Hoppers review: Pixar's weirdest film is still wildly good

Hoppers, directed by Daniel Chong, has many familiar Pixar elements—the plucky heroine, glossy CGI and kid-friendly life lessons—but it leans darker and stranger than most of the studio’s recent work. Piper Curda’s Mabel anchors the story: a determined animal lover who discovers a machine that transmits human consciousness into a robotic beaver so she can recruit the glade’s inhabitants to stop a beltway development that threatens their home.

The film sends Mabel into an animal society led by Bobby Moynihan’s King George, alongside Eduardo Franco’s lazy beaver Loaf, Jon Hamm’s smooth-talking Mayor Jerry and a scene-stealing Insect Queen voiced by Meryl Streep, with Dave Franco as a vengeful caterpillar.

Jesse Andrews’s script leans into darker edges of the natural world and mines a few strong laughs—most notably a panicked beaver’s text messages to Mayor Jerry—while often building the animal community mainly to service the plot rather than fully realize it.

hoppers, pixar, daniel chong, piper curda, robotic beaver, bobby moynihan, jon hamm, meryl streep, beltway development, jesse andrews