Mabel Tanaka wants to talk to animals. That simple wish drives Hoppers, Pixar’s latest animated comedy, and it turns out to be a bigger problem than anyone expected. The film, directed by Daniel Chong from a screenplay by Jesse Andrews, follows Mabel as she jumps into a robotic beaver body to communicate with wildlife. What starts as a quiet act of care grows into a full-scale rebellion, and the movie never quite figures out whether it wants to be a funny adventure or a serious environmental fable.
The setup is clever. Scientists have built machines that let human minds live inside robotic animals, giving people the chance to understand creatures as they actually exist. Mabel, a college student with a deep love of nature, grabs the chance. Her goal is modest: bring back the animals that have fled her family’s glade. But once she’s inside the beaver, she stumbles into a larger fight. Mayor Jerry Generazzo wants to build a highway through the glade, and he’s using sound waves to drive the animals away. Mabel finds herself leading an animal council, rallying kings and queens of bugs, fish, frogs, lizards, and birds to stop him.
It sounds like a pitch for a sequel. But Hoppers plays it straight, and the film’s ambitions keep shifting.
Trailer, via Pixar.
Mabel’s Long Road to the Beaver
The movie opens with Mabel as a young girl, around six years old, trying to free the class pets from their cages. That attempt gets her suspended from school, and her mother sends her to live with her grandmother, who loves the outdoors. Over the next thirteen years, Mabel watches her parents move away and her grandmother die, but she stays attached to the glade. When Mayor Jerry Generazzo announces plans to route a new road through it, claiming the animals have already left, Mabel tries to stop him.
Her campaign fails. So she turns to her biology professor, Dr. Sam Fairfax, and his colleagues Nisha and Conner. They’ve been working on the “Hoppers” program, which lets humans hop into robotic animals. Mabel ignores Sam’s warning about meddling with nature and jumps into a robotic beaver anyway. The plan is simple: she’ll find the animals, learn why they’re gone, and bring them back.
What happens next is where the film loses its footing. Mabel is mistaken for a real beaver and brought before Mammal King George, who runs a crowded dam packed with displaced animals. She learns that Jerry has installed an artificial tree that sends sound waves audible only to animals, driving them from their homes. After she destroys the tree, the animals return to the glade. But Jerry responds by blowing up part of the glade and putting more sound trees in place.
That’s the engine of the movie: Mabel, caught between two worlds, trying to bridge them. The comedy comes from her confusion — she can’t talk to humans anymore, and she can’t act like a beaver either. The drama comes from the stakes she didn’t expect. And the film leans hard on both.
The Kings and Queens of the Animal Kingdom
The cast list reads like a who’s who of comedy voices. Piper Curda voices Mabel, and she carries the film’s emotional weight. Bobby Moynihan plays Mammal King George, Jon Hamm plays Mayor Jerry Generazzo, Kathy Najimy plays Dr. Sam, Dave Franco voices a character in the story, Eduardo Franco voices a character in the story, Aparna Nancherla plays Nisha, Tom Law voices a character in the story, Sam Richardson plays Conner, Melissa Villaseñor plays Ellen, Isiah Whitlock Jr. plays Bird King, and Steve Purcell voices a character in the story.
That’s a lot of names, and the film gives each of them room to breathe. George is a particular standout. He’s a king who’s doing his best to shelter his people, but he’s also a bit of a ham, cracking jokes and enjoying the attention. His scenes with Mabel are the film’s warmest moments. The other kings and queens are less distinct, but they add color to the council meetings where the animals decide whether to join Mabel’s fight.
The film spends time building these characters, and that pays off. When the animals finally decide to act, the decision feels earned, even when the consequences get dark.
From Quiet Care to Full-Scale Rebellion
The shift from quiet care to full-scale rebellion is the film’s central tension. Mabel starts by wanting to understand animals. She ends up organizing them. The movie doesn’t fully resolve this change, and that’s where the plot sags. The middle stretch drags, with Mabel running from Jerry’s men, hiding in the glade, and rallying the animal council, all while the film keeps promising a big finale that never quite arrives.
The film’s themes are environmentalism and communication. Mabel wants to talk to animals because she cares about them. The animals want to talk to humans because they need help. The film sets up a clear conflict between the two sides, but it never quite commits to resolving it. Instead, it settles for a happy ending that feels rushed.
“Act natural.”
That’s the film’s tagline, and it captures the tension at its core. Mabel is supposed to act like a beaver, but she can’t. She’s human inside, and the film keeps reminding us of that. The joke is that she’s not natural at all.
The Sound Waves and the Trees
The sound wave device is the film’s key plot point. It’s the reason the animals flee, and it’s the reason Mabel’s mission fails. Without it, the animals would stay in the glade. With it, they scatter. The film treats the device as a symbol of human interference, and that reading holds up.
But the film doesn’t spend enough time on the moral weight of that symbol. It introduces the sound wave early and then moves past it quickly, leaving the audience to puzzle over why the animals are fleeing. The film doesn’t explain itself clearly enough to earn the trust of the audience.
The sound wave is a good idea. It just gets underdeveloped.
The Animal Council and the Assassination
The climax of the film involves the animal council. Mabel brings together the monarchs of the insects, fish, frogs, lizards, and birds. At first, they’re indifferent. Then she warns that Jerry will eventually threaten all of their habitats. Instead of helping, they decide to kill him.
That’s a bold choice. Most animated films would have the animals rally behind Mabel. This one doesn’t. The animals decide that Jerry is the problem, and they choose violence. It’s a dark turn for a children’s movie, and the film handles it with surprising confidence.
The assassination scene is tense, funny, and a little frightening. It shows the filmmakers willing to push past the usual limits of animated comedy. But it also raises questions the film doesn’t answer. Why did the animals choose murder? What does it mean for Mabel’s mission? The film ends before it can address those questions, which leaves the viewer hanging.
Mark Mothersbaugh and SZA
The music is a strong element of the film. Mark Mothersbaugh composed the score, and it fits the tone of the story. SZA wrote and performed the end credits song “Save the Day,” and it’s a solid pop tune that ties the film’s themes together. The song plays over the final credits, and it gives the film a sense of closure that the story itself doesn’t provide.
The score and the song are the film’s strongest elements. They do what the script can’t: they give the story a shape and a feeling. The music is the reason the film holds together across its weaker stretches.
A Mixed Verdict
Hoppers is a film with a good idea and a weak execution. The premise is smart, the characters are likable, and the humor is often effective. But the pacing is uneven, the stakes are underdeveloped, and the finale feels rushed. The assassination twist is a bold choice, but it’s left unexplained. The film asks big questions about communication and care, but it doesn’t stick around long enough to answer them.
It’s a film worth seeing, but not a film worth recommending. The movie is entertaining, and it has flashes of genuine wit. But it’s also a film that betrays its own promise, and that disappointment lingers after the credits roll.
The film is a mixed bag. It’s a good premise, a decent script, and a great voice cast. But it’s a film that never quite finds its footing, and that keeps it from greatness.
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