kids who know sci-fi tropes –- for instance, mine got a primer from animated Transformers: Rescue Bots –- can likely handle it, but caution is justified.
By the end, Hoppers delivers some nice surface-level kids’ cartoon messages, but it never digs deeper.
Far better than some recent Pixar entries –- particularly Turning Red with its terribly confusing themes -– Hoppers is a fun time at the movies, though it lacks character and thematic depth that would make it more memorable.
Editor's note: Like The Wild Robot (more on that film here), which dropped a robot admist a colony of anthromorphic forest creatures, Hoppers says nothing about how animals actually are (other than depicting predation) and doesn't teach kids much about the real natural world. Like Mabel herself, the animals are essentially humans in animal suits.
Rated PG for action/peril, some scary images, and mild language, Hoppers is now playing in theaters worldwide.
Image: Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar
Freelance journalist Josh Shepherd writes on faith and culture for several media outlets. He and his family live in central Florida
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