Hoppers (film)
2026 film by Daniel Chong
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Hoppers is a 2026 American animated science fiction comedy film[5] produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Daniel Chong and written by Jesse Andrews from a story by Chong and Andrews, it stars the voices of Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, and Dave Franco. The story follows Mabel (Curda), an animal-loving college student who transfers her mind into a robotic beaver to communicate with animals and save their habitat from destruction, inadvertently sparking an uprising among them.
- Daniel Chong
- Jesse Andrews
| Hoppers | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Daniel Chong |
| Screenplay by | Jesse Andrews |
| Story by |
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| Produced by | Nicole Paradis Grindle |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography |
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| Edited by | Axel Geddes |
| Music by | Mark Mothersbaugh |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures[a] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 104 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $150 million[2] |
| Box office | $388 million[3][4] |
Chong began developing the project after returning to Pixar in December 2020, and it was officially announced in August 2024. Development lasted six years. Mark Mothersbaugh composed the score, while SZA wrote and performed the end-credits song "Save the Day".
Hoppers premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on February 23, 2026, and was released theatrically in the United States on March 6. It received positive reviews from critics and grossed $388 million worldwide against a production budget of $150 million, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2026.
Plot
In the city of Beaverton, Mabel Tanaka attempts to free several class pets from her elementary school but is caught by her teachers. Frustrated by her behavior, Mabel's mother leaves Mabel with her grandmother, who lives near a glade. Inspired by her grandmother, Mabel develops a deep appreciation for nature. Years later, after her parents leave town and her grandmother has died, she continues watching over the glade. In the present, Beaverton's mayor, Jerry Generazzo, announces plans to route part of his beltway through the area, claiming the animals have already left. Now 19 and attending college, Mabel campaigns against the project but gains no support.
While trying to lure the animals back, Mabel discovers that her biology professor Dr. Sam and her colleagues, Nisha and Conner, have secretly developed the "Hoppers" program, which allows them to inhabit robotic animals. Despite Sam's warning that interfering with wildlife could have disastrous consequences, Mabel sees an opportunity to save the glade, hops into a robotic beaver, and escapes the lab.
Mistaken for a real beaver, Mabel is brought before Mammal King George, a beaver monarch sheltering the glade's displaced animals in an overcrowded dam. She discovers an artificial tree emitting sound waves audible only to animals that Jerry secretly installed to drive them away. Mabel destroys the device, prompting many animals to return to the glade. As she grows closer to George, she prepares to reveal her identity. Before she can, Jerry destroys part of the glade with explosives and installs additional sound-emitting trees.
Mabel and George convene a meeting of the Animal Council, attended by monarchs representing the Insect, Amphibian, Fish, Reptile, and Bird classes. Initially indifferent, the Council agrees to intervene after Mabel warns that Jerry will eventually threaten all their habitats. However, her speech inadvertently inspires its members to assassinate him. When Mabel tries to stop them, she accidentally kills the Insect Queen. She and George flee while the animals destroy the robotic bodies Nisha and Conner used to spy on the meeting, exposing the humans' deception. The Insect Prince Titus crowns himself king and takes control of the Council.
Although upset at Mabel, George forgives her and agrees to help protect Jerry. Joined by Loaf the beaver, Tom the lizard, and Ellen the bear, the group locates Jerry and forces him to drive to the glade in hopes of stopping the beltway project. Seagulls working for the Council attempt to kill him by dropping a shark onto his car. Although they escape, Jerry refuses to abandon the project. Frustrated, Mabel reveals their location to both the Council and the scientists, who arrive and disconnect her from the robotic beaver, causing her to faint.
Mabel awakens to find the Council has taken everyone hostage and forced the scientists to build a robotic clone of Jerry for Titus to inhabit. Titus plans to impersonate the mayor and use the sound trees to massacre the humans attending Jerry's re-election rally at the glade. Mabel reconciles with Jerry, who reluctantly hops into the robotic beaver to help them escape.
