Pixar's Hoppers Trailer Is Avatar With Beavers, And It Looks Hilarious
For everyone who complains that Hollywood isn't making any original stories these days (and justifiably so, to be clear), now is your time to put your money where your mouth is. As far as animation studios go, Pixar has pretty much established itself as the trendsetter and the standard by which other family-friendly movies must live up to ... though maybe not quite to the extent that it used to be in its heyday. This year's "Elio," which yours truly reviewed for /Film here, felt like a return to form in many ways. Unfortunately, that failed to manifest itself in the actual box office results, leading to one of the higher-profile flops of 2025 thus far. But audiences will soon have another chance to right those past wrongs with "Hoppers," Pixar's latest upcoming original that we've had our eyes on for quite some time now.
Who doesn't love anthropomorphic animals? Director/co-writer Daniel Chong and co-writer Jesse Andrews certainly seem to understand the appeal, as their newest film uses the imaginative idea of humans turning into animals (so to speak) as the backbone for what's to come. The movie features former Disney Channel star and singer Piper Curda as the voice of Mabel, our main protagonist who stumbles upon advanced technology capable of placing a human consciousness into the "body" of a robot — a robot that just so happens to look like an incredibly lifelike beaver. Pixar just released our first official look at "Hoppers" and the footage is all about acclimating viewers to the far-fetched premise. And if any of this reminds you of James Cameron's "Avatar," well, rest assured the movie is well aware of that inevitable comparison, too.
Check out the trailer above!
Now, eventually Hoppers does plan to have some environmentalism in its story about environmentalism, right?
Now, I've certainly been wrong before, but everything we've seen about "Hoppers" (as I recently reported for /Film during a special Pixar presentation that also highlighted "Toy Story 5") suggests it should be another in a long line of smash-hit blockbusters that the studio has down to a science. The animation style and creatures designs look stunning and adorable, the trailer does a great job of distilling what could've been a difficult narrative setup into something understandable and easily-marketable, and the humor on display is incredibly up my alley. I don't know about you, but a beaver and a hungry bear both expressing confusion over why someone would interfere with the circle of life is exactly the kind of dorky tone I can respect.
What observant readers who've been paying close attention may notice is missing, however, is what "Hoppers" is actually supposed to be about. Of course, initial teasers aren't really meant to lay out all the basic storytelling beats for any given movie, and so, in that sense, this footage does exactly what it needs to do. It establishes a tone, sells mass audiences on the elevator-pitch concept, and (hopefully) gets people excited. But it's somewhat odd that nowhere in those two minutes of footage does the trailer even hint at why Mabel is so desperate to disguise herself as an animal in the first place. Fortunately, we know from previous reporting out of this year's Annecy Animation Film Festival that "Hoppers" centers on Mabel, a young environmentalist whose local glade full of wildlife is scheduled for destruction thanks to the villainous mayor (voiced by Jon Hamm) and his plans for constructing a highway.
Troublingly, Pixar has come under fire lately for watering down several of its movies and shows — first by removing a transgender storyline from their Disney+ series "Win or Lose," followed swiftly by similar creative tampering with "Elio," and now through what may very well be a compromised version of "Hoppers." Late last year, The Hollywood Reporter indicated that Disney pressured the film's creative team to "downplay its planned message of environmentalism," presumably over political concerns. According to once cited source:
"Unfortunately, when you have your whole film based around the importance of environmentalism, you can't really walk back on that. That team struggled a lot to figure out, 'What do we even do with this note?'"
"Hoppers" comes to theaters March 6, 2026.