Hoppers

Hey everyone, and welcome. Today, we will be talking about the film Hoppers. Fun Fact: the main character is looking for a beaver to help prevent construction. While this seems very basic, Beavers are super important to the environment by building dams, which create wetlands where other species thrive and prevent fires from spreading, boost biodiversity due to water being stored on land where it soaks into he soil and promotes plant growth, and improve water quality by removing pollutants and breaking down harmful materials. This film came out in 2026 and stars Piper Curda, Bobby Moyinhan, and Jon Hamm, and was directed by Daniel Chong. SO without further ado lets get right into it.

Hoppers follow Mabel, who wants to protect the glades from the mayor, who wants to build a freeway and destroy the habitats there. With the help of a machine built by Dr. Sam, Mabel finds a way to temporarily transfer her consciousness into a beaver, so she goes to attempt to get the animals to fight back and get their land back.

Hopper is an animated comedy film that explores conservation and human destruction. It has similar vibes to A Bug’s Life, Avatar, or Princess Mononoke.

Pixar always drops good movies that I feel are enjoyable for kids, but have layers that go deeper than just a funny adventure. Hoppers is no different, with an overarching theme of protecting the environment while discussing how awful greed and corruption can be. With global warming becoming an increasingly serious problem and wildlife increasingly becoming extinct, it’s important to show the potential issues that could be seen with not taking into account that we all have to work together to ensure the environment is protected.

We follow Mabel, played by Piper Curda, who gives us perspective from both the human and the animal side of things. Mabel showed how important fighting for the environment is and how you unfortunately have to deal with bureaucracy sometimes, like trying to get the mayor to stop or getting the animal leaders to act, but that may end with you convincing someone to be even harsher, like the insect queen encouraging they squashh the human king, aka the mayor. Even though she thinks she knows how to protect the animals, she learns a lot from King George on how they need to move forward to ensure everyone survives.

I loved seeing Mabel as a kid and seeing how much her grandmother influenced her life and her love for the environment. I love the scene where she basically tells her to meditate, and listening to nature helps her to calm down and help her manage her emotions. Her grandmother is shown to have played a huge role in her life throughout the film and influenced her to be such a passionate environmentalist. It’s nice to see that she carried out her grandmother’s legacy by trying to treat the animals with respect and speaking up for them. In the end, she loses her grandmother’s jacket, which was passed down to her, so it is important to her, but I think the more relevant item that showcases their relationship was the glades, more specifically, the rock they always climbed on to meditate, from listening to the animals. In the end, she sits on that rock with King George and really takes in the beauty of the world wich was a nice way to end it.

All the animals were great in their roles, and the film showed some behaviors that were different from what I thought. The mamal king is like the nicest beaver. Loaf is a slow beaver, but he’s still funny. Tom Lizard is funny and a favorite. Ellen was a fierce bear who protected her fellow animal friends. When we meet the leaders its funny to see how the most vicious is the smallest, the insect queen. The other animal leaders also play their roles well, while truly showing how ineffective leaders can be, as they want someone to convince them instead of looking around and paying attention to what is going on in the world. All the animals were so interesting to see, and the leaders had crazy entrances that actually reminded me of the school entrances from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, very dramatic and epic.

Mabel and the Doctors proved that humans can be good and care about the environment, while the mayor proved that humans can be awful and want to destroy it for personal gain. King George proves that some leaders put their people first and look out for their well-being and will invite others in if they don’t have somewhere to live, while the Insect King is a spoiled brat who is power hungry and wants to be the sole leader. It just goes to show that on both sides there are good and bad, but at the end of the day, we all live here, so we need to find a way to work together and not put these bad people in these powerful positions, and if they are, try to convince them to be better or remove them. The damaging nature has effects on humans as well as animals, even if people try to say they don’t. I love how the film showed how they can benefit from each other because at the end, the humans help the animals get out, but when the town is threatened, the animals realize the giant dam can help them if they work together.

The animation was great for this film, and one thing that caught my eye was the ability to show all the textures in the hair on the humans and animals. They also did well with making sure that the animals emmotions are shown, so you get an idea of what they are thinking. I love how they pay attention to these small details when animating the film.

Music choices were great throughout the film and really helped elevate it. It helped set the tone throughout the film and helped drive its message.

I think my favorite part of the film was King George. I was surprised because I thought he was going to be some dumb leader whose useless, but he’s just a leader who’s too kind. When the humans come in, he opens his home and takes in everyone, and if there’s no space, he will figure it out. He’s very level-headed and doesn’t like to make rash decisions, which sometimes leads to not confronting issues, but it is useful, so you can find the best course option. I loved his pond rules, which seemed like the circle of life: things live, things die, and there’s not much you can do about it. He understands people, whether that be his subjects or the other leaders. This was proven when the royal council comes and Mabel got them worked up, which was the goal, but not to the point where they think the best option is murder, and you can tell he had an idea that they would bring that up, but not to the extent of murder. He was a great friend and just wanted to find a way that was mutually beneficial and let everyone thrive.

Hoppers is an adorable film that really has you rooting for the characters to save the glades. It has a great voice cast and some great animation, and by the end youll be tearing up or crying.