Pixar released its newest film, “Hoppers,” on March 6 – and it’s more insane than you could’ve imagined.
The film centers on 19-year-old Mabel (Piper Curda), an avid animal lover who wants to save “the Glade,” a piece of nature that she and her late grandmother love. Her obstacle is the mayor, Jerry (Jon Hamm), who aims to destroy it and build a highway instead. The concept might sound pretty straightforward, and the beginning of the film largely is, but then the film takes a sharp turn and introduces something new: hopping.
This new technology, being developed by a professor at Mabel’s school, enables humans to “hop” their minds into a robot made to look like an animal. Mabel sees this as an opportunity to save the Glade, hops into a robot beaver, and chaos ensues.
Driven by her passion and goal-oriented mindset, Mabel enters the animal world and uncovers all sorts of secrets about animalkind – including the fact that each category of animals (mammals, insects, amphibians, reptiles etc.) has its own ruler. She learns a lot from King George (Bobby Moynihan) and the audience feels for him deeply by the end.
There are tons of laugh-out-loud moments and shocking events that teach the viewer never to get too comfortable with where the film is going. These events lead to the final act, in which the film even gets scary as certain animals start to take control. Without saying too much, the increase in attention paid to Titus the Insect King (Dave Franco) catches the audience off guard in a surprising and humorous way.
“Hoppers” delivers one of Pixar’s most bizarre and unhinged films to date, making for an incredibly enjoyable theater experience. It has audiences all over saying “Pixar is back” after it broke through for the biggest global launch for an original animated film in almost a decade, with “Coco” having held the title since 2017.
The success of the film encourages viewers to be hopeful and excited about the future of animated films and what’s to come.
Junior Emily Myers is a Copy Editor. Her email is emyers3@fandm.edu.