Hoppers

NOW IN THEATERS! The days of palpable anticipation for a Pixar movie coming to theaters, with the expectation that it would be great, are long gone. After the stumble that was the underperforming Elio, can Pixar pull up its pants and make a better go of it with Hoppers, written by Jesse Andrews, from a story by Andrews and director Daniel Chong? Do not hold your breath.

“After Mabel destroys one of the artificial noise-making trees that had been driving the animals away, wildlife begins returning to the glade, but the victory sets off a larger conflict…”

As a child, Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) spends her happiest days with Grandma Tanaka (Karen Huie) in a forest glade outside Beaverton. Nature had a way of taking the edge off Mabel’s rage and anger issues. Years later, after her grandmother’s death, Mabel is now 19 and fighting for that pond, built by a beaver dam, because Mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm) announces plans to replace it with a freeway, arguing that the animals have already abandoned it. Her protests go nowhere, and her obsession with saving the glade begins to interfere with her studies, especially in the classes of her biology professor, Dr. Samantha Fairfax (Kathy Najimy), and her assistant, Nisha (Aparna Nancherla). While trying to bring the beavers back, Mabel discovers that Sam and her team have built the Hoppers program, a system that lets a human consciousness enter a robotic animal for wildlife research.

Mabel jumps into a robotic beaver and ends up inside the animal world, where she meets King George (Bobby Moynihan), the beaver ruler of a massive communal lodge, along with other animals living by their own rules. After Mabel destroys one of the artificial noise-making trees that had been driving the animals away, wildlife begins returning to the glade, but the victory sets off a larger conflict when Jerry escalates his efforts to build the freeway, and tensions rise within the animal council. As the fight over the glade spirals, Mabel and George are pulled into a struggle involving Jerry, the animal council, and Titus (Dave Franco), the Insect King, whose plan threatens both humans and animals. Mabel is forced to face the damage caused by her own anger and desperation, while George must decide where his loyalty belongs when the glade, the city, and everyone in them are suddenly in danger. In the end, the battle over the forest pushes Mabel, Jerry, and the animals toward a final showdown that changes the glade’s future and leaves Mabel with a new path forward.