MOVIE REVIEW: HOPPERS

 

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

MOVIE REVIEW: THE WRETCHED

A defiant teenage boy, struggling with his parent's imminent divorce, faces off with an old witch who has possessed the neighbour next door.

Director: Brett Pierce, Drew T. Pierce

Cast: John-Paul Howard, Piper Curda, Zarah Mahler, Kevin Bigley, Gabriela Quezada Bloomgarden, Richard Ellis, Blane Crockarell, Jamison Jones, and Azie Tesfai

Release Date: May 1, 2020

Genre: Horror 

Rated R for sexual content and some nudity 

Runtime: 1h 36min

Review:

The Wretched is the type of film that feels familiar right from the start with The sheer number is "witch next door" stories it's nearly impossible fit not to be instantly recognizable    This entry is never terrifying but directors Brett & Drew Pierce do set up a handful of effective jump scares throughout.  Outside of those moments, the film feels more like a love letter to those type of films with a decent sense of self awareness.  Seasoned horror fans will likely find plenty of familiar beats throughout, but it’s all shot and performed effectively which makes it an easy watch.  On the downside, the majority of the characters are about as one dimensional as they come.  John-Paul Howard does decent work in the lead but he's decidedly bland which works against the film's insistence that his character is a bad boy.  Piper Curda suffers from the same fate but they do what they can with neither being bad or boring enough to be distracting.  Zarah Mahler does the heaviest lifting as the central vessel for the villainous witch.  She’s creepy enough but you are kind of left wishing the movie had used her a bit more to make her character more formidable and memorable.  The Wretched is an easily disposable horror film that gets high marks for solid direction and performances, it'll likely never end up on any top ten list, but it doesn't really aspire to.


C+