"HOPPERS" - REVIEW

“HOPPERS” - REVIEW

HOPPERS is a very weird movie.

Note to Pixar: MORE, PLEASE!

HOPPERS is Pixar’s 30th feature film, and one of its most original and fun movies in years. Deftly directed by Daniel Chong in his feature debut, this wackier entry belongs in the same class as LUCA and TURNING RED, which was an exciting direction they were leaning in. Granted, because of Covid, those (along with Pete Docter’s brilliant SOUL) were both relegated to being direct-to-streaming movies, and their potential for success was stymied by that decision. Because there were no box office receipts to tally, it seems the wrong lessons were learned for a while, with the doomsaying-nobody-wants-original-movies-anymore that seemed to be the prevalent thinking of behemoth studios, so it is more than a welcome surprise and delight to see Pixar hopefully swinging back in the other direction. Granted, we’ll still get sequels (TOY STORY 5 is on the horizon in June), but we’ll take it for now!

Back to HOPPERS:

Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) is a young adult environmental activist whose love of nature was planted early by her beloved grandmother, as a place to put her rage. Mabel’s rage stems from the injustice of animals being confined to classroom terrariums (as seen in the film’s hilarious opening scene), or having their habitat destroyed to make room for Beaverton’s new freeway expansion—getting you there four minutes faster!—spearheaded by a Jacob Frey-esque Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm). Her interplay with Mayor Jerry is not unlike the dynamic of passionate, occasionally petulant bickering siblings. Mayor Jerry gives Mabel an arbitrary 48 hours to put together a petition to stop the expansion—really just a way to waste her time and progress his agenda. Eventually Mabel comes to discover that her professor Dr. Sam (Kathy Najimy) and her assistant Nisha (Aparna Nancherla) have been running a top-secret program that allows them, through AVATAR technology (“it’s nothing like AVATAR!”), to transfer human consciousness into the mind of robot animals to study them more closely. It isn’t long before Mabel puts her mind into the body of a robot beaver to head back into the wild to convince the other beavers to rebuild the dam.

And that is just the beginning of the nuttiness of HOPPERS.

The surprises are too fun to spoil here, but what I will say is that the animation is a very fun mix of cartoony and lifelike natural texture, the voice cast (which also includes SNL alums Bobby Moynihan, Melissa Villaseñor, and Ego Nwodim, as well as Sam Richardson, Dave Franco, the late Isaiah Whitlock Jr. and an up-and-comer named Meryl Streep) is superb, and the message is one similar to Pixar’s WALL-E in regards to protecting the environment, but it does WALL-E one better by folding it a bit more seamlessly into the wackiness. It’s about honoring the process of understanding one another, even arguing with one another, to try to realize that protecting the environment doesn’t just help animals: it helps everyone. As Mabel’s grandmother infused in her young soul as a means to direct her rage: it’s hard to be mad when you’re part of something BIG.

HOPPERS is about something big… but you’ll be so charmed and be laughing so hard that you may get the message anyway.

#moviefriend

#Hoppers

#pixar

#disney

#danielchong

#pipercurda

#jonhamm

#Kathynajimy

#aparnanancherla

#Bobbymoynihan

#melissavillasenor

#egonwodim

#samrichardson

#davefranco

#isaiahwhitlockjr

#merylstreep

#petedocter

Zach is a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Association (MNFCA). For more info about Zach, the organization, or to read other great reviews from other great Minnesota-based film critics, click here: www.mnfca.com