The Gist
A young girl discovers how to ‘hop’ into the body of a beaver and uses it to try and save a pond from construction.
The Review
With the Easter holiday period upon us it is good to see some more family films hitting cinemas at the moment. It is also a healthy relief for this film journalist from all the horror films that have released over the past few months.
The latest family flick to be released comes from Pixar – a studio that has found itself falling from its lofty heights over recent years. During its glory time every film Pixar released was a hit but recently they have been hit and miss. Lightyear never became the hit that many expected it to be while an attempt to be more high-brow and intellectual with Elemental and Inside Out 2 also seemed to alienate many of the families who previously would have called themselves Pixar fanatics.
Then came Elio, which I felt was a decent film, but sadly again families seemed to give it a wide-berth perhaps because they were a little gun-shy about the film after the recent Pixar flops. Now the studio hopes to buck that trend with Hoppers – a film that seems to show that its creators know what families want and need.
Directed by Daniel Chong (We Bare Bears: The Movie) Hoppers centres around a young girl called Mable (voiced by Piper Curda – May December) whose deep love for animals and nature constantly gets her in trouble in school.
After she is suspended for trying to free all the animals kept as pets in various classrooms she finds herself spending more time with Grandma Tanaka (Karen Huie – Nancy Drew) who teaches her how to connect with nature at a local pond. These moments allow Mable to relax and bring peace to her life.
Flashforward to years later and Mable finds her beloved pond under threat from Mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm – The Town) who plans on destroying it while he builds a freeway. While Mable decides to fight against his plans her fight is made harder by the fact that all the animals seem to have deserted the pond itself.
When Mable’s college lecturer, Dr Sam (Kathy Najimy – Sister Act), tells her the best way to save the pond is to bring all the animals back Mable ends up hijacking a piece of technology that allows her to ‘live’ as a beaver amongst the animals.
That soon has Dr Sam and her colleagues also coming after Mable while she works alongside animals such as King George (Bobby Moynihan – The Secret Life Of Pets) to try and get the animals to return to the Pond. The only problem is she soon finds that not all the animals live in harmony either – some are hellbent on taking over the world.
One of the biggest criticisms of Pixar movies over the past few years have that the films have been too ‘preachy’ when it comes to modern day topics. To their credit the screenwriter behind Hoppers, Jesse Andrews (Luca), doesn’t do that. Yes, there are some strong environmental messages about caring for animals and nature but they come across in the movie in such a way that parents can sit down and talk to their kids about it afterwards if they wish. The message isn’t exactly rammed down the throat of kids so most kids will just see this as a story about a girl and some cute, fluffy animals.
Andrews is also a talented enough screenwriter to know that despite the serious story behind Hoppers the film also needs some light-hearted moments. Therefore the film openly laughs at the fact that its general premise is pretty similar to that of Avatar while writing the character of The Mayor as over the top and zany. That means that once again this becomes a film that can be enjoyed by people of all ages – there is nothing too scary for little kids but there is also enough substance for any adults that are watching as well.
Perhaps the most important thing about Hoppers though is that this is a film with real heart. From the touching scenes between Mabel and her Grandmother through to the gut-wrenching scenes when King George learns that perhaps he can’t trust Mable there are moments throughout this film that are going to tug at the heart strings. That is rare in animation today and for me this is proof that Hoppers has managed to re-capture some of the old Pixar magic.
The Verdict
Zany when it needs to be and emotionally touching throughout Hoppers is not only a film for the whole family but it is a film that will have you laughing and crying throughout. Yes, everybody Pixar are back with an absolute fan favourite.
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