Directed by Daniel Chong, Hoppers follows an animal-loving teenager named Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) who learns that a group of scientists has invented a way to “hop” human minds into lifelike robotic animal bodies to communicate with wild animals. She uses their technology to embody a robotic beaver and thwart a construction company’s plot to destroy the local animal habitat, but she unwittingly starts an animal uprising against all humans in the process.
Pixar is no stranger to going absolutely weird and wild with some of their original films in recent years, but even I have to admit this film seemed to be the weirdest and wildest of the lot just from the advertising alone. But regardless of how it looked or felt I was still more than willing to give a new original Pixar film a go over another unnecessary sequel coming out later this year. I got the chance to see this film early before its official release this week and I can definitely confirm it is indeed weird and wild in the best ways possible while also being heartfelt and bold.
Hoppers is one of Pixar’s most ambitious films, featuring fun characters and beautiful animation in a story that blends science fiction, dark humor, genuine emotion, environmentalism, and all other kinds of messages in one insane combination that shouldn’t work but absolutely does. It had the perfect balance of heart and absurdity without losing itself in the process, and while it does play with some narrative elements we are familiar with, it manages to still hook audiences in with its unique spins and unexpected turns.
The cast features a number of familiar voices that star alongside some newer ones that manage to stand out hugely with their performances, and the biggest standout amongst them was Piper Curda as Mabel Tanaka. Piper brings fierce energy and heart to the character of Mabel, giving us a compelling character that has good intentions but is trying to achieve them in the wrong way. We understand what drives her to do what she does in this film and we feel sympathetic to her cause though she ends up taking things too far when she’s ends up abusing the hopper technology for her goal in saving animals and their habitat. This makes for an interesting commentary on not only the use and abuse of power but also what lines shouldn’t be crossed in the pursuit of environmentalism. It’s not often we get such a layered and complex journey from a character in a Pixar film but the fantastic writing combined with Piper Curda’s performance makes for such an investing lead.
Alongside Mabel we have the absolutely hilarious and kind hearted King George, a beaver monarch voiced by Bobby Moynihan. King George is a truly pure soul who believes in seeing the best in people as well as believes in the possibility of unity and co-existence no matter what species you are. This is honestly another great theme about environmentalism and the current state of the world that is delivered beautifully through this character and the story. He’s an instantly lovable character largely due to Bobby Moynihan’s voice performance and shares wonderful chemistry with Piper Curda’s Mabel whether they are delivering a ton of laughs or a ton of heart together.
The supporting cast features a number of great voices that all get their moments to shine from Jon Hamm as Jerry Generazzo, a greedy but hilarious mayor, to Meryl Streep as the Insect Queen, a butterfly who is the most respected and feared member of the all-seeing and all-powerful Animal Council. The Animal Council all have their moments of fun, but to me the funniest among them were Titus, the Insect Queen’s hyper-violent son voiced by Dave Franco, and the Bird King, a very funny goose voiced by the late Isiah Whitlock Jr. in one of his final roles.
We have seen many stories about protecting the environment and animal revolutions done before in animation, so while it isn’t a fully original narrative it’s how it’s executed that makes it feel new and refreshing especially with some of the crazy turns it takes and the unique themes it presents. You think you know where the story is going one moment and then the next moment it flips the script, making for a thoroughly fun and wacky adventure that doesn’t lose sight of its themes. The themes in question are largely connected to environmentalism but they can also be connected to current events going on today. There are a lot of bold messages about the use (and abuse) of power despite good intentions as well as an effective message about breaking through the noise and embracing civility, serenity, and community. With everything that is going on right now in the world these are the perfect kind of themes that everyone should be listening to and I truly applaud the filmmakers for putting it into this film.
Despite having plenty of genuine heart, expected emotional moments and being seemingly aimed for families this film ended up having the most amount of dark humor I have seen presented in a Pixar film. Some past Pixar films have certainly had their own small batch of dark or adult jokes littered throughout but this one seemed to really push the boundaries of how much they can get away with especially with the amount of death that occurs when animals eat each other. Serious credit goes to Pixar for allowing so much of this dark humor to be put into the film because usually Disney would usually try to censor or soften it.
The animation is spectacular and gorgeous as one would expect from Pixar by this point, but I will admit there does seem to be one particular part of the animation that I am starting to grow a little bit tired of in modern Pixar films. While the animation of the animals, environments, and the cinematography is perfectly fine, the human character designs once again seem to be adopting the CalArts style kind of animation that has been used frequently by Pixar in films like Turning Red, Luca, and even Elio from last year. While I don’t have anything against CalArts style as much as others do, I do feel it’s starting to get a bit repetitive in Pixar films, making me miss the more traditional and uniquely detailed character animation that Pixar was usually known for.
Every human character in this film, with the exception of Mabel and Jerry, all have very similar character designs that don’t feel as expressive or unique compared to the characters in films like Soul or The Incredibles. When the animals of this film have more unique designs and detail compared to the humans you know something feels off. I hope that going forward Pixar will try to move away from this style of animation for their original films and go back to making more detailed human characters depending on the story.
The rest of the technical elements are superb with one of the biggest highlights being the score by Mark Mothersbaugh who delivers a truly memorable and wild score that wonderfully fits for the absurdity that this film provides. There are also some great needle drop songs this film has including a great use of the song Working for the Weekend by Loverboy.
Hoppers is a truly wacky and bold swing for Pixar that honestly worked so much for me and continues to prove that their original films still have far more magic and value to them over their sequels. I highly encourage everyone to go out and see this film when it releases this week so that we can keep seeing more original films from Pixar because they deserve way more love and attention than they have been getting lately. I’m going to give Hoppers an A- = 93.
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