Over its 30-year history, Pixar has created some of the most beloved animated features in film. While only time will tell if Hoppers belongs on that distinguished list, it's another winner for the storied animation studio, full of surprises, charm, and a surprisingly moving story.
Pixar has set a high bar for animation. From changing the game with the full-CGI masterpiece Toy Story to moving audiences in Up and Finding Nemo, it continues to surprise and delight audiences with elegant concepts and exemplary execution.
While that's certainly true, recent years have seen a few surprising stumbles. 2022's Lightyear was an odd spinoff of the beloved Toy Story franchise, while 2020's Onward, 2023's Elemental, and 2024's Inside Out 2 had their charms but largely failed to capture audience hearts.
Hoppers is a fine return to form for the storied studio, as a funny, emotional tale with strong worldbuilding and great vocal performances. It's a return to what Pixar does best: building fresh new tales from surprising premises.
Talented Performances Ground a Stellar Pixar Outing
Hoppers centers on the good-natured but rebellious young woman Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda), who has long lived in the town of Beaverton with her grandmother until the latter's death. The pair bonded over the beauty of the local pond, so Mabel loathes the plan of Beaverton mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm) to build a freeway through the area.
She has to repopulate it with wildlife to save it and finds an unlikely ally in the effort: the local university's experimental robotic animals, Hoppers, which a human's consciousness can enter and control. You guessed it: Mabel uses the tech, finds a much more complicated animal world than she ever knew existed, and hijinks ensue.
Curda imbues Mabel with considerable spunk and empathy, delivering a great and evolving vocal performance. Bobby Moynihan is excellent as the kind and somewhat naive beaver King George, while Hamm gives Jerry Generazzo a note-perfect, too-slick energy vaguely reminiscent of Gavin Newsom. Dave Franco is a riot as Titus, especially as Hoppers progresses to its end, and that's all you need to know about that until you see it for yourself.
The comedic moments also land well, with hilarious work from major players and those with less screen time alike (additional shout-out to Vanessa Bayer's hilarious shark). It's a film that finds humor in a sea of sources. There's tension between Mabel and Jerry, Mabel and the scientific team that created the Hoppers, humans and animals, and amongst the animals themselves. It's all utilized well to keep the story moving and as sources of irony or absurdity.
Hoppers Is a Timely, Funny Return to Pixar's Heights
Hoppers has a strong emotional grounding, with Piper's love of the local environment and her angst over missing her grandmother feeling well-developed and empathetically handled. It's treated with emotional realism, and though it's moving, it escapes crossing into dour territory.
One of the film's most interesting attributes is its success in developing high-concept plots. Pixar movies often have strong narratives and well-developed worlds, but proper science fiction is rare (though WALL-E is as exceptional as it is singular). Hoppers' use of fictional tech to put humans into the animal world is well handled, opening several interesting avenues. They play with communication problems, body-swap implications, and ecosystem politics with aplomb.
Some of the character dynamics could use a bit of clarity. We discover that the classes of the animal kingdoms have monarchs and a consortium of sorts, but King George the Beaver has non-mammals under his umbrella, for example, and no one thinks it strange. It's interesting how the Hoppers can allow humans to communicate with all species, but it's unclear how that could possibly work. A few small details aside, it's an interesting world.
Hoppers is a stellar high-concept return to form for Pixar. It boasts a host of memorable vocal performances, smart plotting, strong tension, and a lot of humor that works. The sci-fi plotting leaves some questions underexplored, but it works by and large. It's a great reminder to be good to the Earth, to each other, and to remember your grandma. It's a winner, and it couldn't come at a better time amid Pixar's recent slump.
Final Rating: 9/10
Hoppers hits theaters on Friday, March 6, 2026.
