Pixar‘s track record with animated anthropomorphic animals is kind of odd. Early on, it seemed to avoid the concept, or almost consciously steer towards animal characters not normally featured in animated movies. Its first two movies to fully feature animal characters were the insect-featuring A Bug’s Life and the fish-focused Finding Nemo, the two types of animals the recent fully furry world sequel Zootopia 2 went out of its way to show were “okay to eat”. The only other animal stars from the first decade of the twenty-first century from Pixar were the rats from Ratatouille, also an odd choice for an animal star. The goal seemed to be, if they were going to do something as “conventional” as a talking animal picture, they’d at least go for an “un-conventional” animal to do the talking.
More recently, however, Pixar has seemingly preferred variations on human-to-animal transformation. Brave, with magical human to bear transformations, was an early example, though the trend didn’t really start until this decade, with Soul featuring a man stuck in a cat’s body for most of the back half of the movie, Turning Red basically a straightforward furry transformation fantasy, and now Hoppers, which takes a more “science fiction” approach to the human intelligence in an animal’s body. Directed by Daniel Chong, it tells the story of nature-lover Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda), who hijacks a local university’s science project involving transferring human minds into animal robots in order to stop a highway project, becoming a beaver in disguise. I’m not entirely sure why Pixar has suddenly gotten really into “tf me into a …” type stories, but it is a trend I’ve noticed.
(I also don’t get how trendy beavers have gotten all the sudden. Is it dirty, or what?)
We are introduced to Mabel as a sort of animal rights activist, trying to free various classroom pets from their cages at her school. When she’s caught, her grandmother actually introduces her to nature, visiting a small peaceful pond which becomes even more important to her as time montages on and her grandmother passes on. As an adult, she becomes an outspoken proponent of nature and animals, often butting heads with Jerry (voiced by Jon Hamm), the mayor of her hometown, Beaverton. Jerry is big on expanding his town via construction, which is not always great for nature. Eventually, things come to a head when a highway extension will cause Mabel’s beloved pond itself to be bulldozed.
However, it is soon pointed out to Mabel that the beavers that made the dam that created the pond in the first place are no longer around. As a keystone species, the small habitat has already collapsed anyway, so a little construction won’t hurt anything, unless Mabel can get a beaver to take up residence at the pond again. However, the only beaver she can find turns out to be a robotic creation of Dr. Sam (voiced by Kathy Najimy), who is “hopping” her brain into the robotic beaver to control it and observe other animals in their natural state (and also, somewhat inexplicably, translate their language). Mabel quickly steals the technology for herself, and uses it to try and recruit a beaver directly to her pond, thus stopping Jerry’s new highway extension.
Mabel has a few misadventures with animals in the wild, and after a few misunderstandings, is taken to the King of the Mammals, George, a real beaver (voiced by Bobby Moynihan). He explains the “Pond Rules” which the animals in the wild live by to Mabel, and reveals why all the animals left her pond. Mabel’s attempts to rally the animals against humanity take a dark turn when the various monarchs of the animals get just a little too enthusiastic about the idea. Mabel must find a way save her pond, but also realizes that she’s managed to put Jerry and the humans of Beaverton in danger, as well.
While technically a science fiction movie, there is not a lot of effort put into at all trying to explain how the “hopping” into robot bodies work. The animal kingdom as depicted is also just really well organized, to a comical extent. To be clear, this is a observation, not a critique. The movie is primarily a vehicle for jokes about courteously professional hit-sharks, woodland critters doing aerobic routines and other such absurdities. There’s also some thematic backbone present, mostly about putting aside differences of opinion to work together, of course. It’s an animated feature film aimed at family audiences. Of course there is.
Though junior animal rights’ activist Mabel is the protagonist, and her viewpoint colors most of the runtime, the film is also not without sympathy for Jerry’s position, either. If anything, he’s made sure that his highway extension makes as small an ecological impact as possible, even without Mabel’s pestering him about it, and he just had the misfortune of picking the pond that Mabel had a personal attachment to. Of course, he’s not entirely innocent, either; it’s not clear what his highway extension actually accomplishes for the residents of Beaverton, other than, well, extending the highway, which he seems to think of as a worthwhile goal in and of itself.
The animation is of course superb, this being a Pixar production, though the artstyle is slightly simplified, more cartoony than realistic. One visual cue set up is that animals, when seen from a human viewpoint, have small, black beady eyes, while when seen from the view of another animal, have expressive, big cartoony eyes. The viewpoint can switch from shot to shot and very quickly, but ultimately is not too confusing, and is used for one pretty inspired sight gag late in the movie.
I can’t help but compare this movie to 2024’s The Wild Robot, and not just because of the whole “robot amongst woodland critters” thing, but also because they share some extremely similar third act plot points. That kind of hurts Hoppers, not because I think for a second it’s ripping off The Wild Robot on purpose, but because I can’t help but be reminded of the better movie. Hoppers is pretty good as animated talking animal comedies go, but it’s not top tier, like The Wild Robot.
