(PG) ★★★★
Director: Daniel Chong.
Cast: (voices of) Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, Dave Franco, Eduardo Franco, Aparna Nancherla, Tom Law, Sam Richardson, Melissa Villaseñor, Karen Huie.
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| "Wanna lick me? Parts of me are hallucinogenic." |
Hoppers is bonkers. It has the most insane plot of a Pixar movie since Up, but it's also the best film the animation house has produced since Soul in 2020.
Part-eco-warrior fantasy, part-love letter to the good in people, part-animals-go-wild comedy, Hoppers has a lot to say, which it says in between manic bursts of hyperactive insanity. In other words, it's exactly the kind of film that Pixar does so well, dialled up to 11 in some places.
Hoppers is the story of Mabel (Curda), a teen desperate to save a small glade from destruction to make way for a freeway. While trying to protect the patch of woodland from the evil hands of City Hall, she stumbles on a piece of secret technology that will allow her to mentally inhabit a small robotic beaver - a move she hopes will save the glade and have no horrible repercussions whatsoever.
Like I said, the plot is bonkers. The only criticism is that its key plot point - the ability to transfer your consciousness into a realistic animal avatar - comes out of nowhere. There's no real set-up for it, no suggestion this is set in a world with far-out tech, or that the inventors of this tech are anything more than run-of-the-mill college professors. It means Hoppers' script asks for a massive leap of faith - it doesn't just want you to suspend your disbelief, but set it on fire and throw it in the river. If you're on board for this potential shark-jumping moment then you can properly strap in for the literal shark-jumping moments that come later.
This very, very important plot point is dealt with efficiently though, and getting it out of the way quickly helps because it means the film can get on with what it has to say, which is a lot. Yes, it's funny and it's madcap, but in that classic Pixar way it's about a hundred other things - it's about the environment, feelings of inadequacy, trust, the potential for goodness in people, biodiversity, the power of nature, the importance of place, working together, and the absolute shitshow of destruction humanity is raining down on the planet one glade at a time.
Yeah, there are preachy moments, but the script by Jesse Andrews delivers most of them with eloquence and poignance. Hoppers wears its heart on its beaver fur sleeve, and it's all the better for it. The emotional notes are big, but so are the laughs and the lessons.
As I've said a billion times in reviews about family films, the best ones are the films you can go back to at any age and get something out of. While this skews older than some Pixar movies due to the villainous escalation in the third act and its hefty environmental themes, it has most-ages appeal that ensure it will grow with its junior audience.
Like the beavers it stars, Hoppers is a fascinating beast - it's cute and interesting and strange, and the world is a better place for its existence.