At the rally, Mabel attempts to reason with Titus, but he refuses to abandon his plan. Jerry, the animals, and the scientists try to unhop him, but the effort fails and destroys the robotic beaver. During the struggle, Mabel knocks Jerry's phone onto a sound tree and climbs it to retrieve it. She tears off the latex mask covering Titus's robotic face, preventing him from using facial recognition to unlock Jerry's phone and activate the trees. Enraged, Titus tears down the tree and reveals his intention to have the insects exterminate every other species, horrifying the Council. The falling tree destroys the robotic body and sparks a wildfire that spreads toward the city. After Titus is eaten by the Amphibian King, the Council joins Mabel, George, and the other animals in dismantling the dam, flooding the glade and extinguishing the fire.
Jerry agrees to reroute the beltway and the glade becomes a protected wildlife preserve. Mabel graduates from college, and although the Hoppers program is discontinued because of her actions, Sam hires her as an assistant. Mabel and George remain friends, communicating through text-to-speech software.
Voice cast
- Piper Curda as Mabel Tanaka, a 19-year-old animal-loving Japanese-American college student whose mind is transferred into a robotic beaver[6][7][8][9]
- Lila Liu as young Mabel[10]
- Bobby Moynihan as King George (Mammal King), an optimistic beaver monarch[6][7][8]
- Jon Hamm as Jerry Generazzo, the cowardly but greedy Mayor of Beaverton whom Mabel is often at odds with[6][7][8][11]
- Kathy Najimy[12] as Dr. Samantha "Sam", Mabel's biology professor who created the Hopper technology and later uses a Rabbit Hopper[11]
- Dave Franco as Titus (Insect King),[12] a butterfly and the Insect Queen's son who later succeeds her[11]
- Eman Abdul-Razzak as Young Titus (Insect Prince), a caterpillar[13]
- Eduardo Franco as Loaf,[12] a slow yet staunch beaver[11]
- Aparna Nancherla as Nisha,[12] Dr. Sam's astute colleague[11]
- Tom Law as Tom Lizard,[12] a lizard who prefers to avoid drama[11]
- Sam Richardson as Conner,[12] a graduate student working under Dr. Sam who uses a Crane Hopper twice[11]
- Melissa Villaseñor as Ellen,[12] a big, menacing, mostly grumpy brown bear always on the lookout for her next meal[11]
- Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Bird King,[12] a goose monarch[11]
- Steve Purcell as Amphibian King,[12] a frog monarch[11]
- Ego Nwodim as Fish Queen,[12] a fish monarch[11]
- Nichole Sakura as Reptile Queens,[12] a trio of snake sister co-monarchs[11]
- Meryl Streep as Insect Queen, a butterfly monarch who is the most respected and feared member of the all-seeing and all-powerful Animal Council and the mother of Titus[14][12][11]
- Karen Huie as Grandma Tanaka, Mabel's deceased grandmother, who taught her to respect nature and listen to the sounds of the forest when she was young[citation needed]
- Vanessa Bayer as Diane,[12] a great white shark assassin enlisted by the birds[11]
- Heidi Klum voices Diane (renamed Hai-Di) in the German dub of the film[15]
- Joe Spano as an elderly Beavertonian
The following roles were credited under additional voices:
- Lori Alan as Mrs. Tanaka, Mabel's mother[16]
- Eric Edelstein as a construction worker[17][18][non-primary source needed]
- Demetri Martin as a flock of birds and a worm[19][18][non-primary source needed]
In the United Kingdom release, Alan Carr and Amanda Holden voice Alan the Squirrel and Amanda the Spider, respectively.[20]
The rest of the additional voices were provided by Ashley Adler, Carlos Alazraqui, Bill Barretta, Reba Buhr, Daniel Chong, Josh Cooley, Grey DeLisle, Liza Del Mundo, Alex Désert, Clara Lin Ding, Danica Lin Ding, Terri Douglas, Jake Green, Samantha Jane Gruwell, Damien C. Haas, Karen Huie, Matthew Yang King, Lila Liu, Eric Lopez, Melanie Minichino, Dominic Moran, Brent Mukai, Zack Myers, Gabrielle Nevaeh, Anoush NeVart, Laraine Newman, Ajani Perkins, Bob Peterson, Jeff Pidgeon, Steve Purcell, Sean Rohani, Rachel Slansky, Kyler Spears, Kyle Thompson, Marcus Toji, Debra Wilson, Secunda Wood, Jorden Wyrick, Bert Youn, and Rick Zieff.
