#REVIEW: “HOPPERS”

Review by Justin Waldman for Mr. Will Wong

In his directorial debut, Daniel Chong along with Screenwriter Jesse Andrews, help Pixar reclaim their glory as Hoppers is hilariously heartfelt, grounded, and damn near perfect.

Hoppers focuses on 19-year-old Mabel (Piper Curda) who is an activist and animal rights fighter, while she navigates her life in university, losing her grandma Tanaka (Karen Huie) a few years prior, and fighting ‘evil’ mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm). Mabel and her grandmother, used to have this spot on the outskirts of town that they just lost themselves in nature atop of a rock overlooking a body of water. It was quiet, simple, and peaceful, but one day the animals disappeared, and due to their disappearance Mayor Jerry was allowed to plan and build a highway that will save the town a few minutes off their daily commute and eradicate some traffic. Of course, Mabel is against this highway as it is going to take away the wildlife, and ruin the natural habitat –despite there being no wildlife there. Until one day she has a conversation with Dr. Sam (Kathy Najimy) – a professor of hers –  that if a beaver were to return to the area, the other animals would follow and the highway wouldn’t be able to be built.

Mabel decides to stalk the spot on the rock to lure out a beaver, and when she’s about to give up one appears. However, there is no interest in the food she laid out and it runs off and is seemingly abducted by a van. She chases the van, which ends up back at her university and discovers that Dr. Sam has created Hoppers technology, essentially being able to transfer their (human) brain into a robotic animal (in this case a beaver) that they created and study the animals up close and personal. Mabel finagles her way into the machine and transports herself into the beaver, and runs away to try and source a beaver to return to the marsh to stop the highway. This is where she meets King George (Bobby Moynihan) among several other animals including Insect King (Dave Franco), Loaf (Eduardo Franco), Tom (Tom Law), Ellen (Melissa Villaseñor) and several others as she tries to convince King George to come back to the land she cherishes to stop Jerry.

Hoppers is more complicated than just trying to lure back animals to their natural habitat, it speaks on how we as a society have overtaken nature and continue to push animals out, how we need to cohabitate, and continues to push issues that seemingly get swept under the rug on the larger scale without being too preachy and over the top but balances it with heart and whimsy.  Chong’s direction along with  a Screenplay evokes strong command that brings the audience to sheer delight with the heartfelt and human grounded story that shows that our deepest connections can be with the ones we love human, or animal, and we must be a voice for the voiceless. Bridging this gap in a way that we haven’t seen in an animated movie in a long time, just brings back the story telling audiences we loved with Pixar with the animation being as gorgeous as lively as seeing essentially an animated Disney nature doc, there is nothing shy of sheer brilliance in Hoppers.

Hoppers easily earns a place in the Top Five of this illustrious studio’s 31-year catalog. For me at least.

Walt Disney Studios Canada release HOPPERS Friday, March 6, 2026.