3 out of 5 beavers (average)
Hoppers is Pixar’s weirdest movie to date. It’s an uneven yet effective introduction to science-fiction for kids with a good start, a meandering middle, and a strong ending whose best moments almost reach Pixar’s emotional heights and worst ones pass quickly enough, but make it a few logs short of classic Pixar dam.
19-year-old Mabel (Voiced by Piper Curda) has loved animals ever since her grandmother showed her the beauty of nature as a child. Now 19, she’s dedicated her life to preserving the glade outside Grandma’s house, constantly butting heads with current Mayor Jerry (Voiced by Jon Hamm), who plans to bulldoze the place to complete a new freeway now that the animals have packed up shop and moved.
After her attempts to get a signed petition fail harder than me in advanced math, Mabel feels defeated until she discovers her college professor Dr. Sam (Voiced by Kathy Najimy) and her colleagues Nisha (Voiced by Aparna Nancherla) and Conner (Voiced by Sam Richardson) have invented a machine that allows human consciousness to be transported into the body of a robot beaver, called “hopping” (think Avatar, but much more adorable). Knowing she can save the glade if an animal is found there, Mabel hops into the beaver-bot, scurries to the glade to find another beaver, all with a 48-hour countdown clock.
The early scenes of Hoppers had me shed a few tears and made me think I was in for something fantastic. Mabel is immediately easy to latch onto, the movie refreshingly slows down after a wacky opening, and her connection to animals, the forest, and her grandmother are established efficiently. The 3rd act also ends things on a strong note and subverts a few recent Disney cliches, which I always appreciate. The problem comes in a meandering midsection with hit-and-miss gags and a central dynamic that needed one more scene to emotionally hit home. It’s not bad, but the beginning and end feel more in line with classic Pixar that didn’t overload their films with childish jokes, while the middle has a good amount of those that lulled me into thinking it would just be a cute talking animal movie. I’m leaving out a few key characters to avoid spoilers, but everyone’s voicework here is spot-on and Mabel can proudly sit alongside other beloved Pixar leads. I also love that the movie isn’t afraid to let a quiet moment breathe, an increasing rarity in animated family films.
Hoppers has some serious tonal whiplash with a darker late-game story development, but it makes total logical sense in-universe and brings the themes home without hammering them in. The kids in my theater were laughing at the shenanigans and some parents I talked to afterwards thought it was cute, so I think it’ll be a hit with families. While it won’t leap on my list of favorite Pixar movies, Hoppers is a solid sci-fi that should leave kids jumping and their parents pleasantly diverted. Hop to your theater and See it.
Rated PG for Action/Peril, Some Scary Images, and Mild Language