animation, Aparna Nancherla, Bobby Moynihan, Daniel Chong, Dave Franco, Eduardo Franco, Hoppers, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, movies, Piper Curda, reviews, Tom Law
March 2, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Daniel Chong
Culture Representation: Taking place in the U.S. city of Beaverton, the animated film “Hoppers” features a cast of characters who are humans and talking animals.
Culture Clash: An environmentally conscience college student, who is trying to prevent a local glade area from being destroyed due to the construction of a beltway, inhabits the body of a robot beaver, so she can rally the animals of the glade area to stop the beltway construction from happening.
Culture Audience: “Hoppers” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Pixar movies, the movie’s headliners, and well-made animated films that blends adventure stories with depictions of meaningful emotional connections.
“Hoppers” has all the makings of a classic Pixar franchise. Somehow, this fantastic movie doesn’t get cluttered with its themes about human-animal body swapping, environmental activism, and emotional connections with nature. It’s an animated film for many generations. It’s informative but doesn’t get too preachy. It’s heartwarming without being cloying.
Directed by Daniel Chong and written by Jesse Andrews, “Hoppers” takes place in the fictional U.S. city of Beaverton. It’s not meant to depict the real-life U.S. cities of Beaverton in Oregon and Michigan. The movie does not mention the U.S. state where the story’s Beaverton takes place.
“Hoppers” begins by showing protagonist Mabel Tanaka (voiced by Lila Liu), who is 12 years old, trying to smuggle an aquarium turtle out of her classroom. Mabel loves animals and has a rebellious streak. Her goal is to free the turtle and put the turtle back into a natural environment, but some teachers catch Mabel before that can happen.
It’s not the first time that Mabel—a skateboarding misfit who sometimes loses her temper—has gotten in trouble at school. Mabel’s single mother scolds her, but Mabel’s unnamed grandmother (voiced by Karen Huie) is compassionate and patient with Mabel. This grandmother takes Mabel to a place a local glade area, where her grandmother likes to meditate and be in tune with nature. At the center of the glade is a pond where several animals live.
The grandmother shows Mabel how coming to this area can have a calming effect on someone who’s feeling upset. She also tells Mabel that this area can become their secret special place to meet. Over time, with her grandmother’s help, Mabel begins to have a deeper appreciation of the wildlife in the glade area and develops a stronger family bond with her grandmother.
The movie then fast-forwards to showing Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) as an outspoken and inquisitive 19-year-old college student. Her beloved grandmother died not too long ago of an unnamed terminal illness. A quick flashback shows that when Mabel’s mother moved a long distance away, but college student Mabel decided to stay in Beaverton to help take care of Mabel’s ailing grandmother.
In addition to the death of Mabel’s grandmother, something else has happened that is deeply disturbing to Mabel: Beaverton’s current mayor Jerry Generazzo (voiced by Jon Hamm) has announced plans to build a Beaverton Beltway over the glade area where Mabel and her grandmother spent a lot of happy times together.
Mabel has tried to stage protests and get petitions signed to stop this urban development. She also personally confronts mayor Jerry to try to stop Beaverton Beltway from being built through the glade. “Who wants to blow up a pond full of animals?” Mabel angrily asks Jerry, who smugly replies that there are no more animals left in the pond. His statement is mostly true, and Mabel eventually finds out why.
One day, Mabel accidentally discovers that her geobiology professor Dr. Samantha E. Fairfax, also known as Dr. Sam (voiced by Kathy Najimy), has secretly invented a body-swapping machine where people can inhabit the lifelike robot bodies of animals and can speak in the animal language. The machine is still in its testing phases. Before Mabel found out about this secret invention, the only other people who knew were Dr. Sam, Dr. Sam’s loyal scientist colleague Nisha (voiced by Aparna Nancherla) and graduate biology student Conner (voiced by Sam Richardson), who all work in Dr. Sam’s lab on campus. Nisha is stern and distrusting toward Mabel, while Conner is friendly and helpful to Mabel.
As soon as Mabel hears that beavers can help rebuild ponds that have been destroyed, she gets the idea to inhabit a robot beaver body (which happens to be in the lab) and talk to the animals of the glade, in order to rally the animals to her cause to save the pond and the surrounding glade area. To the horror of Dr. Sam, Mabel jumps in the machine and body swaps with the robot beaver that was being used in the testing. Dr. Sam, Nish and Conner frantically try to find Mabel so that Mabel can go back to her human body.
The rest of “Hoppers” shows what happens when Mabel goes on a topsy-turvy adventure in the body of a robot beaver. She gets to know several members of the glade’s animal community and navigates through various factions of the animal kingdoms. Mabel also develops an unexpected close friendship with a lively and amiable beaver named King George (voiced by Bobby Monyihan), who has been crowned the current Mammal King and has some self-esteem issues of his own.
“Hoppers” can get a little dizzying with all the introductions of characters, various chase scenes, coordinated “animals strike back” plans, abductions and various setbacks that happen along the way. The movie has plenty of comedic moments and a few tear-jerking scenes. Just like in the human world, Mabel learns that within an ecosystem or community, it can be difficult to rallying community members together for a common cause when there are factions with different agendas, or when communication and perception get warped by misunderstandings.
Other memorable characters in Hoppers include Loaf (voiced by Eduardo Franco), a laid-back beaver who moves and thinks more like a stoner sloth; Ellen (voiced by Melissa Villaseñor), a cranky bear that can be tough on the outside but tender on the inside; Insect Queen (voiced by Meryl Streep), a haughty royal who is the most-feared of all the animal kingdom leaders; Titus (voiced by Dave Franco), the Insect Queen’s bratty son; Tom Lizard (voiced by Tom Law), an easygoing lizard; and Diane (voiced by Vanessa Bayer), a surprisingly good-natured and helpful shark. “Hoppers” characters that get less screen time but still make an impression are identical triplet “mean girl” snakes Reptile Queens (voiced by Nichole Sakura); Amphibian King (voiced by Steve Purcell), a dimwitted frog; and pompous Fish Queen (voiced by Ego Nwodim).
The “Hoppers” voice cast, led by stellar performances by Curda and Moynihan, can be considered among the best in a Pixar movie. There isn’t a bad performance in the bunch. And many of the scenes are visually stunning, particularly in moments when many members of the animal glade community join forces, or when nature does things that are out of human control.
A few of the movie’s scenes could have been trimmed with tighter editing, but these are minor flaws that don’t bring down the movie. “Hoppers” does not ignore the harsh realities of animal cruelty and animal deaths. However, the horror-like scenes are mild, and the language is family-friendly. For example, the characters use the word “squish” instead of “kill.”
A mid-credits scene and an end-credits scene in “Hoppers” leave no doubt that Pixar intends to make several movies in this franchise. “Hoppers” is not a lightweight film that can easily be dismissed as forgettable fluff, nor is it heavy-handed and preachy. It’s a thoroughly entertaining original animated film that’s a cut above the average animated film about humans interacting with talking animals. “Hoppers” has plenty of characters that viewers will want to revisit in this movie and in the inevitable sequels.
Walt Disney Pictures will release “Hoppers” in U.S. cinemas on March 6, 2026. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on February 28, 2026.