Just like the rest of the population, I’d seen the advertisements for Disney Pixar’s new movie, “Hoppers”, flooding my YouTube ads. After getting sick of watching them again and again, I decided there was only one thing to do: I grabbed my wallet, and my little sister, and headed off to the movie theater.
Released to theaters March 6, 2026, the movie centers around a 19-year-old named Mabel (Piper Curda), an animal lover, who has built a special bond with the glade near her house.
When Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm), the mayor of Beaverton (yes, that’s the name of the city. I didn’t make it up) decides to destroy the glade to build a new highway, Mabel, as you can expect, is not happy with this, and takes it up with Jerry. She finds out that as long as there are animals living in the glade, Jerry legally cannot destroy it.
The only problem is, all the animals left. According to Doctor Sam Fairfax (Kathy Najimi), otherwise known as Doc, Mabel’s biology professor, the glade needs a beaver to bring all the animals back. When Mabel’s attempts at finding a beaver go up in smoke, Mabel almost gives up in despair.
However, unbeknownst to her, Doc has been working on a secret project her entire career: the act of “hopping,” or transporting your consciousness into the body of a robotic animal. Upon finding Doc’s work, Mabel hops into a robotic beaver, with the plan of uniting all of the animals together to save the glade.
However, things don’t go exactly as planned. On her first day in the wild, Mabel ends up summoning the animal council, and accidentally plants the idea in their heads to “squish” the “human king”, Jerry.
Mabel and her newfound friends then embark on a journey of sorts to begrudgingly save Jerry’s life.
I’ll be honest with you: when I first read that plot on IMDb, I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d ever read. Yet another example of Disney’s failure, I thought to myself. Then I watched the movie and cried at the end, so that just goes to show you can’t judge a movie by its marketing.
My favorite character by far was the cute little lizard. The face of many memes already, this guy was too cute and too funny to not instantly love. He reminded me of the lizard-thing from “Frozen II” as well, but what can I say? I’m a sucker for cute animated lizards.
The rest of the characters, of course, are lovable in their own endearing way, providing both comical bittersweet moments, stretching the animated character wall.
Another thing I really liked about this movie was the plot. Before I went to the theater, everyone I talked to told me they could predict exactly what happened. Walking into it, I thought the same, that it was just going to be another boring Pixar flick. To my great delight, the plot was full of twists and turns, having scenes that had me on the edge of my seat, to scenes that cued the waterworks. The script was phenomenal, as was the animation, drifting away from the classic “bean mouth” that Disney has become famous for.
Overall, I loved this movie. I had low expectations walking into it, and I am so glad Hoppers proved me wrong. Very wrong. So please, if you are a fan of funny, bittersweet, and emotionally charged animated films, Hoppers is a movie you do not want to miss.
