The Media Man Reviews: Hoppers

Hoo boy, this'll be an interesting review.

You should know full well by now that I am a HUGE Pixar fan. So huge in fact that I even appreciate their less popular movies. Unlike most people on the internet, I only think there's one genuinely bad Pixar movie out there, which is Lightyear. Every movie they've made is either a masterpiece or an enjoyable movie in its own right. So you might be thinking I was excited about this new movie. After all, I tend to look forward to whenever a new Pixar movie comes out. If you did think that, then you'd be WRONG!

No joke, Hoppers had me dreading its release since I saw the first trailer. I was NOT impressed by what the trailers were presenting to me. It looked as if the movie I was being promised was some overly cartoonish nonsense trying to mimic the tone and style of an Illumination movie and thus didn't feel like a new Pixar movie. I despise Illumination Entertainment as content creators since they don't make movies, they make generic kid's cartoons pretending to be movies, so a Pixar movie feeling more like an Illumination movie instantly put me off. The plot seeming to be a blatant copy of Avatar also didn't help either as I consider the Avatar movies to be blander than a bowl of Bran Flakes with no sugar sprinkled over it to perk it up. I was like "We're in for a second Pixar dud, aren't we?" But then something incredible happened. Not only were critics being really positive about the movie, but so was the audience! Seriously, even reviews on YouTube seem mostly positive about the movie, and you know how much the internet LOVES to dump on new Disney and Pixar movies! So I'm like "Well if even YouTube is surprisingly positive about the movie, then maybe it won't suck after all!" Seriously, you'd think Transformers One would've taught me by now never to trust a trailer. That movie looked like cringe from the trailers and instead ended up being the best damn movie in Transformers history, so maybe Hoppers will secretly turn out to be a masterpiece that the trailers did no justice to?

So now I've seen the movie, did Hoppers defy my expectations? Or should I hop into a robot beaver and start an animal uprising? Let's, well, "hop" into Pixar's newest movie, Hoppers, and find out...

Section 1: The Story

It's the story of Mabel Tanaka, a girl who loves nature and animals, who participates in an experiment by Dr. Sam. Said experiment involves transferring the human mind into a robot beaver that she's invented in order to study wildlife up close. But the experiment goes a little haywire when Mabel unintentionally stirs up the animal kingdom and they decide to revolt against humanity. Now Mabel has to fix her mistake before mankind falls victim to an animal uprising...

I already said how the film feels like they're just ripping off Avatar, and the movie even lampshades this! So yeah, surprisingly sloppy of Pixar when their plots tend to be much more original and creative than this. However, it's all about execution that makes or breaks a story, so did this movie at least succeed despite its recycled premise? Actually...yes, yes it did. Despite the movie sounding like an Avatar copy, it actually manages to be more its own thing and isn't entirely the same movie. Hell, I'd even say this is a better version of Avatar because it isn't boring as sin to watch and has more going for it than just pretty visuals. But let's not compare movies here, how is Hoppers on its own? Surprisingly...really good!

Despite the bad impression the trailer gave it, I genuinely found this to be a fun and engaging story overall. Thankfully it wasn't some dumb, generic, Illumination style comedy like I feared it was going to be. While tonally it IS wackier than what you'd expect from Pixar (I'd even say tonally it's pretty much on par with Turning Red) and believe me, it gets wacky at times(!), it still manages to feel like a Pixar movie in the end. Why is that? Because of two very big things. One, the themes of the story. Hoppers is quite unsubtle about its environmental message and how it's another "nature vs. man" kind of movie. HOWEVER...this is the important part that makes this story far stronger when it comes to these kinds of movies. This movie tells its message in a nuanced way that goes for "both sides are right and both sides are wrong" and that it's not as black-and-white as most movies with this kind of story go for. It isn't just "man bad, nature good" this time around. Hell, the animals are actually more like the villains than the humans are! OK, only one of them is, but we'll get to that in the characters section. The movie makes it clear that Mabel isn't entirely in the right and that even those who care for the environment can go too far. At the same time, it doesn't paint Mayor Jerry as being in the right either. Both sides are in the wrong and ultimately, if we're going to truly get the best results for nature, both sides have to compromise and work together as the two do in the climax of the movie. The whole theme of working in harmony is very prevalent here with even King George saying "We're all in this together" whilst explaining the Pond Rules to Mabel. As a nature guy who loves animals himself, I can also accept that protecting the environment isn't as straight forward as we think and I love how the movie is able to teach us that message whilst avoiding coming off as preachy.

