Hoppers (2026)

 Disney/Pixar has had a bit of a rough time in recent years but Hoppes shows that it can still produce fun films. Hoppers tells the story of Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) who at the start of the film is a young school pupil trying to liberate the class pets and after being sent home has to spend time with her grandma who shows her the joys of being in the outdoors. Fast forward a few years and the grandmother has passed away and Mabel is now at college and trying to stop the Mayor (voiced by Jon Hamm) from building a bypass and saving the local wildlife. Through her teacher, she discovers a mind hopping machine where she can become a beaver and her plan is to convince beavers to come to the preservation and bring other animals to stop the bypass being built but manages to get the other animals to launch a campaign to kill the humans. 

If this film had been made a few years ago then they really have sacrificed the characters and the story for the environmental message but thankfully Disney and Pixar have learnt that people want to be entertained and what they have managed to do is to mix the environmental story into the rest of the film and not make it feel like it was being preachy. The animation is really good and it shows why Pixar are the kings of this sort of thing. 

I thought that Mabel was a good character and despite being caring and determined to try and save the wildlife she doesnt come across as insufferable and trying to refuse help so she can do things on her own. She is very likeable and you really feel for her when she loses her grandmother. Even though the grandmother is only in the story for a couple of minutes, her impact last throughout the film. King George (Bobby Moynihan) is another likeable character, the way he is introduced is quite funny cause it's made to look like Mabel is going to face the King that is going to be no nonsense and it turns out that he’s the opposite. He becomes Mabel’s sidekick and is a good sidekick.

I’ll be honest I didn’t realise at the time that Dave Franco was in the film as the voice of the Insect King or that Meryl Streep was in the film as the Insect Queen. They have quite distinctive voices and the fact I didn’t spot them shows how good the story was and how the performances matched the characters instead of overpowering the animation. 

I thought it was a fun film and was surprised how the environmental message wasn’t as heavy handed as I was expecting. It does feel like family audiences have been underserved by the movie industry in recent years although we have had stuff like Zootropolis 2 and GOAT but if we get a few more films like Hoppers then it could show that the family audience that cinema so craves would be willing to come back more frequently.