Hoppers
review by Bobby Blakey
The last few years Disney Pixar has had ups and downs with their features, but I have enjoyed most of them. No matter what you think they show no signs of slowing down with Toy Story 5 on the way and their latest film Hoppers. The film features a great voice cast including Meryl Streep, Dave Franco, Kathy Najimy, Eduardo Franco, Melissa Villaseñor, Ego Nwodim, Vanessa Bayer, Sam Richardson, Aparna Nancherla, Nichole Sakura, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Steve Purcell, Karen Huie and Tom Law, Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan and Jon Hamm from We Bare Bears: The Movie director Daniel Chong at the helm.
Hoppers follow Mabel, an animal lover who seizes an opportunity to use new technology to ‘hop’ her consciousness into a life-like robotic beaver and communicate directly with animals. Using technology, Mabel uncovers mysteries within the animal world that are beyond anything she could have imagined.
While I found this trailer entertaining there wasn’t all that much interest to see this one. Not sure why it wasn’t connecting with me but headed into it with low expectations and came out pleasantly surprised. The story was clear in its promise from the trailer, but the depth of it and direction was way more than I thought it was going to be and in turn it made a great fun flick that hits you in all the emotions without just feeling like an attempt to toy with them.
The animation is excellent as expected with the animals, most notably the beavers having so much emotion in their faces with very few features. I love they
went with more realistic cartoon animals to blend with the humans to make it feel more in the real world as opposed to the usual cartoon direction. Obviously, the overall designs are still very much cartoon, but they serve each other well. The human characters are great visually with a normal look and feel but still unique in their art style to be entertaining.
The lead in story of Mabel growing up to the place we are at now is impactful and well-crafted to give you the full story of who she is and why things are going where they go. I didn’t expect some of the depth to her tale since they focused most of the promo on the conscious jumping. When you get to that element the science while over the top delivers and adds a fun new layer to the story and all of it works great together.
Like most Pixar films there are social messages here and character growth and direction in a tale that is also just fun to watch. There are a ton of laugh out loud moments here and the film leans into it but also lets the emotional and scary bits hit to bring it all together. I stepped into a film with no investment and left smiling and happy. This is one of the better Pixar flicks to come along in a while and hope it keeps finding the audience it deserves.
In addition to the film this release offers bonus content including deleted scenes, bloopers and numerous featurettes taking you behind bringing this world to life. Grab your copy of Hoppers available now on digital and then on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD and a collectible 4K steelbook on June 2nd from Disney Pixar.