“Hoppers” opened in theaters March 6, making $46 million in the opening weekend. The movie will be available on Disney+ late April.
In a sea of sequel slop and live-action remakes, Pixar has possibly saved original animated films for children.
“Hoppers” was released on March 6, and its opening weekend made $88 million, making it the biggest opening weekend for an original animated film since “Coco” in 2017.
Over the last couple of years, it has been painfully noticeable that movie industries have no guts or brains to produce good kid movies like when we were growing up, and I can confidently say “Hoppers” gave me that nostalgic sense of joy leaving the theaters.
I watched the sequel “Zootopia 2” on the same weekend as “Hoppers,” and it blew the former out of the water.
While sitting in the theater, I was surrounded by families with toddlers, and to say the adults were just as entertained as the kids would be an understatement.
Without spoiling an insane part of the movie, let’s just say one small squish shocked the audience. The theater collectively gasped with disbelief of the horror flashed in a so-called “kids movie.”
Now, I’m not saying it’s not suitable for kids. It totally is. But this movie almost feels like a toddler’s introduction into thriller films.
One of the biggest “real life” problems presented in the film is environmental concerns.
The movie follows an angsty teenager named Mabel, voiced by Piper Curda, who battles the city of Beaverton’s Mayor Jerry, voiced by Jon Hamm, over his reelection campaign where he plans to construct an overpass on the glade where she spent her childhood with her late grandma.
She comes to the conclusion that to save the glade, she must get a beaver to build a dam and block the construction.
Mabel discovers that one of her college professors has developed a piece of technology that can transfer a human’s mind into a realistic animal robot. And if you’re thinking “hmm that sounds just like ‘Avatar,’” you would be right and the movie itself references the famous franchise.
Hint the title, Mabel “hops” into a beaver robot and begins a wild journey into becoming one with nature and creating a bond with the beaver leader King George, voiced by Bobby Moynihan.
She goes on to learn the rules of nature and accidentally causes a conflict that threatens humankind from being destroyed or “squished” by animalkind. She then must work with both the humans and the animals to save the town from extinction.
Pixar never fails to pull at audiences’ heart strings, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t shed a few tears. One of my favorite moments of watching the film was hearing a little girl sitting behind me cry out “the baby” when one of the beaver’s lives were at risk. Because I too was concerned with if the adorable beaver was going to make it.
My hope for this movie is that it will make the future generation kinder and more compassionate toward animals and nature because in the end that’s all the world has to survive.
Like Mable’s grandma says in the film when sitting by the glade soaking in the nature: “It’s hard to be mad when you feel like you’re part of something big.”