Pixar is back in action with an enjoyable ride that’s full of bonkers spirit and a heartfelt appreciation for the environment. I’m very glad to have caught this in theaters, and holy crap, it really has been playing for a long while. It reminds me of how I hadn’t seen Sinners until the tail-end of its theatrical run back in 2025. But hey, I’ve watched it now, and it brings me back to the days of my childhood where I gobbled up kids’ movies with bluntly delivered environmentalist messaging—my main picks being Yogi Bear and Furry Vengeance, which I haven’t seen in several years. And in our current world, hooboy, we do need far more people to give a shit about nature and the animals who exist in it while us humans are investing a ton of effort into ripping their homes away from them and plopping our human property in their place. So it’s satisfying to watch Hoppers plunge into this territory, particularly in a fashion that can get straight-up weird. I’d seen the numerous claims from other viewers who’d commented on its capacity for bizarreness, so it’s not like any of that surprised me, but actually witnessing it onscreen makes me go, “Oh, this is what they’d been referring to.” There’s one plot point specifically where the movie makes an interesting choice that sends us down an unexpected direction and heightens the suspense. Up till that point, I’d been thinking that it was peppering in some of its own distinct flavor for sure, but it wasn’t getting completely wild quite yet. But then that crucial moment unfolds, and it lays down a whole new road that allows the film to unveil the fullness of what it’s going for—a road that I can’t get enough of, with a couple other beats additionally standing out to me because of their keen commitment to the gutsy energy of this narrative.
Now, I do like Hoppers quite a bit. The endearing dynamic that grows between Mabel and King George, the bond between Mabel and her grandma that helps Mabel center herself within a spot of tranquility and remind her how vital it is to become one with nature, the text-to-speech gags, the choice to thematically touch on the cycle of life in a manner that’s evocative of The Wild Robot, Dave Franco’s hilarious vocal performance as a power-hungry little caterpillar—these things and more gain my favor. That being said, I also understand why some viewers have taken issue with what they perceive to be the centrism in this movie, and hey, it gets me arching an eyebrow, too. Look, I get what this is saying as it’s focusing on telling us that everyone has goodness deep down inside of them, and we simply need to search for it. We can do the work to help them evolve their perspectives and see the light. It’s a very idealistic and lib-coded stance that I’d genuinely love to embrace… if not for the fact that I’m a hardened human being who’s become all too familiar with the greedy, cruel, and apathetic desires of this world that seeks to extract every ounce of power and wealth that it can get out of other people’s oppression. Reaching out to your oppressor’s heart and constructively reasoning your way into persuading them to change course simply doesn’t work. It didn’t work in Avatar, which Hoppers explicitly references, and it doesn’t work in real life. It’s why oppressed populations have to resort to armed resistance—a tactic that the movie regards with a “Now, now, let’s not get too ferocious there!” sort of attitude. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here going, “Actually, let’s crank up the ferocity.” In general, I advocate for oppressed peoples’ inherent right to armed resistance, e.g. the violence that Palestinians use against the oppressor state of Israel, and that leaves me having to ambivalently wrestle with this aspect of the film—a film that, again, I do like. But I’m wondering if perhaps Pixar and Disney had forced it to tone down its themes in order to make it more appealing for a broad audience. It’s interesting to look back on Yogi Bear and Furry Vengeance, because if I recall correctly, they both landed on the message of, “Yes, we completely support the justified violence against these anti-environment scumbags.”
Oh well, at least I’m now more eager to check out We Bare Bears: The Movie, the previous film from Hoppers director Daniel Chong. Apparently, that’s got a Fuck ICE position to it, which I very much appreciate. And I’m glad to have had a good time with Hoppers, which serves as a reminder that Pixar still has the juice, even if it’s not as consistent as it once was. I continue to say that recent fare like Soul and Turning Red is among some of the studio’s best work, and that’s what I keep moving forward with when we have to endure something like Toy Story 5.
My final rating: 4 out of 5 stars
2 Cents Critic 