Courtney Howard // Film Critic
HOPPERS
Rated PG, 1 hour and 45 minutes
Directed by: Daniel Chong
Starring: Piper Curda, Jon Hamm, Bobby Moynihan, Kathy Najimy, Vanessa Bayer, Dave Franco, Sam Richardson, Aperna Nancherla, Karen Huie, Lila Liu
Pixar is obviously no stranger to comedy in their animated films. A healthy sense of humor always accompanies the gobs of heart in their stories. It’s practically a trademark of theirs, with pull quotes from critics praising “the perfect blend of humor and heart.” However, in the case of HOPPERS, the scales are tipped more towards the wild, outlandish irreverence accompanying its heartrending tale about preserving both land and legacy – one that involves a megalomaniacal mayor, chubby fuzzy beavers and an absurdly rotund Great White Shark flown through the air by a flock of seagulls. It’s a wonder the creatives behind this didn’t have members of the 80s band voice those birds. Yet, its most audacious feat is that, by the end of its adorable, non-stop lunacy, it still manages to summon a few heart swells and perhaps a tear or two.
Young Mabel Tanaka (Lila Liu) has a good heart. She just goes about things the wrong way and her pure intentions turn to chaos. Her quick temper, petulance and impulsivity are an explosive cocktail that bubbles to the surface in rage-filled outbursts. While her single mom is at her wits’ end with her incidents, her park ranger grandmother (Karen Huie) teaches Mabel how to channel her vengeance fuel into mindful meditation, calming herself through natural reflection and the healing, restorative sounds of nature. She learns about harmony and a new enlightenment, urged to picture herself being “a part of something big.” The flora and fauna inhabiting the picturesque glade behind her grandmother’s home provide that peaceful sanctuary, as they sit on a rock overlooking a stream with each other during daylight’s waning golden hours.
Years later, 19-year-old college student Mabel (Piper Curda) has grown protective over her now-deceased grandmother’s special wildlife enclave. Mayor Jerry’s (Jon Hamm) vanity project, a beltway expansion plan that helps drivers shave a ridiculously tiny increment of time off their commute, threatens to encroach on the land. When Mabel’s petition and her last ditch efforts to summon the wildlife back to the desolate glade fail, she escalates matters into hyperdrive, which means avatar-jacking her science professor’s (Kathy Najimy) top secret experimental tech, transferring her brain into the body of a very cute beaver robot. Her lone goal is to take down Mayor Jerry. Despite making a ton of friends in her new beaver body, her main objective winds up getting her into a ton of trouble with every creature, great and small.
Director Daniel Chong (WE BARE BEARS) and writer Jesse Andrews (LUCA) keep things very unconventional where scenes aren’t afraid to embrace running with a gag for too long (like the animals’ loud noise imitations sequence) or tenaciously lean harder on the absurdity of its insane premise of a girl possessing a beaver-bot and then all hell breaking loose between the animal kingdom and humankind. Oh, that old tale?! What we’re offered is eccentric and weirdly delightful – at its best when scenes go into full tilt berserk, whether that be in big action set pieces featuring the aforementioned flying shark named Diane (Vanessa Bayer) or the darker toned ones featuring moth king Titus (Dave Franco), which dip into horror a little. Making toddler terminology like “squishing” sound like a serious universal danger also deserves some accolades.
Though thematically the subject matter deals with heavier issues such as grief, personal identity and ecology, the film celebrates slapstick comedy and other sillier aspects like the animals’ pond rules (a.k.a. a short list of rules of their world that don’t quite align properly). The pushed, cartoonish character designs pop in front of beautifully lit, well-drawn environments. All the animals are perfectly chonky, perhaps retrofit for stuffed animal sales at the Disney parks. Mark Mothersbaugh’s score is peppy, augmenting the silly and the somber narrative overtones. Loverboy’s “Working For The Weekend” makes a funny cameo appearance, but the soundtrack MVP is Sza’s end credits song “Save The Day.”
That said, it’s not all praise. Logistical character motivations are abandoned from time to time. After proving herself integral to the top secret study, it’s questionable why Mabel’s professor and her team (Aparna Nancherla and Sam Richardson) want to pull her out of there when she’s so enmeshed into the beaver community, specifically with King George (Bobby Moynihan). Once they discover why all the wildlife left, it’s odd none of the humans take this matter up themselves with Mayor Jerry. It’s also hard to understand what exactly Mabel wants to happen in the third act. While I’d buy a kid not thinking their actions through to their consequences, her strategies and desired outcomes fail to align, kinda like those crazy pond rules. Situations and conflicts can get a bit tripped up in themselves. The fact that there’s time for us to ponder these questions feels like a problem given the Golden-Era Pixar films were incredibly streamlined.
Still, right when the mayhem becomes too taxing in the loud dénouement, Chong and company bring it all back to what really makes this worthy of carrying the Pixar name, reminding us of the poignancy behind Mabel’s journey. All along the way, there are small breadcrumbs to follow, left for us to track Mabel’s arc toward her betterment. Ultimately, it works and our throats tighten a little and tears well up in our eyes.
Grade: B-
HOPPERS opens in theaters on March 6.
