Pixar’s Hoppers Deserves Five Green Stars and an Orange Heart (IYKYK)
As a woman raising her child surrounded by nature and with a close bond to grandparents, Hoppers hit in all the right places. It absolutely takes the place of one of the best animated movies I have seen in a while. While I loved taking my son to the movie theatre and watching him dance to Working for the Weekend, I can recognise that the movie feels more for the grownups in the audience than it does for the children…and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Mabel (Piper Curda) is the kind of character that some would call “woke.” She fights against the power that’s trying to dominate everything, moves around (when she is human) on a skateboard, and has absolutely no social cues (in the human world). But everything they would use to label her that way is what makes us love her so much. She is relatable in the sense that we all go through a time in our lives when we feel like we don’t belong anywhere. Mabel is the kind of superhero we need now more than ever.
And, truthfully, Mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm) is the kind of politician we wish we had. One who opens his eyes to the cruelty of his actions and knows when to change course. One who respects the youth and comes around to listen to them and what they have to say. Sadly, not everyone can be like him.
While Hoppers does have an incredible message about nature and the world we inhabit, what truly stands out is the idea that we belong to something much bigger than us and how desperately we actually need a community. We can all relate to Mabel’s frustration and anger, but not everyone had a Grandma Tanaka (Karen Huie) to get us to stop, take a breath, and look around. Wouldn’t it be great if we did? Many of the world’s problems would probably not exist, but sadly, as Mabel states in the movie, humans aren’t like that.
Funny enough, the little girl who once stole every class pet finds her community among the animals after she inhabits a robotic beaver. It is in King George (Bobby Moynihan) that she finds the parental figure her parents never were, and that she lost when her grandmother passed away. In return, in her, George finds the family that rejected him. A lovely message on what it is like to have a found family, to grow those bonds with the people (or animals) you choose because they accept you exactly as you are.
Every animal we meet is a fun personification of what we believe these creatures would do. Watching Meryl Streep’s voice come out of the Insect Queen for a few short minutes before Mabel squishes her is priceless. Titus (Dave Franco) is the perfect villain of the story, becoming so unbearable that he gets eaten by the Amphibian King. And of course, Diane (Vanessa Bayer) is a beautiful apex predator that we love to see chase Jerry. Each of these characters is built perfectly for us to not only enjoy the movie but also understand the meaning behind its story.
The bond built between Mabel and King George transcends their language barrier (to be fully encompassed in a red heart emoji) because it is real. They care about each other, no matter their species, because they understand the solitude they were both living with. Even though King George had all the animals around him, there wasn’t one of them that understood the core of his existence until Mabel came around. After losing her grandma, Mabel had spent her entire life fighting the people who didn’t understand her. It took a beaver to make her feel seen.
If real-life problems could be fixed by a shark jumping on a dam and putting out a fire, we would all live happier lives. But at least for the one hour and 45 minutes of the film, one can escape to a world in which the good guys win.
Hoppers is now playing in theatres.
Photo courtesy of Disney
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