Production
Development
In December 2020, Daniel Chong revealed on Twitter that he had returned to Pixar following the completion of his Cartoon Network television series We Bare Bears (2015–2019) and the release of We Bare Bears: The Movie (2020) and that he was developing an original feature film.[21] At the D23 fan event in August 2024, Pixar's chief creative officer Pete Docter announced that the film would be titled Hoppers.[6][7][8] Shortly after, Luca writer Jesse Andrews revealed on his Twitter account that he had been working on the film for three years.[22] Pixar revealed at D23 that Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, and Jon Hamm would lead the voice cast for Hoppers.[6][7][8] Development on Hoppers lasted for six years.[23]
In an interview with D23, Chong said that one of his inspirations for the film were the nature documentaries in which robot animals are placed in the animal world; "It felt like it was ripe for comedy, this idea of how humans try so hard to fit into the animal world and the weird things that happen through that." He additionally stated, "obviously there are Avatar influences, [...] But there's also this Mission Impossible spy-thriller quality to the movie too, because Mabel's kind of infiltrating the animal world."[24]
Chong initially pitched the film with penguin protagonists. However, Docter disapproved, arguing that penguins had been protagonists in several other animated films,[25][26] such as Happy Feet, Penguins of Madagascar, and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.[26] Chong changed the protagonists to beavers after doing research on how they affect the environment; "These animals can be these ecosystem engineers and help everyone else survive; I think that just made me go, 'Oh man, beavers are crazy cool.'"[25]
Writing
In December 2024, The Hollywood Reporter stated that, according to a former Pixar artist, the filmmakers were told to "downplay" the film's "planned message of environmentalism".[27] However, in a July 2025 interview with Screen Rant, Chong denied that the film's themes were censored, stating, "If anything, I felt a lot of alignment. [...] The honest truth about the process, though, is that every movie here goes through so much iteration and changes a lot, and I can see, maybe, to some other people's eyes within the studio, [how] they might see [that] it looks like things are being censored. But, really, [the movie is] just going through its natural course of iteration and stuff–at least for our movie."[25]
Music
In August 2025, it was announced that Mark Mothersbaugh would compose the film's score, marking his first composition for a Pixar feature film after composing for the Toy Story Toons short Hawaiian Vacation (2011) and several Cars Toons shorts for the studio.[28] In addition, the film features an original end credits song written and performed by SZA titled "Save the Day", which was released on February 20, 2026.[29]
Release
Hoppers premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles on February 23, 2026,[30] and was screened at the New York International Children's Film Festival on February 28, 2026,[31] which was then followed by a theatrical release in the United States by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on March 6, 2026.[32] Internationally, the film began its rollout two days earlier in certain European and Asian countries, finishing on March 26 in Australia.[4]
Marketing
A first-look image of the film was publicly shown at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2025.[33] Later that month a short teaser, featuring a small green gecko repeatedly typing the lizard emoji into a phone, played in theaters after the end credits of Pixar's Elio.[34][35] In August 2025, Pixar revealed that the lizard's name is Tom and that he would appear in the film.[36] The character of Tom Lizard quickly went viral, and was the focus of several internet memes, which Disney reported earned up to 316 million views. A mascot of Tom Lizard was used in several appearances surrounding Hoppers, including special screenings, promotional events, and televised appearances in affiliated networks such as "photobombing" ESPN's coverage of Super Bowl LX.[37][38]
Yogurtland promoted the film with a limited edition sugar-free frozen yogurt flavor known as Mabel's Nutty Adventure.[39]
In the month of the release of the film, the free-to-play kart racing game Disney Speedstorm introduced Mabel as a racer; she was added to the game on March 6 during the mid-season of Season 18: Piston Cup.[40] Likewise, a cosmetics bundle for Fortnite, including a Tom Lizard skin, was released one day earlier.[41]
The city of Beaverton, Oregon declared March 5 "Hoppers Day" in honor of the film's release.[42] Piper Curda and Bobby Moynihan visited the city as part of the film's world tour on March 5, 2026. During the proclamation ceremony, Mayor Lacey Beaty presented the two cast members with a handmade wooden key to the city. In exchange, the actors gifted the city a custom piece of artwork created by Pixar. In addition, Beaty moderated a Q&A between the cast and students from the local school district.[43]
