Director: Daniel Chong
Actors: Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Dave Franco
Genre: Comedy / Sci-Fi
Rating: PG
‘Hoppers’ is a classic body-swap comedy, that just happens to be a Pixar animated animals-talking film too. We learn early on that Mabel (Curda) is an animal activist and connects with nature via a glade out the back of her Grandma’s house. When she’s at university, she finds Dr Sam (Najimy) experimenting with transferring human consciousness into robotic animals – they make sure to give ‘Avatar’ a shout out!
From there, Mabel in the form of a beaver enlists the other
animals to help fight Mayor Jerry (Hamm) and his plan to bulldoze the glade for
a highway. How Mabel’s introduced to beaver, King of the Mammal, George (Moynihan)
is pretty good and almost a little dark for a kids film! But it’s then topped
by what Mabel does with the Insect Queen (Streep), which was hilarious. Once
the animal kingdom council figure out they need to stop Jerry, led by the Insect
King (Franco, full maniacal) we get some true high-stakes and high-stakes final
act.
Mabel is infectious and great to have her in beaver-form for
most of the film, and the support-cast animals, especially the bear and lizard,
are great. But it’s King George and his message of coexistence and hope that
cuts through. Very nice ending, but plenty of laughs throughout for kids and
adults. Even if they somehow got a flying shark in there!
Overall: Strong Pixar comedy with message
Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars
