Hoppers: Pixar's Response to Getting Political

Hoppers is the newest film from Pixar that's equal parts irreverent and poignant

Hoppers, the newest film from Pixar Animation Studios, is another triumph for an animation studio that has been delivering quality films since 1995 with the first Toy Story. The studio has remained a major player in the animation industry- even if they don’t have the track record they did in the early 2000’s. Twenty years ago, the Pixar canon felt like it could not be topped. They were consistently releasing what would go on as some of the greatest films ever made, films like Ratatouille, Up and Finding Nemo to name a few. The unfortunate weight put on the recent Pixar canon is living up to some of the greatest films of all time. I think within the 2020’s- they have made a few movies that stand up to the best of their filmography. Movies like Pete Doctor’s lush and transcendent Soul or Enrico Casarosa’s underrated and masterful Luca has shown plenty of life in the studio.

Yet, Pixar has struggled to maintain in the last decade with the culture wars. After the backlash of Lightyear, a movie with a confusing premise for a general audience, the studio decided to make a change within the company to try to make their films more ‘attainable to a general audience’ and less auteur driven. This is what led the film Elio to be made twice over, making significant changes to make the film have a wider appeal to the executives. Elio, a very charming movie in it’s own right, failed to gain much attention or box office revenue.

Hoppers has a lot to prove. It is the next original Pixar film to come out of the canon. It has a legacy to follow but it’s also coming out in a time where original animated movies are struggling. The movie itself, is a meta commentary on everything I’ve written about so far. The movie stars a girl named Mabel, who’s love for animals and nature makes her a passionate advocate for wildlife preservation. When she discovers the town’s mayor plans to destroy a dam that she and her late grandmother bonded over, she does everything in her power to save the dam. She discovers one night after trying to get a beaver to go into the dam that her science professor at school as created technology to go into the mind of a robotic beaver to communicate with the animals. She ends up hopping into the body of a robotic beaver and wild antics ensue as she tries to convince them of their impending peril.

Hoppers is the goofiest movie Pixar has ever made. The movie, directed by We Bare Bears creator David Chong brings his auteur sensibilities to Hoppers. The idea for Pixar to sanitize their content to a broader audience is not apparent in Hoppers. This movie doesn’t feel like the other Pixar movies in their canon, it has a voice of it’s own. It reminded me the most of the Pixar film Turning Red. There is a reckless cartoony energy in this movie that both share. Pixar in their early films liked to take a weird concept (like a rat cooking in a kitchen or an old man tying balloons to his house) and ground it to a reality to make us resonate with it on a human level. Hoppers isn’t trying to do that, it’s unabashedly a cartoon in the way Dreamworks movies operate and I admired that about the film. It’s arguably the funniest Pixar movie to date. The characters are charming, the humor is zany and irreverent and some of the gags in it are incredibly trippy. Pixar is trying something new here and I loved watching it. It was thoroughly entertaining.

Hoppers is likely to get a crowd of kids laughing at the slap sticky nature of it. The animals in this film operate at a minions level energy, which is why I think the film is going to be a big hit ultimately. Did all of this silly energy ultimately undermine the poignancy of the film? Not at all. The film is a major loud and broad statement at the ways capitalism and big business bullies the environment for personal gain. Mabel in the film is a radical activist. She’s loud, brash and demanding for social change. I believe the character is a great role model for kids to aspire to. I like the fact she’s going to college and she’s 19, she’s not just a kid she has more agency and life experience behind her. She’s not there for romance or affection, she’s here because she wants to make a difference. The friendship she makes with the leader of the beavers, King George, is a poignant connection that made me evaluate the movie on a deeper and more sociopolitical level. King George is a pacifist, a beaver who sees the good in the balance and order of things in nature. You just gotta eat, you just gotta build and you just have to survive. King George’s outlook is that there is good in everyone and resentment only causes self turmoil. Mabel in the film is filled with turmoil and rage because of her lack of agency and control over the demolition of a place she holds near and dear to her heart. She doesn’t feel heard. I believe for a lot of us who grew up in the Trump era, this feeling of hopelessness is palpable and relatable. We just want things to get better and no matter how loud we scream nothing gets done.

Both of these characters learn from each other throughout the film, they both have their own character arcs that had me wrapped up in it emotionally. They both learn about standing up for your land but also having compassion for people you may not agree with. The film I’m sure will have a few people call it ‘centrist propaganda’ but I didn’t read that from the end of the film. There’s obviously a correct side here and an incorrect side here. The film isn’t asking for compromises, it’s showing it’s possible to create branches (ha ha get it) to unlikely allies. The film has obvious heroes and villains and they are treated as such. The film is a great look at advocating for the right things and the grace and humility it takes to make make social change entirely about you and your feelings (a thing so many people forget nowadays).

Hoppers is a lovely movie and it’s a bold statement for Pixar to make. In an era where they are trying to make their films feel more universal to broader audiences, Hoppers is unabashedly weird and even at times uncompromising. The film has a weird dark sense of humor that had me cackling throughout. It’s the best Pixar film since Luca easily. I had a great time and it even gave me some stuff to ponder and chew on afterwards. Glad to see the best in the business still has their creative strive that made them some of the best.