Hoppers Review: Pixar's Funniest Film In Years Is An Instant Classic And So Cute I Could Scream

During a quarterly earnings call in May of 2025, Disney CEO Bob Iger stressed that its feature animation divisions will prioritize sequels over original films (per Cartoon Brew). "I just think that right now, given the competition in the overall movie marketplace, that actually there's a lot of value in the sequels obviously, because they're known and it takes less in terms of marketing," he said. The sentiment is understandable, especially as the industry's foothold continues to waver, but it fails to recognize that you can't launch a franchise off of something that doesn't exist. If you want "Inside Out 2" to make over a billion dollars at the box office, you have to foster the success of "Inside Out."

Fans of Pixar are undoubtedly excited for "Toy Story 5" heading to theaters later this summer, but this is the fifth installment of a series that started over three decades ago. "Toy Story" was the movie that made me fall in love with the theatrical experience. I had just started kindergarten then. I'll be 36 later this year. In the last few years, Pixar has had plenty of stand-out original stories, with "Soul," "Luca," "Turning Red," and "Elemental" all shining examples of what the company is capable of delivering. But after sending films straight to Disney+ trained a generation of moviegoers to "wait for it to hit streaming," and the theatrical experience becoming more and more cost-prohibitive for families — an all-ages movie needs to be truly special (or based on an insanely popular video game franchise, apparently) to convince families to shell out the big bucks to see it in theaters.

"Hoppers" deserves to be that movie. Audacious, heartfelt, and uproariously funny, "Hoppers" has all the makings of an instant classic for Pixar.

Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) is a college undergrad who loves animals, so much so that she's become a pain in the side of her local government, constantly protesting industrial expansions at the cost of displacing the local wildlife. She learns that Mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm) is going to demolish the glade where she and her grandmother used to spend her childhood, and because the animals that used to populate the area have already left, there are no environmental laws to stop it.

Fortunately, she also learns that her favorite professors have invented a way to "hop" human consciousness into lifelike robotic animal bodies, and decides to embody a beaver to convince them to move back to the glade and stop the mayor's plans of destroying the local habitat. While inside the beaver body, Mabel unintentionally becomes a Joan of Arc-esque revolutionary and accidentally inspires an animal uprising against the humans.

The premise is high-concept and a little bizarre, but under the confident wing of writer/director Daniel Chong ("We Bare Bears"), the film is completely committed to its vision. Clever wordplay and outrageous slapstick physical comedy meld into a delightful lodge of chaos, but beneath the eccentric surface lies a surprisingly thoughtful and emotionally resonant story about not just building community, but maintaining it in the face of hopelessness. The film recognizes the similarities in its premise to James Cameron's "Avatar." It outright acknowledges "this is nothing like 'Avatar,'" but the real joke is that "Hoppers" also shares the sci-fi film series' heart in delivering a pro-environmentalist message, which is the real reason Cameron made the films in the first place. Despite being easily the weirdest, unhinged, and most unpredictable movie to come out of Pixar in years, the message of "Hoppers" is crystal clear.

Mabel makes for one of Pixar's strongest protagonists, as she constantly tries to do the right thing regardless of how inconvenient it is for her and those who love her. There's nothing glamorous about fighting the good fight, and it's often isolating and exhausting. But history has never been made by comfort, and change doesn't arrive after a polite invitation. Mabel knows that things can only get better if a community links arms in resistance and refuses to back down. Beavers, by nature, are a vital keystone species — ecosystem engineers that fundamentally alter landscapes by building dams, creating wetlands, and fostering biodiversity. Their lodges also serve as community hubs, providing sanctuary to any creature who needs it.

In a moment where ICE raids dominate headlines and political administrations seem determined to litigate away rights people have spent lifetimes securing, "Hoppers" is less escapism and more of a reminder that endurance is the stubborn belief that surviving the storm is itself an act of rebellion. For anyone feeling politically winded or spiritually demoralized, the film offers something dangerously powerful: hope that doesn't apologize for existing.

And it's impossible not to see the parallels through themes of displacement, erasure, and the reshuffling of communities as if they were inconvenient furniture chucked to the side of the road. While yes, this is a story where animals become obsessed with emojis on smartphones and try to take out a politician, the struggle of the Pond Crew mirrors the ethnic cleansing and forced migrations unfolding across the globe by underlining a truth we try very hard to ignore: borders are imaginary; our suffering is not.

As Pixar expands its IP empire (because of course it will, even if it's a bad idea), original stories like "Hoppers" need to be prioritized as the lifeblood of their company. The screenplay is sharp, emotionally literate, and unafraid to meld zany comedy with important lessons. The voice cast inhabits their characters, and the film explodes with personality as a result. Not to be dramatic, but I would die for Bobby Moynihan's King George. The film wisely changes the eye shapes for the animals depending on whether humans are looking at them or animals are looking at each other, so when I see a sad King George, I too am devastated and suddenly feel the urge to buy 500 plushies of him as an apology.

Between the giant set pieces and laugh-out-loud moments, one in particular had me rolling for a good few minutes, there's also tranquil reminders to give yourself over to the natural beauty of the world around us. The sound design knows when to slow things down to a whisper, allowing nature sounds stretch into moments of serenity, and when to surge into frenetic chaos when all hell breaks loose. "Hoppers" trusts the audience to go on the emotional journey with the characters without needing to trick them with cheap sensory cues. Radical concept, I know.

Some critics will inevitably roll their eyes and call it overly optimistic, but we have to fight cynicism and remember that a bright-eyed vision of hope is an investment strategy. We pour everything into younger generations because they are the torchbearers for ideals we're too battle-worn to carry alone. Optimism, in this context, is just another form of infrastructure, not unlike the lodges built by beavers to shape our world. We should never let the world convince us it's not worth trying to make better, and "Hoppers" is here to help.

/Film Rating: 9 out of 10 (or 🦫🦫🦫🪵🪵🪵🦎🦎🦎 / 10)

"Hoppers" opens in theaters on March 6, 2026.