“I had to shut off my critiquing brain and accept it for what it was, and I had a good enough time with it. These characters are fun, relatable, and the message at the heart of the film is spot-on.”
Scientists have discovered how to “hop” human consciousness into lifelike robotic animals, allowing people to communicate with animals as animals. Animal lover Mabel seizes an opportunity to use the technology, uncovering mysteries within the animal world beyond anything she could have imagined.
Hoppers was an animated sci-fi comedy Pixar film that was released in 2026, directed by Daniel Chong, written by Jesse Andrews, and starring Piper Curda as Mabel Tanaka, Jon Hamm as Mayor Jerry Generazzo, and Bobby Moynihan as King George. It is ultimately about a teenage animal lover and environmentalist who uses a crazy, secret technology to upload her brain into a realistic robot beaver so she can secretly talk to animals out in the wild, concocting a crazy plan to save a local forest glade from a greedy mayor trying to bulldoze it for a highway. This goes hilariously off the rails when she accidentally gets crowned by a real beaver king and accidentally incites a massive animal uprising against humans.
For a little while, this was the final Pixar film that I had yet to watch, as I’d seen everything else Pixar had done... and then Toy Story 5 came out, so now that is the only remaining Pixar film I have yet to watch. I’ll get there. I’ll get there.
But Hoppers is one of the few Pixar movies that I swear I saw like... next to no marketing for. It just kinda... hopped in out of nowhere. Without knowing anything about it, I dove into the film expecting some kind of Easter Bunny movie. But no, we’re talking beavers.
The next thing I wondered was if this was a really young crowd type of Pixar movie, like The Good Dinosaur. Maybe it was an all-animal type of movie with no people, but no... we have people for sure. So, the plot of this film was a nice surprise. We’re talking Avatar, right? They even make an Avatar joke and reference in the film saying, “THIS IS NOTHING LIKE AVATAR,” except... it is. At least the uploading of your brain into a literal secondary creature to gain the trust of those creatures... I mean... I’m not blind to it.
But yeah, the main plot of the film on every movie website says this girl is an animal lover. I’m not saying she isn’t... but it’s a little misleading, as it’s much more about nature with her. Yes, she tries to save a few class pets as a kid in the beginning of the movie, but after she moves in with her grandmother, her thing was basically going out to a pond, sitting on a rock, and being quiet. Just to let Mother Nature do her thing. Listen to the colors of the wind, basically. Close your eyes. Reset your brain, basically.
Then she gets really upset when the guy comes in trying to build a highway over her nature site... but it didn’t scream she’s mad because it made the animals run away... it screams she is mad because this was her grandma’s spot. This is where she goes to listen to nature, and now she can’t anymore. So, I won’t say animal lover; I say environmentalist. I know it’s a weird nitpick... but that feels more appropriate.
Past that, you have a story that is just silly, fun, and cute. It made me chuckle at a few parts here and there, especially with how silly it is. I love how she accidentally put the animals on a warpath to planning out squishing the human king, aka the mayor of the city. I was like, how are these animals going to squish a human? And then the birds lifted the giant shark out of the water and I was like... whaaaaat? That’s not realistic.
I think I’m too far gone with kids’ movies and far too logical about what I’m watching. After that, I just had to shut off my critiquing brain and accept it for what it was, and I had a good enough time with it. These characters are fun, relatable, and the message at the heart of the film is ultimately about being wary of our actions and how they affect others, especially when it comes to nature and animal rights... pretty much spot-on with a Pixar movie, I’d say.
Unbiased / Technical Score: 40/50 (80%)
Biased / Entertainment Score: 37/50 (74%)
Total Combined Score: 77/100 (77%)
Letterboxd Rating: 4/5