PG/Animated/Comedy/105 Mins
Directed by: Daniel Chong
Written by: Jesse Andrews
Cast: Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, Dave Franco, Eduardo Franco, Aparna Nancheria, Sam Richardson, Tom Law, Meryl Streep
Review: Do you like animated films with talking animals? Did you like James Cameron’s Avatar?…
Wish it had beavers instead of tall blue aliens? Well, then Hoppers is the movie for you!
Joking aside, they don’t share much in common. The film even cracks a joke that pokes fun at audience members making the comparison. But aside from a machine that transfers a human consciousness into a robot (in this case a beaver, bird and bunny rabbit), they are entirely different.
Hoppers follows college student Mabel who is recently dealing with the loss of her grandmother. Growing up she always had a care for animals and nature, which her mother and teachers could not understand. It’s only when she went to her grandparent’s house, where she felt understood. She was able to share her love of nature with her grandma, primarily at the site of a huge rock sitting by a forest glade. Now, that glade is in danger of being torn down by Mayor Jerry of Beaverton, to build a freeway. After many failed attempts to save it, Mabel has lost all hope. That is until she happens upon an experiment created by her college professor that can change the game. By connecting a machine to the brain, a human can take control of a robotic animal (via hopping) in order to learn about animal behavior and communicate with the many types of species. Hence the title, Hoppers. Mabel sees this as an opportunity by pretending to be a beaver and infiltrating the animal kingdom to convince her new furry friends to rally together to save the glade from being destroyed.
And I’m only scratching the surface on how INSANE this film can get…
This is the funniest Pixar film in YEARS. Going into Hoppers, I expected it to be funny but assumed most of the humor would be strictly for kids. Little did I know, this film is directed by Daniel Chong of Cartoon Network’s We Bare Bears fame. Similar to the show, Hoppers has a more mature sense of humor that will greatly appeal to the adults taking their little ones to the theater. There’s some scenes where I was surprised by some of the jokes/situations that had me muttering “this is a Pixar film, right?” to my partner next to me. It is 100% a compliment, give us more animated films where adults can laugh just as much, if not more, than the children!
One small issue I had with Hoppers is how it does follow a somewhat familiar story. While it takes crazy turns and unexpected moves, there are a few beats you could tell where it ends up. However, when you have a tremendous cast of voice actors (Piper Cursa, Bobby Moynihan and Jon Hamm are standouts) beautifully crafted animation, an important message on nature preservation and a heartfelt core to the story to wrap it all together, it sets it above the others.
The aspect that really took me by surprise was the heartwarming relationship between Mabel and her grandmother. It’s the emotional connection that fuels the story and is the main motivation for Mabel to go on this adventure. Knowing Pixar, they know how to make you cry your eyes out. One minute you’re laughing, the next you’re sobbing, wanting to call my grandma the second I exited the theater. As someone with a close relationship with their grandma and a partner who recently lost theirs, it really struck a chord with us which didn’t help the tear flow. So, there’s funny beavers and a talking lizard named Tom, and then an emotional gut punch centering on grief and acceptance. Pixar’s bread and butter.
Lastly, I want to talk about the incredible animation. As an animated film, human and animal characters look cartoony which is usually the standard. However, it shows how far Pixar has come since the first Toy Story. The details in the human’s clothing fabric or the strands of hair sticking out, or even the intricateness of a pancake breakfast, it looks highly realistic. I read somewhere that the filmmaker worked for 6 years on We Bare Bears (a tv show) and 6 years on Hoppers. You can tell the work was put in and it’s really well done.
It’s about to be Spring Break and I think Hoppers is the perfect film for kids and it has more than enough for the parents to enjoy. Bring the tissues and the film supplies the laughs. Score: 9.5/10
Hoppers is in theaters now!
