Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish. More information is available at Hewlett.org. What would you do to protect the places you love? That's one of the questions at the heart of Disney and Pixar's new film, Hoppers. It's the story of a young animal lover who learns that a little bit of technology can let her live as one of the critters she loves. And it might just allow her to help save a piece of nature that is at serious risk of destruction. I'm Aisha Harris. And I'm Linda Holmes. And today we're talking about hoppers on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish. More information is available at Hewlett.org. It's just the two of us today. I will say first, the funny thing about this movie is that when you see it, I think it's pretty easy to follow. But when you try to explain it, it sounds complicated. So just stick with me a little bit. We start with Mabel Tanaka, a young woman voiced by Piper Curta, who has always loved animals and nature. That's in part because she spent a lot of time with her grandmother, who taught her to treasure, in particular, a local glade bustling with wildlife. When she's in college and her grandmother is gone, Mabel learns that the slimy mayor of her town wants to destroy the glade to build a highway. He is voiced by Jon Hamm. Right when things look bleak, Mabel learns that one of her professors is building animatronic animals that a human mind can hop into, meaning you can basically make yourself into a realistic robot frog or bird or whatever. The other animals will think you're one of them and you can chat with them. We call it hoppers. Hoppers? We use a proprietary mind casting apparatus to hop or inhabit a lifelike replica. I don't know what that means. I don't always know what it means either. Just FYI, they called this movie about animals hoppers, but it's not about bunnies or frogs or crickets or anything like that. The hopping refers to the jumping into the mind. But honestly, if you want to understand this plot, just understand it can turn you into an animal. Think of it that way. So Mabel winds up inhabiting a mechanical beaver, and she tries to start an effort to save the glade by making it a safe home for lots of animals so it can't be destroyed. She becomes besties with George, the king of the mammals, and also a beaver who is voiced by Bobby Moynihan. And they have to save the Glade and defeat the Wicked Mayor. It gets pretty complicated, particularly when some of the other royalty of the animal kingdom arrive on the scene, including an insect queen voiced by Meryl Streep with agendas of their own. Hoppers is in theaters now. Now, Aisha, I feel like we have both had at least some mixed feelings about some of the recent Pixar movies. Some we have liked, some we have liked a little bit less. What did you think about this one? Well, you explained the plot about as well as I could have. Okay. One thing that's interesting to me, so at one point during this movie, they call out Avatar. I think because anyone who's seen Avatar recently might think of it first. It's like, let's make a joke about Avatar. And I will say our producer, right before we started taping, said it reminded her of Over the Hedge, the 2006 animated movie, which I remember existing, but I have never seen, so I can't comment on that. For me, the reference point for this movie was a more recent film, The Wild Robot. And I don't know if you got a chance to see that, but that was the one where it's based off of a book. And it's where Lupina Nyong'o plays a sort of helper robot who gets stranded on a remote part of the world and becomes friends with and inhabits the nature. And the nature becomes one with her and they learn to live together and coexist. Very different kind of plot, sort of. But what I was drawn to was the way that movie was so, it's a children's movie that also appeals to adults, but also has a very stark understanding of death and the way that we are all here for a little bit. In this movie, I think one of the things I loved about Hoppers is how, you know, its nature. So at any point, a character could just disappear because of the circle of life, the chain of life. And it uses that to some great effect here but also thoughtful effect Is it as poignant as the wild robot No I didn find myself sobbing by the end of it but I found this delightful And that more than I can say for quite a few of the more recent Pixar fare. So I'm pretty much on board with this movie. I think it's, even though there's reference points, it feels fresher and just a little bit more exciting and delightful than other recent outings. And there's a very fun moment with a shark voiced by Vanessa Bear. Yes, there is. That I won't spoil, but like it's a shark, but it's not a shark in the way that you might expect a shark to show up in a movie like this. So yeah, I enjoyed that. Yeah. I liked this too. I think I liked the fact that in comparison to some of the more sort of like super high concept Pixar movies that they have made, you know, whether it's something like Elio, which involves outer space or Inside Out, a movie that I absolutely love, but it has this kind of it's about these feelings personified, blah, blah, blah, or Elemental, which I also liked. But again, it's all very like representational and so forth. I liked the fact that this is just about a person. And yes, she does jump into an animatronic beaver. That is true. But as a person, And she's just a person. And I really, really liked Mabel as a lead character. I thought she was extremely appealing. I will say, I think the hair work that they do with Mabel is some of my favorite Pixar hair work ever, just in terms of the animation. You know, I like the fact that it's populated with as many different animals as it is. I kind of like the fact that kind of new stuff keeps showing up all the time. And, you know, just when you think you've kind of seen all the animals, it reminds you, I think wisely and correctly, that there are lots