MickeyBlog Movie Review: ‘Hoppers’

For fans of Disney and Pixar animation, Hoppers is a must.

I’ll just start the review like that and then work my way backward.

There’s just no point in beating around the bush here. When you read a review, you want to know the obvious.

Is the movie good enough to justify your time? In the case of Hoppers, you’re aiming too low.

You should set your expectations much higher, and I still believe you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

So, here’s a gushing review of Hoppers, Pixar’s big comeback movie.

The Elephant in the Room

I unabashedly praised Elemental, a movie that took the world a minute to notice.

Elio is another film I championed, even though I knew it was a lost cause. It’s quite sweet.

Still, I was swimming upstream on that because almost nobody wanted to watch Elio.

In recent years, Pixar has remained stuck in a weird juxtaposition.

People love their sequels and will happily go watch them, as demonstrated by Inside Out 2.

That was the number one movie of 2024. Meanwhile, Elio absolutely bombed.

The child-friendly story was arguably Pixar’s worst-performing movie ever.

Later this year, Toy Story 5 will arrive, and I’m confident it will perform extraordinarily well.

Lately, fans will give every Pixar sequel the benefit of the doubt. New stories are in trouble from the start, though.

That brings us to Hoppers, an original story from a studio that hasn’t had one of those hits in a while.

Pixar’s last original story to perform well at the box office was Coco, which came out nine years ago.

I apologize for making you feel old, but it’s important that you appreciate Hoppers’ dilemma.

No matter how good the film is, many people will never even consider watching it in theaters.

Now, I’ll explain to you why that’s a huge mistake.

About Hoppers

The trailers for Hoppers have done a remarkable job in hiding the story’s true intent.

Disney is cheekily marketing it as a backhanded, animated version of Avatar.

The environmental themes definitely justify this choice, and the “This is nothing like Avatar” joke kills.

Hoppers is more accurately described as Pixar’s Zootopia, which makes its timing wild.

Zootopia 2 is still in theaters and was in the top ten as recently as last weekend.

So, a simultaneous Zootopia imitator from the same studio borders on being historically unprecedented.

Disney’s thinking here appears to be that the similarities between the two films will help, not hurt.

Having watched both films and enjoyed Zootopia 2, here’s the objective truth.

Hoppers is miles better. Hoppers is the kind of movie that reminds us why we all love movies.

I suspect the key to its success is Daniel Chong, one of the most fascinating people at Pixar.

Chong worked on several Pixar films, including Inside Out and Cars 2.

His first job was on one of my absolute favorite Disney animated movies, Bolt.

However, Chong left Pixar to work at Cartoon Network, where he created We Bare Bears.

This series proved so beloved that it ran for four seasons and eventually earned a movie.

Sadly, that film, We Bare Bears: The Movie, arrived in…2020. So, yeah, it got lost in the shuffle.

Soon afterward, Chong returned to Pixar to work on a new project, which is Hoppers.

Notably, some of Chong’s cast from We Bare Bears, most notably Bobby Moynihan, provide voices in Hoppers.

Chong dances with who brought him in multiple ways, as a bear proves integral to the plot. Speaking of which…

The Story of Hoppers

I honestly don’t want to spoil anything about Hoppers, as I know how happy this film will make you.

So, I’ll be as generic as possible with the plot, much of which is visible from the trailer.

We meet Mabel Tanaka as a kid, and we quickly learn that her heart is in the right place.

However, her decision-making…needs improvement. That fact remains when she turns 19.

Mabel is a student at the local university, but her real passion involves protecting animals.

As part of her constant struggle to protect nature, she constantly bumps heads with Jerry.

That’s a problem because Jerry is the mayor of their town, Beavertown, and he’s beloved to boot.

Jerry is a shoe-in for re-election, especially now that his highway initiative is ready to begin.

Alas, that highway extension requires the destruction of the forest, including a pond Mabel loves.

Once our heroine learns that she only has 48 hours to save said pond, she acts…recklessly.

Mabel discovers an Audio-Animatronic – this movie is VERY Disney – she can inhabit.

Thanks to technology, she can enter the forest and befriend all the animals, birds, and insects.

Oh, and there’s a shark. It’s IMPERATIVE that you know that there’s a shark in this movie.

My wife and I laughed for two minutes straight because of that shark.

Diane the shark will make you forget all about Bruce from Finding Nemo.

Diane is way funnier, oftentimes without saying a word. And that’s the crux of Hoppers.

The Genius of Hoppers

Chong sets up a series of adventures that lead to slapstick humor at the least expected times.

There are ROFL moments you won’t see coming, and they’ll tickle you so much that you’ll think about them later.

I’m never going to think of a potato the same way again nor can I use emojis right now without giggling.

Chong manufactures big laughs while telling a poignant story about our place on Earth.

There’s a line I think about a lot from Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo! “I like the animals, but I love the humans.” – That’s what is up for debate in Hoppers.

When we meet the newly adult Mabel, she’s suffering from loss, and her mother has moved.

So, she’s all alone in what should be a familiar, comfortable setting. Her emptiness drives her actions.

Along the way, she makes mistake after bungling mistake, but she finds a new family along the way.

In that manner, this film reminds me of Bolt in the best possible way.

Hoppers advocates for people to get more involved and put themselves out there.

In this fashion, it’s also adopting the same premise we’ll see later this year with Toy Story 5.

Just as Toy Story addresses the introduction of a tablet toy, Hoppers evaluates society’s evolving behavior.

People have grown more internal, which makes them less interested in the great outdoors.

Mabel loves the animals and tries to help them, but it feels like the whole world is against her.

Despite this fact, she keeps plugging along, and it’s inspirational to watch.

My Glowing Opinion of Hoppers

As my wife and I drove home from the theater, she said something profound to me.

She told me that she was Mabel as a child, someone who adored animals to a profound degree.

To this day, both of us will carry a spider outside rather than squish it. That’s who we are.

Hoppers delivers a clarion call to those of us who treasure the animal kingdom.

But the film works on a second level. It provides raucous humor on a level that’s rare for Pixar.

I’ve heard more than one movie critic friend say that this is Pixar’s funniest movie ever.

My wife presses back against this claim, arguing that Up may deserve that title.

Well, she had right up until she saw Hoppers. Now, I think she agrees that it’s the funniest.

To Disney’s credit, it has studiously hidden all of the big laughs rather than giving them away in the trailer.

So, our sneak preview felt like a shocking surprise, with resounding laughter at countless intervals.

Final Thoughts

As soon as the film was over, we didn’t debate whether we liked Hoppers.

My wife and I both give it a ten out of ten, and she’s a former film critic as well.

No, our debate became when was the last time Pixar made a film this good.

I circled back to WALL-E, and she countered that it was clearly better than that.

She argued that Hoppers is Pixar’s best film since Up. I think she persuaded me, too.

So, that means we loved Hoppers more than The Incredibles 2, Coco, or either Inside Out film.

Disney fans, you know what to do. Your choices this weekend are simple.

You can spend the weekend doing your usual amount of doomscrolling, or you can be happy for two hours.

Go see Hoppers, and thank me later.

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Feature Photo: Disney/Pixar