Movie Review: "Hoppers"

By Bob Garver

Poster credit IMDB

The 2020’s haven’t been kind to once-great animation giant Pixar, at least with its original titles. “Onward” had its box office cut down by the pandemic. Three straight movies had to forgo theatrical releases and go straight to Disney+. “Lightyear” was the first movie from the studio that I couldn’t bring myself to recommend. That movie, along with passable-but-middling efforts “Elemental” and “Elio” were all unable to win a single weekend at the domestic box office. Yes, “Inside Out 2” made more money domestically than any movie in the last three years, but that was an established property. Pixar needs an original hit to pull itself out of its rut, and I’m happy to report that “Hoppers” is just the movie to do it.

The story follows outspoken college student and animal-lover Mabel (Piper Curda) as she tries to save the glade near her home from getting bulldozed at the behest of Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) to make room for a new highway. She’d have a better case if there were any animals making their home in the glade, but she’s sure that if the land can be protected, the animals will come. What she really needs is to move a beaver into the area that can dam up a stream and create a water supply for an ecosystem’s worth of animals. But finding a beaver turns out to be harder than she thought. The only one she can find is one that willingly gets into a car, rides to the university, and goes into the office of Dr. Sam (Kathy Najimy).

It turns out that the beaver “is” Dr. Sam. The professor has created a machine that allows a human mind to enter a robotic animal body. This allows them to observe and study animals without their human-sized bodies causing a distraction. Think of it as the technology from “Avatar,” Mabel certainly does. Of course, Dr. Sam created the “hopping” technology for observational purposes only, and of course, Mabel disobeys all instructions and goes hopping as a beaver herself on a mission to save the glade.

Mabel struggles to adapt to animal culture at first, especially the animals-have-to-eat-other-animals aspect. But she soon makes the acquaintance of King George (Bobby Moynihan), the beaver leader of a system of animals at a nearby pond and the character that I imagine will best lend himself to merchandising going forward. King George teaches her about “Pond Rules,” where everybody is friends, everybody helps out, and eating for sustenance isn’t personal. He sees the good in everybody, from the smallest creatures to dangerous predators to humans like Mayor Jerry.

Mabel fulfills her mission and helps King George take back the glade for the animals. But then Mayor Jerry retaliates, and she hadn’t counted on escalation. King George summons a whole council of animal monarchs to decide whether to fight more ferociously, and the Insect Queen (Meryl Streep) wants to take it a step further and squish Mayor Jerry for good. Mabel didn’t want to take things “that” far, but soon things are out of control. Can she, in her fake beaver guise, diffuse an entire war between animals and humans?

In some respects, mostly storytelling, “Hoppers” isn’t a huge step forward. Disney/Pixar characters get themselves in too deep over lies all the time, so this is par for the course in this era. And I did cringe at some of the jokes, especially ones that lean too heavily on modern slang. But this is what Disney and Pixar do best: adorable animals, clever gags, fun performances, and heartfelt emotional beats. I imagine that kids will love it and adults will like it. I liked it enough to say that I hope Pixar makes a well-deserved comeback with it, but I also hope that they have even bigger hits with more ambitious projects going forward.

Grade: B

“Hoppers” is rated PG for action/peril, some scary images, and mild language. Its running time is 104 minutes.

Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.