Hoppers is a new Disney/Pixar animation,which opens with young Mabel in Beaverton, who enjoying spending time with her grandmother in the local forest glade, and all the nature that surrounds them.
Alas, fast-forward ten years, and the council – led by Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm – Landman) – now wants to blow up the dam and tear the glade down to make way for a bypass, after driving all the wildlife away with an interminable noise that only the animals can hear.
But… Mabel (Piper Curda) gives a ‘dam’, and gets all ‘Arthur Dent’ on his ass, because she doesn’t want this dear green space torn down. However, Jerry has all the warmth and compassion of Donald Trump, taking a ‘might is right’ attitude, and blowing shit up.
Still, he’ll give her 48 hours to get some signatures to save the glade, before he has the whole area concreted over…Somehow, a bit later, she also only has to prove her worth by just bringing ONE beaver back to the area, but ends up ‘hopping’ into the body of a robot beaver Avatar-style.
Mabel eventually finds the animals bowing to the Beaver King, but add in an evil moth queen, and 104 mins is rather too long for this. It could easily knock at least 15 minutes out of it.
There’s a scene of things getting done set to a bastardised version of the tune Unsquare Dance, composed and performed by the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1961, but are you REALLY telling me that Disney couldn’t afford the rights to the original?!
Still, on the plus side, I did get quite a few laughs out of this; and the 3D was great, and well-used on a frequent basis, whether it’s animals someone running at the screen or away from it, or the general calamity of everything happening.
However, in the same way Disney threw Pixar’s Elio under the bus, by still putting it out in cinemas while Lilo And Stitch was doing surprisingly good business – instead of holding it back until the October half-term, last year, they’ve pushed this one out just after the kids went back after February half-term, and long before the April Easter holidays, when bloody Super Mario will dominate.
Still, the most pleasing part of the escapade was how I effectively turfed out six chatty teenagers from the room.
Just as the film was starting, all six of them (3 lads, 3 girls) came in and went to a row that was three rows behind me. Note that once you scan your ticket, you’re asked if you have 3D glasses, and are directed to the kiosk if you don’t… so how come every single one of this lot (and they were booked in on the seat map, so hadn’t just drifted in from another room) subsequently trotted off to get some 3D glasses?
They were babbling before they set off, and while going out, and again on their return. I shushed, but to little effect.
Once all had returned, the film had been running 10 minutes. Another 10 mins, and their chat had not subsided. My thoughts turned to getting a member of staff, but the film is pretty busy and I didn’t want to miss a great deal of it, so I knew what had to be done.
I put my glasses down on my coat next to me, went up to their row, looked at them straight, and said, “Do you want to try NOT talking(?)”. One girl said, “No-one’s talking”.
I leaned in and said, “I can hear you!”… the lad next to her giggled. I turned my head to face him and gave a fixed stare for about ten seconds, then went to sit down again.
Less chat followed, and while the film is quite noisy, there were a few moments with absolute silence, and they also stayed silent. Then about a further ten minutes on, and all 3 girls left. I assumed they’d gone to the toilet together, since that’s what women do. But another 5 minutes, and the lads left as well. Thankfully, they did not return.
I can’t even imagine what they thought they’d get out of such a film. I went for the 3D, and was pleased with that. Oh, and the fact that I’ll watch almost anything on Limitless. And for a change, I got a decent Hollywood animation. Unlike GOAT or Zootopia 2.
NOTE: There are both mid- and post-credit scenes, and other things, as per my video below.
Hoppers is in cinemas from this Friday, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 104 minutes
Release date: March 6th 2026
Studio: Disney Pixar
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Rating: 7/10
Director: Daniel Chong
Producer: Nicole Paradis Grindle
Screenplay: Jesse Andrews
Music: Mark Mothersbaugh
Voice cast:
Mabel: Piper Curda
King George: Bobby Moynihan
Mayor Jerry Generazzo: Jon Hamm
Dr Sam: Kathy Najimy
Insect King: Dave Franco
Loaf: Eduardo Franco
Nisha: Aparna Nancherla
Tom Lizard: Tom Law
Conner: Sam Richardson
Ellen: Melissa Villaseñor
Bird King: Isiah Whitlock Jr
Fish Queen: Ego Nwodim
Reptile Queens: Nichole Sakura
Insect Queen: Meryl Streep
Grandma Tanaka: Karen Huie
Young Mabel: Lila Liu
Lizard King: Steve Purcell
Diane: Vanessa Bayer
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.