There will be a full trailer for Pixar’s Hoppers before Zootopia 2 this Thanksgiving, but you don’t have to wait so long — that trailer’s online today!
The movie gets its name from the technology at its core, an Avatar-like machine that allows humans to “hop” into cybernetic likenesses of aniimals and live among them. Young nature enthusiast Mabel hijacks the machine to turn herself into an illegal beaver and takes a jaunt into the forest. She has a better motive than just messing around: the town mayor is threatening to destroy the beavers’ habitat and she wants to convince them to move.
Instead of going with that plan, though, the animal kingdom decides to declare “war” on the humans and “squish” them. Now Mabel has to get in between the conflict and try to cool tensions between both sides.
Pixar also revealed the full cast list for the movie, and since it’s a lot of animals, it’s a lot of stars: Meryl Streep as the Insect Queen, Dave Franco as Titus, Kathy Najimy as Dr. Sam, Eduardo Franco as Loaf, Melissa Villaseñor as Ellen, Ego Nwodim as Fish Queen, Vanessa Bayer as Diane, Sam Richardson as Conner, Aparna Nancherla as Nisha, Nichole Sakura (hey, that’s Cheyenne from Superstore! She needs more work, Hollywood) as the Reptile Queens, Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Bird King, Steve Purcell as Amphibian King, Karen Huie as Grandma Tanaka, and Tom Law as Tom Lizard. They join the previously announced voice stars Piper Curda as Mabel, Bobby Moynihan as King George and Jon Hamm as Mayor Jerry.
Hoppers is directed by Daniel Chong (We Bare Bears), produced by Nicole Paradis Grindle (Incredibles 2) and features an original score by composer Mark Mothersbaugh (Thor: Ragnarok).
The theory is out there that Pixar used to score hits with movies about animals and living objects, but ever since they started making movies about children, they haven’t been able to attract as much attention. I don’t think a rebound is as simple as dumping the films about kids (like, there was this whole pandemic thing that shifted the movies to Disney+ and messed things up). And also, Coco?
With the We Bare Bears guy commanding the ship, there’s reason to believe Hoppers can soar higher than Elio ever did. The animal revolution starts March 6.
