When scientists discover a way to transform human consciousness into robotic animals, Mabel uses the new technology to uncover mysteries of the animal world that are beyond anything she could have ever imagined.
Director: Daniel Chong
Cast: Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, Dave Franco, Melissa Villaseñor
Release Date: March 6, 2026
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Sci-Fi
Rated PG for action/peril, some scary images and mild language.
Runtime: 1h 45m
Review:
Hoppers is a chaotic mix of Avatar, Mission Impossible and Game of Thrones in the form of an animated kid’s film that leans heavily on its endearing charm even as the story veers wildly in all sorts of directions, especially in its final act. Anyone familiar with Daniel Chong’s long running Cartoon Network series, We Bare Bears, will find plenty of similarities at play in this feature as his overreaching theme of environmentalism, characters finding their way in unfamiliar societies and friendship are all present. Chong moves his film along at a steady pace after setting up the general concept and characters by introducing the audience to the lush animal kingdom. The visuals are impressive throughout as we traverse the colorful, animal world that looks like a mix of The Wild Robot and We Bare Bears’s character designs. Piper Curda and Bobby Moynihan voice the central characters of Mabel and King George, the beaver monarch, who make up the emotional core of the film. Curda’s character is headstrong to a fault which leads her to make more than a few questionable decisions throughout especially if you start to really analyze the plot. She shares some solid chemistry with veteran comedian and voice actor, Bobby Moynihan whose King George is instantly likable. The rest of the kingdom’s kings and queen, however, are played as much more cutthroat especially once they find out what the mayor, voiced by Jon Hamm, has planned for the glade. Once the council is introduced you get the sense that Chong has way too many ideas on his mind and has the story veer into strangely aggressive areas that are played as zany and over the top but are kind of strange choices for an animated family film when you really start to think about it. There’s a noticeable sense that he would have been better off keeping Hopper’s story more tightly focused, which would have made the emotional aspect of the story far more impactful than it ends up being when it’s all said and done.
B

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