Hoppers review – Hop to it

While the mammoth media corporations love to milk their IPs thanks to a pre-existing fan base, franchise fatigue is absolutely a thing. So it’s refreshing to see that Pixar, operating under the Disney banner, continues to deliver new stories in animated form. For every Inside Out 2, there’s an Elio; for every Toy Story 5 (and Incredibles 3 and Coco 2), there’s an Elemental, Soul or Turning Red. Pixar’s latest is another original tale: Hoppers.

In sci-fi comedy Hoppers, 19-year-old Mabel Tanaka (voiced by Piper Curda) is on a mission to save a patch of land from development as Mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm) enacts his plan to build a freeway overpass that will better link the town of Beaverton. Already a passionate animal advocate, Mabel has further motivation to save the glade: it’s a special, soul-soothing spot she shared with her nature-loving grandmother. The only thing that will stop the construction is if wildlife is found on-site, and Mabel stumbles on a potential solution courtesy of her university professor, Dr. Sam (Kathy Najimy): just like in Avatar, she can transplant her consciousness into a robotic beaver body, infiltrate the area’s reclusive animal community and lure them back.

Hoppers may be something new from Pixar but it does have a number of similarities to last year’s massively acclaimed The Wild Robot, from Dreamworks Animation. To begin with, Mabel is a distrusted outsider among the local wildlife. She’s also shocked by impartial Pond Rules, where there’s no judgement about Nature’s food chain. This is a bear eats beaver world.

Hoppers isn’t as heart wrenching as The Wild Robot, however. It has its poignant moments, to be fair, but the film – directed and initially scripted by We Bare Bears’ Daniel Chong – is a generally more light-hearted affair. In Hoppers you’ll find humour for kids and adults alike, although the film is perhaps most notable for A) its Gen Z-orientated messaging, and B) slyly progressive themes.

In terms of the former, Hoppers doesn’t for one second trot out the trite “just be yourself” mantra baked into the vast majority of animated films of the past few decades. Rather, the movie has far more interesting, and relevant, things to say about feelings of anger and impotence in the face of injustice delivered from the top down in society.

Meanwhile, Hoppers adopts a welcome show-don’t-tell approach to its conservation themes and, well, liberal-leaning ideas. Given that Pixar was forced to remove an entire trans character from its Win or Lose limited series, it makes sense that Hoppers would have to be more covert in conveying non-conservative content. Look closely and you’ll spot how the film flies under the radar with its inclusive attitude to STEM, and even caps off with Mabel wearing a pro-public library t-shirt.

If you’re in a cynical mood, you’ll probably poke holes in Hoppers’ optimistic attitude to most things, including its insistence that everyone is good deep down. However, the film demonstrates a winning combination of exuberant (but fortunately not hyperactive) energy and sharpness, regardless of how close or distant you choose to position yourself from its embedded themes. It may not have the lingering emotional resonance of The Wild Robot, but Hoppers is still a good, meaningful time, worth a cinema outing.

Catch Hoppers in cinemas from Friday, 6 March.