Hoppers review: Pixar's latest is a beautifully judged, adorably animated gem

Following the slightly underwhelming Elio, Pixar is back with a bang with the beautifully judged, adorably animated Hoppers. Directed by We Bare Bears creator Daniel Chong and featuring a sparkling script courtesy of Jesse Andrews (Luca, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Hoppers blends body-swap chaos with an empowering message about co-existence.

We first meet our heroine Mabel Tanaka (voiced by Lila Liu) as a rebellious moppet liberating classroom pets from her Beaverton elementary school, before watching her grow into an alienated 19-year-old environmentalist (Piper Curda), whose activism causes her to neglect her college studies.

Mabel’s love for nature is inspired by her beloved grandmother (Karen Huie) who, before her death, taught Mabel how to slow down and soak up her surroundings, instilling in her a particular love for a nearby glade, where animals of all kinds live in blissful harmony, centred around the activities of a colony of beavers.

Unfortunately, Beaverton’s arrogant and ambitious mayor Jerry (a hilarious Jon Hamm) has plans to bulldoze the glade to build a freeway, which he boasts should save people about four minutes of journey time.

Mabel is the lone voice of opposition and smells a rat when she realises the animal population have already vacated the area, making this previously protected space fair game for developers.

In order to stop construction, Mabel must get the beavers (a keystone species who play a critical role in maintaining the environment’s ecosystem) to return. Although her attempts to encourage them back fail, she finds another, entirely unexpected option when she discovers that her biology professor Dr Sam (Kathy Najimy) has been conducting secret experiments, during which her and her colleagues ‘hop’ into robotic animals in order to get up close to the relevant species and better understand them.

Hopping into the body of a lifelike robot beaver, Mabel is able to communicate with and befriend a real beaver, the gregarious local leader of the mammal kingdom, King George (Bobby Moynihan). George teaches her the pond rules and agrees to call a meeting of the council of other royal rulers to help save the glade – a group which includes the formidable Insect Queen (Meryl Streep no less), and her spoilt caterpillar son (Dave Franco).

With the reintroduction of beavers into the UK gathering pace, as seen in David Attenborough's stunning recent documentary Wild London, it’s the perfect time for kids to learn about and appreciate the wonder of nature’s engineers, and Pixar’s take on these creatures is as cute and characterful as you’d imagine.

Curda’s wild-haired, well-designed outsider Mabel makes an admirable focal point; she’s anti-establishment and environmentally minded enough to be interesting, but with a valuable lesson about opening her heart and having faith in humanity to learn along the way.

Hoppers boasts a meaty, moderately complicated story which encourages engagement without ever becoming too muddled or baffling (although the very young might need the odd explanation). Meanwhile, as the human population come under threat themselves, the ante is effectively upped without feeling too frightening, with things getting enjoyably bonkers when an apex predator assassin is introduced.

Despite the inclusion of sci-fi and thriller elements (Jaws, Avatar and Back to the Future are amongst the apparent inspirations), the film never loses sight of the more down-to-earth story at its core.

It’s not quite up there with Pixar’s finest, but this warm, extremely witty and wonderfully entertaining film is sure to delight the whole family, whilst spreading a positive message about living side-by-side with nature and not judging our fellow humans too harshly. It’s funny, lovely and appealingly righteous, boasting a big-hearted hopefulness that’s just what we need.

Hoppers is released in UK cinemas on Friday 6 March 2026.

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