Scientists have discovered how to 'hop' human consciousness into lifelike robotic animals, allowing people to communicate with animals as animals. Animal lover Mabel seizes an opportunity to use the technology, uncovering mysteries within the animal world beyond anything she could have imagined.
I REALLY liked this movie, the best Pixar movie in years for me. To be fair, maybe that's just because of me being an environmentalist myself, but hey, in the end, reviews here are supposed to be subjective, I guess!
Mabel, the main character, is a lovely main character. An environmentalist since childhood, depicted by her actions of demonstrating, collecting signatures, blocking building sites and even being carried away by police.
And while all of this is depicted in a "funny", child-friendly way, it does actually do a nice job of displaying her doing all the things an environmentalist e…
The town’s mayor wants to built a beltway around his city, and it’s almost complete. The only missing segment is over a lake that has been dammed by some now absent beavers. “Mabel” is determined to thwart the constructors, but with all the animal life having seemingly relocated to pastures/ponds new there seems little she can do to stop their dynamiting. Then she learns that if she can reintroduce some wild critters to the waters, then it will be saved. How, though? Well one evening she espies one but it doesn’t like the look of the new surroundings and moves on. She follows it and after a bi…
Hoppers is fantastically animated, with some impressively high comedic moments, but its clunky story and funky exploration of morality keep it from being one of the Pixar greats.
https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/comedy/hoppers-review.html
Feels more like a Dreamworks movie than a Pixar one. It was pretty fun but it felt unambitious compared to their other movies, there aren't many characters of note or many locations to make it feel like an adventure (most of the movie takes place in the glade or the university, both of which are fairly simple). The overarching story is also a bit... Meh. I feel like a lot of characters could've been explored and the story could've been more than just "save the glade".
It's still a good popcorn flick but it's missing a lot for it to be memorable.
Check out my full review @ https://www.manuelsbento.com/hoppers-2026-a-vivid-leap-into-radical-empathy/
Rating: B
HOPPERS completely disarmed me. As a massive animal and nature lover, Mabel's journey of transferring her consciousness to understand the natural world brought me close to tears multiple times. Pixar delivers stunningly immersive forest visuals and a high-energy voice cast that keeps you hooked. While the narrative gets a bit overcrowded with too many ideas to reach the studio's absolute peak emotional heights, its reflection on human greed feels painfully accurate. It's a de…
