Courtesy of IMDB
Hoppers was released on March 6 and has a run time of one hour and 44 minutes.
Henry Sincic
Contributor
For those who grew up in the dot-com era and beyond, it would be hard to name a more precious element of childhood than the excitement of watching a Pixar movie for the first time. For over three decades, they have delighted with their beautiful animation, boundless creativity, and unforgettable characters. “Hoppers,” the studio’s most recent effort, while likely not landing on Pixar’s all-time greatest films list, provides a thoroughly enjoyable and charming experience that will delight kids as well as warm the cockles of the most jaded adult heart.
The film follows Mabel, a rebellious environmentalist who will do anything to preserve the forest glade where she grew up. In her quest to gain the upper hand against the devious mayor and his intrusive highway project, which threatens to shatter the glade’s ecosystem and destroy her home away from home. Through a number of hijink-tacular circumstances, Mabel’s brain ends up being transferred into the body of a robotic beaver, which allows her to blend in with and even talk to the animals of the glade. It’s up to her to befriend the animals and fight back to stop their environment from being destroyed.
In keeping with Pixar’s famous “story first” mantra, one finds themselves invested in what is going on. We sympathize with Mabel’s cause and predicament, although the film also takes care to make the supposed “bad guys” sympathetic as well, which makes for a nice balance. The film also has its fair share of charm, and it undoubtedly benefits from the bouncier, more frenetic style of animation that modern computer animation technology allows for. There is plenty of attention to detail; keen eyes will notice that animals revert from having big, cartoonish human eyes to beady little animal eyes when Mabel leaves the robo-beaver’s body and can no longer understand them. “Hoppers” is filled with such details, and they make the visual experience a delight.
Indeed, the look of the film is one of its main strengths. The forest environment and all of its inhabitants are extremely pleasing to the eye, blending beautiful, naturalistic elements with the slightly cartoony style that Pixar is known for. As in previous Pixar films, the character expressions are a highlight, each one demonstrating the power of animation when it comes to rendering human emotion. All of the characters, whether they be primary, secondary, human or animal, have a degree of love and attention put into them that is nearly unmatched by any other CG animation studio.
As in other Pixar films, there is an emphasis on humor, and “Hoppers” contains its fair share of laughs. In a film that could’ve easily taken itself too seriously, given the subject matter, it’s good to know that the writers wanted to entertain above all else. It’s also a blessing to note that the film’s voice cast is pitch-perfect, where it could easily have overrelied on celebrity voices, although it still has many. If there is anything to find fault with regarding the film’s comedic moments, it must be said that much of the humor feels a bit behind the times. That is to say, the jokes sometimes have a bit of what might be termed “2012 zaniness” to them, which can sometimes distract from the storytelling. As a matter of fact, the film seems to hedge its bets by making the two-faced mayor, seemingly a major antagonist from the outset, into a lovable doofus by the film’s end, although Jon Hamm’s comedically over-the-top performance sells it.
Far from being a pure comedy, “Hoppers” does have its fair share of touching moments, although it never quite reaches a “college age Andy giving away his toys” level of emotional investment. Still, the film is a cute watch, and will be perfect for families looking to satiate their appetites for the next great Pixar film.