of different kinds of animals and they're not all little fuzzy forest creatures. Some of them are, you know, all different kinds. There's bugs and birds and reptiles and stuff like that. And it's interesting that you mentioned the kind of stuff about death and life and stuff, because there were times when I thought, like, I think maybe for little kids or like kids who are easily upset by things that are scary or upsetting, I would say this falls somewhat on the more intense end of the scale for Pixar movies, both because there are some pretty scary things that happen. There's a big fire. But also because I suddenly realized that they had kind of come up with a euphemism in this movie for killing things. And it's because there's a lot of talk in this movie about killing things. I think more than you'll usually see in a Pixar movie. And again, it's nature and some of that relates to animals and their understanding of how the world works. There are a couple times where I was like, I might have found this intense as a really little kid. And, you know, the kids who got really super upset about Finding Nemo and stuff like that. Like some kids take, you know, the sad and scary parts of Pixar and Disney movies really hard. So I would say that. But overall, I really enjoyed this. I got to say, I think the farther Bobby Moynihan gets from being fully SNL, the more I really enjoy seeing him show up in a lot of different things. I think his voice work here is terrific. You know, Jon Hamm is this is a pretty good deployment of funny Jon Hamm, which has not always been successful for me, but I think is very successful in this. Yeah, I really liked it. I really liked it. I did not imagine that 2026 would have so much Bobby Moynihan in my presence this year because between this and the fallen rise of Reggie Dinkins, the new NBC comedy where he's kind of a side character. I forgot how much I enjoy him. And it's nice to see him kind of getting another moment here. And I loved him as the beaver. Now that Pixar has its own environment, there's always going to be little Easter eggs. So there's a moment where a turtle shows up and his name is Crush. And it's like, oh, yes, Finding Nemo. Let's do this. I'm curious like what you think about, while it's not like the most heady intellectual concept in the same way that something like Coco or, you know, as you've already mentioned, Inside Out is. It does seem to like the central conceit of the story is that like Mabel is a rebel. She's a young activist who and it's just her against the mayor and that's it. And it's a kids movie. So I don't expect us to get into all the detail. But like Schoolhouse Rock sure can explain things, but like we're not expecting Schoolhouse Rock here. Like this is still a story that needs to be told. I did find it interesting and I liked how it both waded into this idea of what it means to be a young person who feels like the whole world is ahead of them rage against the machine and then feel defeated about it And I think it handles that plot line with grace and with the type of deployment that you need for a movie that's, of course, they're always aiming for as many people as possible, but is supposed to be aimed at children to some extent. And I liked that. And yes, it kind of wades into the sort of more typical Disney slash Pixar thing where then, of course, a real big bad shows up and that takes over the story. It's like, OK, the real villain is here and we all have to take them down. I felt like this felt like a good movie for the moment of like we want to save our planet, but also this one guy. Right. He is one of the most involved mayors I've ever seen. Like, I mean, I know we're in the age of Mom Donnie, but like it was weird that like you have Jerry and he's always at the site, always there to like take it down. Very hands on. Yeah. But I liked that. I think it worked overall. Yeah, I liked it too. I think I like the fact that, as you mentioned, there is a recognition of the fact that being an activist and trying to do something important is not always in the moment particularly rewarding. And I think one of the things that Mabel is going through is realizing, you know, there's a helplessness that she feels. I think they do a good job of exploring her feelings around that, her feelings of kind of being impotent against everything that's happening. But I think at the same time, I also appreciate the fact that there is an examination of the fact that when you are doing something you think is the right thing, particularly when you are going into a community that you're not actually part of and you are trying to help, You have to be careful of how you treat the relationships that you form when you're there. And you have to be prepared for the fact that you may not always be received as super welcome, depending on how you conduct yourself when you're there and depending on how people wind up feeling about your involvement, if that makes sense. Absolutely. And it's the type of movie where, you know, everyone's going to learn a lesson. Of course. Most people are going to learn a lesson. People are going to get hurt, but then they find a way. And I also just thought the animation here, there's like some really like clever tricks, especially from perspective, because when we're seeing it through the eyes of a human, the animals look a little bit different. Their faces are way more like, oh my God, they're so cute. Right. Right. And then when we're in the world and when we are seeing the animals as they see each other, they're a little bit more like your traditional animated, what you would expect. And I love those little details because it's very, very good. Yes. I think that's a very nice touch. Right. They are doing really good animation of the natural world and people and animals. And I am happy to see so much of that and to see them finding a lot of joy. You know, as I said, just appreciate Mabel's hair. She's got this kind of spiky, bunchy sort of great