Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of March 9, 2026
Hoppers
Rated PG for mild language, action/peril and some scary images
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%
In Theaters
It’s been a while since Pixar has delivered the kind of quality we were used to in the first twenty years of their existence. Their films have always pushed the envelope in terms of animation, but in recent years, story has really suffered. So it’s nice to see them back on track with this latest animated pic. Hoppers follows a young girl named Mabel (Piper Curda) who wants nothing more in life than to save her local pond she grew up going to. But the mayor (Jon Hamm) wants to build a highway right through it. She finds out that he can’t do that if the wildlife comes back to the pond after a strange disappearance, but she doesn’t know how to bring them back. Then one day she discovers that her college professor is working on a secret project where humans can transfer their brains into robotic animals to better study them, and she gets the bright idea to “hop” into a robotic beaver. Once inside the beaver, she has the ability to work with the various animals of the forrest in an attempt to stop the human encroachment. Just in time for a fiery political year, Pixar is making a film about political activism. And it really works. The story is creative, the writing sharp, the characters are interesting and it is as funny as it is moving. Maybe more so. There were also some big laughs here, which came at completely unexpected moments. Some of the story choices were a bit odd at times, but I give risk-taking the blame and I have no problem with that. Personally, I’m thrilled to see Pixar still attempting to make innovative original content, and the story feels as fresh as any tale like this could be. There is a moment where Mabel asks her professor if the hopping is just like Avatar. And of course they deny. I’m assuming this was a conversation the filmmakers had with tons of people as they were pitching it, but thankfully this movie is a very different category of filmmaking and any similarity is surface level. I love it when films take me by surprise and this one most certainly did. A-