Hoppers Movie Review
Warning: Mention of elderly figure death.
This was such a cute movie to start off my 2026 with! From the messaging of banding together, finding a balance between personal ambition and protecting our natural resources (e.g. forests and all the animals that live there), and finding the people that will love you. Everything came together neatly and I could feel that Pixar humor that I haven’t gotten for some time.
First off, Mabel is such a relatable character and dare I say autistic coded. She is passionate about animals and wants to protect them no matter what it takes. So when she discovers that she can jump into the body of a beaver, she is able to see another perspective, however not just her dream but also learning the true cost of disrupting the balance between humans and nature. While her intentions are true/innocent, we see how the actions she causes are impulsive and needs to learn the balance between protecting her animal friends and try to open herself up again post her grandmother’s death, honoring her memory by protecting the place where they went to as Mabel grew up. Honestly, she is arguably one of the best human characters Pixar has created in my opinion. We see her conflicting thoughts, they are still not one-sided and can understand the anguish she goes through. Wanting people to see your POV so bad and help you, but yet can’t relate to others is such a tough but realistic message for viewers to experience. However, through King George she is able to gain connection through animals and can find that balance between what will happen in the future and keeping traditions alive.
Speaking of King George, I love him. This beaver is such a great multi-faceted character. While we do see him as a positive benevolent ruler, we also see his hurt when it comes through the struggles of how he became a ruler to begin with. The struggle of trying to find compromise in an environment where it needs to be one way or no ways is something anyone can relate too. So when he invites Mabel to the council of leaders to discuss the destruction of the glades situation caused by Jerry in an attempt to create a new freeway, it causes uproar through the monarchs where they want to end the lives of all humans. While Mabel unintentionally creates this uprising, we also see George plead for compromise. Something that is rare to see leaders see, even in our unfortunate political climate. However, his intentions change briefly when he discovers Mabel is human, it’s heartbreaking and damn sad. His eyes look lost and despite the beaver being an animatronic created by the scientists in Mabel’s college he still takes it which crushed me a little inside. The true loyalty he had and the betrayal through both there eyes is devastating to see.
Titus for me, is actually a last minute villain that works mostly because he’s unapologetic about killing the humans, There’s a been a lot of villains that go towards redemption near the end of the films lately, but this felt genuinely evil that its scary to see. Up till the moment he is killed in the forest fire, it’s really awesome and refreshing to see him get his demise vs. villains that are one-note evil for the sake of evil or get there redemption, no he was willing to kill to get what he wants, which is terrifying. Where I thought Jerry would be the villain, however he proved to be funny in some regard. While I’m not a fan of him being a politician, he was able to admit that he was a coward, which was funny and see compromise with Mabel. They were able to show him as a likable character, which I did not expect to see, but it worked. Both sides were able to see compromise and work together which felt refreshing to see in a Pixar movie. Other characters stood out like Ellen, Loaf, and Tom Lizard stood out with a great balance between comedic reliefs and great sidekicks and everytime they were on the phone and the one emoji scene, I cracked up so hard in my theatre. I don’t normally like emojis in movies when we try to escape the current climate cough Trump and Emoji Movie cough, this however felt authentic and chaotic in how animals would respond to emojis and love that aspect of it as being a way animals can communicate with humans.
As usual, Pixar hits it out of the park when it comes to animation and I can see the hard work they did in order to make the environment of the animal world realistic as possible. However two scenes made me tear up, one with the flashbacks with Mabel’s grandmother and being able to help her out of the low state when she is tied up in the lab got to me. The simple yet poignant scene where Mabel is able to gain the strength to save her home and humanity while also being able to find compromise/balance of how she can achieve her ambitions. It made me tear up and shed some tears in the theater. Another scene, the climax a forest fire a main character is hurt, I gasped and also shed some tears but this scene I won’t tell you which character as that is a major spoiler but be prepared to cry in this film.
Finally, there are a ton of Easter eggs in this film so keep your eyes peeled. Also, I’ve been seeing online that this film is scary for children and while there are scary moments, it’s mostly a film for everyone with deep messages that everyone can relate to.