hair. Yeah. Just that, but also like the expressions on her face, the way she interacts with things in the world. But also the animation of this glade and this piece of nature has to be really loving, but I think also fair in a way. it is beautifully animated to be beautiful in the way that nature is beautiful and not necessarily in the same way that something otherworldly is beautiful. I think there's a really nice grace note about if you're going to be an activist, you have to understand that sometimes you're going to disappoint people or you're going to disappoint yourself. And you have to rally when that happens and figure out a way forward because not everything you try is going to work. There are a couple of nice moments, I think, for that. Does it get, you know, very broad by the end? Absolutely it does. But I think through a lot of it, it's pretty literally earthbound in a way that I really found to be welcome. Yeah, it finds its moments. And there was one moment to the end where there's a couple of characters that are very much like, but all people are good. And it walks up to that line but then it kind of pulls back and says well maybe not not necessarily but can't we dream and is it a little kind of like kumbaya woo woo sure but i think the fact that it even questions that in a movie like this is worth noting and celebrating because too often we just kind of try to paste over it completely and pretend as if everyone has the good in that Like that's been maybe an issue a lot with a lot of recent animated kids movies where it's like the villain isn't the person, it's the trauma. And it's like, no, sometimes people are just bad. And I like that it kind of walks up to that and questions it. I do wonder, though, like, I want to see more Pixar movies go in this direction. And I worry that the slate that's coming up does not bode well. Like, next is Toy Story 5, and I've watched that trailer, even though I tend to avoid trailers. But now that we're on 5, it doesn't matter. It seems like more rehashing. You've got Coco 2 coming. Right. I do just wonder, you know, is this a blip? Or will they try to keep making these types of movies, even if they don't necessarily reach the same audience as like Inside Out or Inside Out to have. Right. Yeah. I was thinking about while I was watching this, I was thinking about the fact that I wrote a piece they had announced Brave. They had talked about the fact that it was about this girl who was a princess. And I wrote something that was essentially, can we have a Pixar movie about a girl who is not a princess? because at that time, a lot of the Pixar movies, maybe all, had been kind of really focused on boys and men or other critters who were treated as men or boys. There have certainly been some, don't get me wrong. They have done better work, I think, later on this front than they did at the beginning. Oh, yeah. Turning Red is one of my favorites of the last. Turning Red is one inside out, even though Riley's not necessarily the actual main character in that movie, it's obviously about her life and her inner life and all that stuff. And she's not a princess. So I'm not in no way do I think they are still in the same track they were then. But I still do find myself thinking like, yes, every time I see like a human young woman as the center of a Pixar movie, I'm still happy and relieved. Because one of the things that can happen, you know, there are all these really interesting questions about representation in animated films. I remember the conversation we had about Soul and the fact that on the one hand, it's about this Black musician, but he also turns into a blob at some point. It's just like Princess and the Frog. It's like, really? It's frustrating. And it's like, it's progress and not. And I felt like here, even though she does turn into a beaver for a significant chunk of the movie, she also spends a significant chunk of the movie as herself. So yeah, I really enjoyed this. I thought it had a lot going for it. I really did enjoy a bunch of the voices. You know, Meryl Streep has done maybe less voice work and animation than I would have expected her to have done by this point. And I kept listening because I knew Meryl Streep was in it and I thought I knew which character she was. And I was like, that is not just Meryl Streep doing Meryl Streep. Like she puts a little mustard on that performance, which I appreciated a lot. The insect queen. The insect queen. And I did like all of those little animals. They're so cute. And menacing in some cases. Some are nice and some are not so much. But I think we both really enjoyed it. I'm glad you enjoyed it too because I kind of got out of that movie thinking like, am I going to go too easy on this movie? So I'm glad we both liked it. It's very delightful. You're here. Well said. Delightful is the perfect word. Well, tell us what you think about Hoppers. Find us on Facebook at Facebook.com slash PCHH and on Letterboxd at Letterboxd.com slash NPR Pop Culture. will have a link in our episode description. That brings us to the end of our show. Ayesha Harris, my friend who knows so much more about Disney and Pixar than I do. Thank you so much for being here for this conversation. It was a pleasure, Linda. Thank you. And just a reminder that signing up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus is a great way to support our show and public radio. And you get to listen to all of our episodes sponsor free. So please go find out more about that at plus.npr.org slash happy hour. Or you can visit the link in our show notes. This episode was produced by Hafsa Fatima, Carly Rubin, and Mike Katzif, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello, Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for hopping on over to listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Linda Holmes, and we will see you all next time. Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish. More information is available at Hewlett.org.
