Hoppers (2026) Review
The latest Pixar film, Hoppers drops in theaters this weekend. I was lucky enough to see this at an early screening on Saturday. I didn’t go into this film with super grand expectations because Pixar’s track records this decade hasn’t been great. How is the movie? Did it surprise me? Let’s talk about it!
The Good
There’s no need to beat around the bush, I thought Hoppers was an absolute delight and this is EASILY Pixar’s best film since Coco. Pixar has put out great movies since Coco with Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4, and Inside Out 2. But those are all sequels, and I don’t feel like their original films have been as strong. Hoppers isn’t a top tier Pixar film; it’s not the next Pixar classic. But it’s a solid Pixar film that has everything you want from a Pixar film. So, you get the big emotions, the great animation, and you get this fun set of characters that you enjoy spending time with. It took a little while to get going and fully on board with the film. But once it kicked into gear, I really dug this movie and was a pleasant surprise. I didn’t have this movie on my most anticipated list of 2026. I didn’t think the trailers were particularly good and felt like the lowest common denominator for Pixar films. Now having seen the film, the film is much better than the marketing.
At the center of this film is Mabel who loves animals and wants animals to be treated better. She bonds over this idea with her grandma who lives off in the forest. That’s at the center of this film and what’s driving Mabel throughout the film. That’s the piece that I think was missing from the marketing. They sold the movie based on the jokes and cute animals, which absolutely is a big part of this film. But when you market the entire movie based on that, it’s hard to convince older audiences to see this movie. In general, I found Mabel’s arc in the film to be powerful and I thought it worked. You understand from the very opening scene of the film who she is and the fact that she loves animals and cares for them. Throughout the film, you understand why she’s making certain choices. You feel the constant back and forth that she’s feeling of trying to help the animals while also being a human. You don’t want the animals to learn her secret. Throughout the film, the audience can completely understand this character and her journey. Had they marketed this movie with a balance of the humor and cute animals and the heart, I think the trailers overall would’ve been much better.
As it is a Pixar film you must talk about the animation and it looks good. There wasn’t a single frame or shot in this film that looked bad or off to me. In every single shot there’s so much detail in what’s happening. Since the film takes place outside it means that everything shot is gorgeous and there’s trees and water and so much happening that you can’t take your eyes off it. Also, the film is focused on a bunch of animals which means that the fur of the animals is a big part of the film and it looks great. It looks so real and we know that the animals are animated, but they look real at the same time. There’s detail on the humans as well where you can see the wrinkles, birth marks, and freckles on each of the characters faces. It’s a Pixar film so we shouldn’t be surprised that it looks incredible. I compare this movie to Elio from last year which looks great, but it lacked the detail and depth that this film has. It’s fascinating to see how much computer animation has evolved over 31 years from Toy Story to this film. With technology continuing to progress and move forward, it’ll be interesting to see what the future of Pixar and computer animation will look like.
Another fun aspect of the film is the voice acting for the film. Pixar and Disney Animation sometimes cast big name actors or do unknown actors. This film does a good mix of both. You get the familiar names and face but also several unknown names. The big standout for me was Jon Hamm as Mayor Jerry. Jerry is a character that’s designed to be a lot of fun and a bit over the top. It means that Hamm can have a lot of fun in this role and go for it. You buy him as this person that’s trying to be re-elected for mayor and this very greedy person that won’t listen to any of the naysayers. He was the one that I thought was the most fun in the film and the one where the actor was having the most fun voicing him. The other fun one here is Dave Franco as this butterfly, it’s tough to explain what works about his performance without spoiling where the film goes. But his character is another over the top one where he’s having to scream and shout a lot, and he gets a lot of very funny moments that put a smile on my face. You also get Meryl Streep in here, and I never thought I’d hear Streep’s voice in a Pixar film but here we are. Some audiences might not even know that it’s her because they don't like her at all. It’s a solid cast filled with actors that I enjoy seeing on screen.
Finally, I criticized the marketing for primarily selling the film on the jokes and cute animals. One beneficial aspect of the film was that I was surprised where it was going. But about 50%-60% of the way through the film the story changes completely and goes in directions that I wasn’t expecting at all. If you’ve seen the film, you know what I’m referring to. It’s very sudden and even has some nice dark comedy that ties into it at the same time. What goes down in the third act and what the conflict is, isn’t what I was expecting at all. I could see that jump not working for some people and that being where the film loses them. For me, I thought it worked and it surprised me.
The Bad
The biggest issue with the film is what I just alluded to. But the film’s plot is very predictable. The big story comparison for this film would be Avatar; there’s even a joke in the film that makes fun of that. If you have seen Avatar, then you’ll have a fairly good idea as to where the movie is going. It’s about this human that goes into the foreign land and lives amongst their ways only for the humans to attack later. That’s why I praised the third act because what it did, wasn’t at all what I expected. But for the first half of the film, it’s predictable and you’re able to predict when the big reveals are going to happen. I know that I’m watching a kid's movie, so I didn’t expect the plot to be super complex and original. But I think it’s still a fair criticism of the film to say that the plot is familiar and isn’t the most original thing we’ve seen.
Another issue with the film is that at points the film can get a bit too dark with its tone and humor. One of the aspects of the third act that surprised me was that it gets dark. There’s some creepy imagery that I could see young kids not liking. I know my issues seem to contradict what I said about the third act, but I think it got a bit too dark. Especially when most of the film is very lighthearted and unassuming family entertainment and it’ll have these sudden outbursts of darkness. The other aspect of the films that’s a bit dark is the humor. Some of the humor is low hanging fruit, they’ve shown the lizard throughout the marketing that’s very kiddy. But there’s this repeating joke of animals eating other animals because it’s part of the food chain. When you see animals eating other animals multiple times in the film, it can get very dark and that humor doesn’t always fit the rest of the film. Even to what I said earlier about the film changing tones and villains over halfway through the film involves a very dark joke. The joke is so dark that it had my audience in shock about what happened. If you’ve seen the movie then you know what I’m talking about. It’s a very unexpected joke that I thought was funny but feels so out of place with the rest of the film. Especially since the film is a family film it has to move on quickly to get to the next joke and plot point.
Finally, the film has some laps in the logic in the way things play out. I get that we’re watching a fictional movie with humans becoming beavers and talking animals. Even in that, you have to have rules that ground the story in reality. With this movie there’s a few moments that didn’t quite add up. The main example of this is during this car chase involving the animals and Jon Hamm’s character. It’s a fun car chase that has all sorts of shenanigans and funny moments. But there’s two separate times during that sequence where I went “wait a minute, that doesn’t make any sense.” It’s not a big issue, it didn’t pull me out of the movie or the sequence, but it is something that I noticed.
Final Thoughts: I grew up watching Pixar films, their run of films from Toy Story (1995) to Toy Story 3 (2010) is a pretty phenomenal run. Throughout the 2010s they had a lot of very solid films. But by far their weakest run has been in the 2020s. There’ve been some good films, but they’ve been bottom or mid tier Pixar. Hoppers is easily Pixar’s best original film this decade. The film has all the charm and magic that you expect from a Pixar film. The animation is top notch with a fun voice cast, Jon Hamm being a standout. This screening was filled with a lot of kids and families, and everybody really enjoyed the film.
The Score: 8.4/10 (B)
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