Review 775: Hoppers

I think it's fair to say that Pixar is not the powerhouse that it once was. Over its 30 year  the studio has churned out 30 animated features, the last several of which have ranged from middling originals like Onward and last years Elio to and endless string of sequels. 

As a result, I've felt my love Pixar slowly fading in recent years. It's not dead mind you, it's just not what it once was and I feel that everything I love about this studio probably already exists and everything that's been coming out lately just insert for me anymore and that's ok.   It puts the wonder back into Pixar.

After a group of scientists invent a way to "hop" human minds into lifelike robotic animal bodies, an animal-loving teenager named Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) uses the technology to embody a robotic beaver and thwart a construction company's plot to destroy the local animal habitat, unwittingly starting an animal uprising against all humans.

Now the idea behind Hoppers is certainly a high concept one, placing ones consciousness inside a robot beaver  compare this to Toy Story which centred on the idea of "when you're away, your toys come to life;" or Monsters Inc which was "the monster hiding in your closet is real and they're scaring you to power their world;" or The Incredibles which is about domestic life all wrapped up in a superhero movie; or Inside Out which essentially emotions personified or a more recent example Turning Red which tackled, to great effect, puberty.  

One of things that Hoppers does exceptionally well is that it thrusts you right into the middle of the action; it hits the ground running introducing us to our lead Mabel as she tries to "rescue" classroom pets. (One of them, hilariously is a turtle named "Crush" in a sly nod to Finding Nemo). The opening scene featuring her trying to free class pets of her school established everything we needed to know about her - she's energetic, determined, driven, a little impulsive, fierce tempered and an animal lover. It's established  How can someone with a firey temper as Mabel's, who's tried to counter the Mayor's scheme of building a freeway over a glade alone come from anything less than a friendless background. Mabel unwittingly unleashes an animal uprising and then works to stop it. But Mebel is able to achieve a zen state by filtering out all the sounds of the outside world and any and all distractions.  

This film has such a madcap energy that it's almost infectious   But underneath all of that energy, Hoppers at its core is about being in tune with nature and empathy for all species. 

Hoppers was directed by Daniel Chong who also conceived the film's story, worked as a member of Pixar's senior creative team in the early 2010's and worked on the animated sitcom We Bare Bears for Cartoon Network and he shows a great deal of creativity and energy    the score by Mark Mothersbaugh is  there's great use of lighting in one scene where Mabel helps the animal 

Jon Hamm  At first Jerry seems to be your stereotypical one-note douchy mayor character who just wants to destroy nature to build a freeway, but thankfully that wasn't the case a

Bobby Moynihan of SNL fame and previously worked with Daniel Chong on We Bare Bears voting the beaver king who is hilariously called "George"

Kathy Najimy   voicing Dr. Samanta "Sam" Fairfax,  Dr. Sam is the closest thing to a mother or parental figure that Mabel has in her life following the death of her grandmother. 

The eclectic and well chosen voice cast features performances from actor and comedians Melissa Villansenor as a grumpy brown bear & Vanessa Bayer as a shark assassin with a surprisingly jovial voice that makes me think she's a descendant of the titular shark from Spielberg's Jaws. Other voice talents include Meryl Streep as the Insect Queen and Dave Franco as her Machiavellian son who - well lets just sat I haven't met a villain this scary since Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

This film does such a great job of fleshing out minor roles like Dr. Sam's astute college Sam (Aparna Nancherla) and Connor (Sam Richardson)