written by: Jesse Andrews (screenplay) and Daniel Chong (story)
produced by: Nicole Paradis Grindle
directed by: Daniel Chong
rated: PG (for action/peril, some scary images, and mild language)
runtime: 104 min.
U.S. release date: March 6, 2026

“Hopper”, the latest animated feature from Pixar Animation Studios, is about a robot that integrates itself into the wild world of animals. That may sound like 2024’s award-winning “The Wild Robot”. It’s also about an activist/conservationist who transfers into a robot that looks, feels, and sounds like the wild animals it interacts with. That sounds like what we’ve seen in the “Avatar” movies. Comparisons are both understandable and inevitable, but “Hoppers”, which was directed by Daniel Chong (“The Bare Bear Movie”) and written by novelist Jesse Andrews, is weird and silly enough to be doing its own thing. It’s more than just a cutesy, talking animals movie, but even if it were, there’s a need for family-friendly fare in theaters.

From the time that she was a little girl, Mabel Tanaka (voiced by Piper Curda) has had a love for nature and animals, as well as a propensity to blow her top in rage at anything she perceives as an injustice. Her grandmother (Karen Huie) helped her find calm and peace by introducing Mabel to the glade near her home, a natural environment home to a colony of beavers, which has created a living ecosystem for a variety of other animals. Mabel would sit upon a giant boulder with her grandmother, both of them closing their eyes and taking in the sounds of the wind moving the leaves, the ducks wading through the water, and any other animal in sight. The noise and stressors of the world would be turned down during this time.

Now Mabel is 19 years old, her grandmother has passed (a Disney staple), and she is attending nearby Beaverton University, maintaining a rebellious spirit that leads her to fail classes due to her constant activism focused on preserving local ecosystems. Lately, she has been consistently campaigning against local mayor Jerry Generazzo (a game Jon Hamm), who is pulling out all the stops to build a freeway through the glade, after all the animals have moved, in order to connect the town with the local big city.

Desperate to prevent this from happening, Mabel stumbles upon a curious side project that her biology professor, Dr. Samantha “Sam” Fairfax (Kathy Najimy), and her two assistants, Nisha (Aparna Nancherla) and Conner (Sam Richardson), have been secretly working on. They’ve created robots that look exactly like animals and a sci-fi method for transferring human consciousness into them, allowing humans to communicate with and engage animals. Dr. Sam pleads with Mabel not to tell anyone about their Hoppers program, but one night, she decides that the best way to repopulate the now-barren glade with the animals that used to live there is to become one of them. Her years of experience sneaking in and out of places come in handy when she breaks into the laboratory and uses the device to “hop” into a robotic beaver. She doesn’t get far, however, when she’s snatched by an owl who drops her in a nearby forest.

Mabel awakens and makes her way to the glade while getting accustomed to her new beaver body. She finds a lethargic beaver resting on a mound in the middle of the pond and tries to prevent a giant, charging bear from eating him. She learns the beaver is appropriately named Loaf (Eduardo Franco) and Ellen (Melissa Anne Villaseñor) the bear was just trying to eat, which Mabel leans is “The Way of the Pond”. Now that she’s disturbed the natural order of things, Mabel is brought to meet King George (Bobby Moynihan), an appointed leader of mammals who resides at the dome-shaped communal Superlodge. George may have a quirky way about him, but he’s all about his fellow mammals, whether he’s leading them all in stretching exercises or getting to know all of their names. He displays a genuine concern for the natural order of things. When Mabel shares Mayor Jerry’s plans for the land, George mobilizes his followers, returns to the glade, and rebuilds the beaver dam.

