Hoppers

As I said in my review of Elio, Pixar’s track record has proven rather hit and miss in the 2020s, complete with Elio itself finishing its theatrical run as a box office bomb that maybe made its $150 million budget back. This made me less enthusiastic about their follow-up film, Hoppers, at least at first. The more I saw the trailers, however, the more my curiosity got the better of me and I ended up watching it on opening weekend. Although I didn’t have high expectations going in, I had a genuinely good time and walked away with a willingness to actually rewatch a recent Pixar film later, which rekindled some hope for the studio’s future.

In the city of Beaverton, Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) has a deep appreciation for a forest glade that she would often visit with her grandmother. Years later, when mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm) wants to replace the glade, now mysteriously devoid of animals, with a freeway, Mabel tries to gain support to block it through a petition, to no avail. While attempting to attract a beaver to the glade to rebuild the beaver dam, she discovers that her biology professor, Dr. Samantha "Sam" Fairfax (Kathy Najimy), and her colleagues have developed a technology called the Hoppers program that allows a human to transfer their mind into a robotic animal, with the intent of learning more about nature. Desperate to save the glade, Mabel “hops” her mind into a robotic beaver and escapes Sam’s lab. In the events that follow her audience with King George (Bobby Moynihan), a beaver who rules over a massive dam, Mabel realizes that she may have bitten off more than she can chew when she inadvertently starts an animal uprising.

From the beginning, Hoppers provides a rather engaging and compelling story by showing how Mabel became the person that she is by the time the glade is in danger. We not only understand why she feels the way she does, but we get a sense of history between her and Jerry without a big infodump (we do, however, get a hilarious quick montage). Since Mabel is flawed from the start, it’s satisfying when she finally recognizes how she had unintentionally made everything worse and actively worked to overcome herself, even if she still slips up in the process. As such, the ending feels earned and leaves you on a very satisfying note. I also found the film well-paced, as I only looked at my watch a couple times and didn’t feel like it really dragged at any point, and the environmental themes were well-executed without feeling preachy.

Along the way, we also meet a diverse and memorable cast of colorful characters, most prominently King George, Ellen (Melissa Villaseñor), Loaf (Eduardo Franco) and Tom Lizard (Tom Law). Through them, we learn more about the rather intriguing structure of the animal kingdom, which includes a council of monarchs who rule over certain species like mammals, amphibians and insects. Through Mabel’s interactions with the animals, the issue of the glade’s future escalates organically and leads to several laugh out loud moments, including some well-timed dark humor, with strong emotional moments as well. It helps that the voice cast has some talent behind it, especially Piper Curda as Mabel and Bobby Moynihan as King George.

Mabel (Piper Curda, left) learns a lot about the ways of the
animals from King George (Bobby Moynihan, right).

One aspect that I really found impressive was the sense of scale. Not just how animals appear when put next to humans, but also the very “local” feeling of the setting. Although there is a gradually growing city, we primarily see its effects on nature and when we do see some parts of the human world, they’re usually smaller and more intimate locations like the inside of a university building or someone’s house. Plus, while the escalating crisis does build to a destructive climax, it’s confined to part of the forest, showcasing the destructive force of a forest fire, but still sells the sense of danger for the city without necessarily relying on citywide chaos.

What helps the “local” feeling as well is the use of director Daniel Chong’s art style, which translates well to CG. Rather than trend further towards photorealism as in other Pixar films, Hoppers has a more stylized look that creates a rather cozy vibe without feeling too out of place in the rest of the studio’s library. As someone who has preferred more stylized looks, I’m all for Pixar trying something new and hope that they continue experimenting with other styles in the future without necessarily trying to emphasize some new feature at the same time. One small, unspoken detail that goes a long way with the storytelling is the inspired use of eyes that indicates whether or not someone can understand animal speech.

Unlike some of the studio’s recent films, I would wholeheartedly recommend Hoppers. Although it doesn’t necessarily represent a grand return to Pixar’s early streak of high-quality films, it’s a sign that the studio is still capable of making you laugh and cry the way they used to.