Home media
Hoppers was released by Disney and Pixar for digital purchase on April 28, 2026. It was subsequently released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment[b] on June 2, 2026,[44] followed by its streaming debut on Disney+ on June 3, 2026.[45]
Reception
Box office
Hoppers has grossed $166 million in the United States and Canada and $222 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $388 million.[3][4]
In the United States and Canada, Hoppers was released alongside The Bride!, and was projected to gross $40 million from 4,000 theaters during its opening weekend. The film was projected to reverse Pixar's low opening streak for its originals, overtaking the lukewarm openings of Elemental (2023), which became a sleeper hit, and Elio (2025), which became a box-office failure.[46][47] The film collected $13.2 million on its opening day, including $3.2 million from Thursday previews, which was seen as ahead of expectations.[48][49] The film proceeded to open to $45.3 million in the US and Canada and $42 million overseas for a worldwide total of $88 million, taking first place at the box office.[50] In doing so, Hoppers became the highest opening for an original Pixar film since Coco (2017), and the highest opening for an original animated film in the post-pandemic era.[46] The better-than-average performance was attributed through positive word-of-mouth and the film's release during a slow market for family films.[51]
In its second weekend, the film grossed $28.7 million, remaining in first and dropping 37%.[52] The film dropped another 37% during its third weekend, finishing in second behind newcomer Project Hail Mary, and added $17.8 million.[53] It eased a further 31% and added a further $12.2 million in its fourth.[54] In its fifth weekend, the film finished in fifth place, having dropped behind new release The Drama, and added $5.8 million for a decrease of 52%.[55]
Critical response
Hoppers received positive reviews, with critics praising its animation, story, and humor.[2] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 227 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "An eager beaver for endearment that has the charm to back it up, Hoppers is a sprightly riot that might just be the funniest entry in the Pixar canon yet."[56] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[57] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[58]
Several critics called the film a "return to form" for Pixar.[59] Nell Minow from RogerEbert.com gave the film 4 stars out of 4, saying the film is "Pixar at its very best. It has charm and a touch of magic but it is grounded—literally."[60] Wilson Chapman of IndieWire gave it a "B+", stating that "there's not enough time to deepen the sweet friendship between Mabel and George into something as powerful as, say, Marlin and Dory in Finding Nemo (2003). Still, what we do get is pretty uniformly delightful."[61] William Bibbiani of TheWrap felt that "Hoppers isn't just James Cameron's Avatar (2009) if it had feelings, it's also James Cameron's Avatar if it was good."[62]
Owen Gleiberman of Variety lauded the film as "top-drawer Pixar," highlighting its successful blend of a "looney-tunes" sci-fi premise with heartwarming adventure.[63] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter gave it a positive review, calling it a "clever, funny, and visually appealing" return to vintage Pixar form that succeeds through its "proudly insane universe" and rambunctious comedic energy.[64] Lindsey Bahr of the Associated Press also gave it a positive review, calling it a "buoyant, freewheeling adventure" that, despite being distant from peak Pixar heights, serves as a "big, joyful leap in the right direction" packed with memorable characters.[65]
Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times gave the film a mixed review, writing that while it is "not as inventive as Inside Out (2015)" and juggles an overcrowded plot, it ultimately succeeds as a "fable, really, with a science-nerd edge and some charming animal friends."[66] Carlos Morales of IGN also gave it a mixed-to-positive review, describing it as an "entertaining and admirable effort" that suffers from narrative stumbles and world-building flaws but remains anchored by a "madcap energy" and highly likable characters.[67]
Dessi Gomez of Deadline Hollywood gave it a positive review, writing that it "delivers equal parts of laughter and compassion" while praisefully comparing its narrative intersection of technology and nature to The Wild Robot (2024).[68] Katie Walsh of The Seattle Times also gave it a positive review, calling it a "charming" and "action-packed" fable that avoids drifting into sentimentality by leaning into its "weird, wacky and witty" humor without losing its heart.[69]
Possible sequel
In March 2026, during an interview with Espinof, a Spanish film website, Chong expressed interest in a potential sequel if the film is successful, saying "I love the idea of a sequel".[70]
Notes
- Distributed under the Walt Disney Pictures banner.
- Released under the Disney label.