However, when Jerry and his construction crew blow it all up, Mabel persuades George to contact the Animal Council, and that’s when we get a bigger picture of the animal kingdoms out there. Due to the human threat, a meeting is called between all the kings and queens of the different species out there, such as a goose Bird King (Isiah Whitlock, Jr., in his last performance), a frog Amphibian King (Steve Purcell), a Fish Queen (Ego Nwodim), three snake sisters as Reptile Queens (Nichole Sakura), and the butterfly Insect Queen (Meryl Streep), who’s accompanied by her caterpillar son, Titus (Dave Franco). Once the Council understands the gravity of the situation, they threaten to “smash” Jerry, just as any human would want to wipe out an animal. This reaction sends Mabel scrambling to find a way to bridge the gap between humans and the animal kingdoms she’s encountered, in an effort to prevent casualties and, hopefully, find a way for both sides to embrace peace.

“Hoppers” establishes itself right away as a comedy, introducing viewers to the stubborn, risky antics young Mabel commits. When we meet her, she has stealthily grabbed all the different terranium-housed animals in her elementary school and stuffed them into her backpack. She hopes to leave the school, but getting past the quartet of teachers will be a challenge, and the whole thing ends in a series of comedic physical mishaps that land Mabel in trouble. Her exasperated mother picks her up and immediately drops her off at her mother’s home, Mabel’s grandmother. As soon as Mabel arrives, her shoes are off, and she has climbed up a tree to sulk. Mabel’s grandmother sees a kindred spirit in Mabel and patiently helps her find her own way to peace, which specifically involves observing nature. The tender family relationship is a reminder of what Pixar does best: establishing two characters who find themselves in each other.

While much of the feature relies heavily on fun action sequences, “Hoppers” primarily stands out for its curiously zany storyline. Some of that is evident in the comic timing on display, much of which targets a younger viewing audience. Thankfully, there are no fart or poop jokes, which are woefully overused in most kid-friendly animated fare. Adult viewers of sci-fi should curb their expectations for anything that offers high concepts, since this is more akin to B-movie sci-fi. Not all of the story’s parts stick the landing, but some of the unexpected plot turns nevertheless result in an impressive and entertaining viewing experience.

As expected, the production design and music in “Hoppers” are beautiful and fun, respectively. Nature backgrounds are especially lush and realistic, and even Dr. Sam’s messy laboratory is detailed and lived-in. While some of the needle drops are eye-rolling, like Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend”, which played as all the beavers busily rebuild their dam, composer Mark Mothersbaugh (co-founder, lead vocalist, and keyboardist for the band Devo) has crafted a fun and lively score that matches the feature’s energy without overwhelming character moments or the overall story.

Look, we have to give Pixar’s original stories a chance, or else we’ll wind up with a dozen “Toy Story” movies, and nobody wants that, except for Disney suits. Outside of known properties, Pixar Animation Studios has had a rough go at it when it comes to animated features. Between two hit sequels, 2019’s “Toy Story 4” and 2024’s “Inside Out 2”, six features were released, with some dropping solely on Disney+, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not that any of them were critically panned, but more that moviegoers clearly prefer something they’re familiar with, rather than just trusting the studio and remembering that there was a time when “Toy Story” and “The Incredibles” were unfamiliar.

While “Hoppers” isn’t going to sit alongside other classic landmark Pixar features, it also doesn’t need to. Like many of the studio’s previous feature-length original works, “Hoppers” is comfortable in its own skin and is populated with charming, silly, and relatable characters. Environmentalism is obviously in the hearts and on the minds of both Chong (who’s worked on various Pixar projects since 2011, as an animator, storyboard artist, writer, and producer) and Andrews (“Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl”), but it’s best to remember that such messaging could be a first for someone. Endearing and silly characters are first and foremost here, followed by a fun and wacky third act that nails the entertainment viewers are expecting.

I caught “Hoppers” a week in advance, and one thing I found myself lamenting was the exclusion of a Pixar animated short. They used to play before every animated feature from the studio, which was one of the draws to seeing it in theaters. In the past, some of them have gone on to receive Oscar nominations, but it’s too bad we’re not getting any such shorts here.

RATING: ***