It’s pretty easy to be smitten by Hoppers, Pixar’s latest original film, a hyperactive and zany story about how animals and humans coexist (or, more precisely, don’t). It’s been a rocky 2020s for the studio both commercially and critically, marred by the likes of Lightyear but containing the occasional high of Turning Red or Onward. Sometimes it helps to go completely outside the box for a new perspective and sense of comedy and drama, and Pixar has done exactly that with Hoppers. The directorial debut of Daniel Chong, whose credits mostly include short films for Pixar and the Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears, Hoppers operates closer to the quippy, mile-a-minute comedy and heartfelt sincerity that Sony Pictures Animation has better perfected over the last decade, through two Spider-Verse movies, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, KPop Demon Hunters, and others.
I held the same position on Turning Red (in my opinion, probably the best Pixar movie this decade) that I’m landing on here, where the jokes hit at an unusually high rate, are far more abundant, and the animation style feels looser and quippier to match. Hoppers is a movie with ADHD that bottles that energy into visual gags and constant pent-up momentum. It’s voice cast is quite good, led by Piper Curda as Mabel, an animal-loving environmentalist determined to stop local political efforts to build a highway over the river ecosystem where she spent her childhood with her grandmother. Jon Hamm plays the greedy Mayor Jerry with the kind of slick, plausible charm you’d expect from him, and Bobby Moynihan as King George, the beaver monarch, gives the movie a lot of its warmth and soul.
But most of the ecosystem Mabel grew up loving isn’t there anymore, and her attempts to bring the animals back fall flat. That is, until she uncovers Avatar-like technology built by her college professor, Kathy Najimy’s Dr. Sam, that allows her to enter the body of a robotic beaver. Once she “hops” in, she sets off to return the animals to their habitats, navigate their dense and complicated social structure, and stop the Mayor from breaking ground on the land. It’s a concept with so much room to traverse, and writer Jesse Andrews (also credited on Luca) does a commendable job filling the 104-minute runtime with enough stakes and heart to balance the relentless comedy.
The cast goes deep in ways that keep paying off. Dave Franco voices the villainous Insect King Titus with real menace that turns devilish in the third act, and Meryl Streep’s brief appearance as the Insect Queen carries the effortless gravitas of someone who could do this in their sleep and still command the room. Mark Mothersbaugh’s score keeps the frenetic energy propulsive without overwhelming the quieter emotional beats, which the film earns.
As cynical as it might sound, Hoppers is one of the few original Pixar releases in recent memory where I can genuinely see the potential for sequels, for extended room to explore its world and characters, because it’s such a likable film with a concept worth rummaging through again and again. It’s a tad searing in its environmental commentary, and it’s hard not to draw real-life comparisons given the current political climate, but it never loses focus of its core audience.
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Pixar has floated in this area a lot lately, trying to target kids with themes that are far headier and adult-centered (see Soul, Turning Red, Elemental), which isn’t inherently a bad thing. But it’s easy to understand why Hoppers has been one of their more commercially successful films in recent memory, and one that goes down easier than most of their recent films.
Hoppers feels like coked-out Pixar. A zany great time, an original story with the perfect amount of heft and weight, loaded with more jokes and gonzo energy than the studio has mustered in years. One moment in particular (spoiler: the squishing of a certain insect) had my significant other audibly gasp in the theater, which has to be a first for the studio, or close to it. Hopefully, Pixar is finding a couple of new voices to bank on going forward, because Hoppers is genuinely refreshing to see.
Score: 7/10
Hoppers (2026)
- Voice Cast: Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, Dave Franco, Eduardo Franco, Aparna Nancherla, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Steve Purcell, Ego Nwodim, Nichole Sakura, Meryl Streep
- Director: Daniel Chong
- Genre: Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Science Fiction
- Runtime: 104 minutes
- Rated: PG
- Release Date: March 6, 2026
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