Another very strong theme that I feel the movie handled beautifully was how a good cause can be twisted into something bad. That theme feels ESPECIALLY relevant in this day and age, so its inclusion feels very timely as a result. You hear way too often about people who join a cause under the pretence of fighting for a good cause, but in actuality they don't give a crap about the cause and are just using it as an excuse to hurt others or spread their own malicious agenda. My American readers will especially know what that's like...this movie features a pretty accurate portrayal of this kind of thing, thus making its villain more menacing and also making the movie his so much closer to home. Pixar films, especially classic Pixar films, often had strong and relevant themes in their films and Hoppers is no exception.

Now for the second thing that makes Hoppers still feel like a Pixar movie: the heart. As is expected from Pixar, this movie has a lot of touching and heartfelt moments that tug on your heartstrings and make for an emotional viewing experience. Those moments especially come during the quieter scenes of the movie like the opening with Mabel bonding with her grandmother, Mabel lamenting her grandmother's passing and the heart-to-heart she has with King George. While not at heartfelt as most Pixar movies, it is there and still as effective as ever. Much like with Turning Red, Hoppers proves it can be wackier than what you'd expect for a Pixar movie and still feel like a Pixar movie overall.

Now let's finally talk about that wacky tone I've been hinting at. This is a movie that is VERY unapologetic about how crazy it can get sometimes. I won't even bother describing it to you because words won't do this movie justice. You need to see it for yourself! The most I'll say is that it leans in to its somewhat silly premise and just runs with it. Yet unlike most wacky comedies nowadays, it never feels too overbearing or annoying. They gradually up the wackiness instead of being like that throughout the movie and even then, they still slow down and have quieter moments. It's not just non-stop gags or annoying humour all the time. And on that subject, the trailer REALLY made this movie look bad, because the actual movie is surprisingly very funny. It's like they used all the bad jokes in the trailer and saved all the good ones for the movie itself. There's a lot of great comedy here from the character animation to some fantastic reactions to some well-executed slapstick and so much more. Some of my favourite gags include the personalities of some of the animals and the many comedic subversions that we get. The director of this movie, Daniel Chong, did create We Bare Bears after all, so that could explain the more comedic tone. I dunno if We Bare Bears is as funny as Hoppers or if its style of humour is the same, so if any readers out there have seen that show, can you clarify that for me?

So yeah, Hoppers ended up being a very pleasant surprise for the story was actually solid and it ended up being genuinely funny. However, it still doesn't feel like its on par with the true Pixar classics. Unlike most people out there, I'm fine with that since not every Pixar movie has to be an Oscar worthy masterpiece. As is, Hoppers still has some problems that hold it back a little, like it how features some predictable moments and some tiresome cliches. I'll never forget how when we had that montage of Mabel and her grandmother bonding, I immediately thought "The grandmother's totally gonna die" and wasn't even surprised when it happened. And we do get yet another liar revealed moment, though unlike A Bug's Life it was less forced and idiotically written in this movie and thankfully is pretty fleeting so we don't dwell on it for too long.

I also felt that the movie was pretty slow to get started and it wasn't until after Mabel hops into the robot beaver when it truly picked up and got going. That's not a huge problem at least and it doesn't take too long before we get to the good stuff at least, so it doesn't bother me too much.

What does bother me is just this pet peeve I have with movies about environmentalism in general. Why do these types of stories always have to make it so the protagonist lives in a town of assholes who don't care for the environment. It doesn't get the point across any better, it's just annoying and is painfully unrealistic. No town, or indeed any civilization in the world, is THAT apathetic about the environment. If this was real life, Mabel would definitely have found plenty of supports to her cause! She wouldn't literally be the only one who cares. Need I remind you that environmentalist groups are a thing? I'm not buying for a minute only Mabel cares about the environment in Beaverton. I live in a small town and enough people living there care about the environment to the point they objected to our local park being replaced with something else! And don't you dare give me any bull about "It's a cartoon, it's not supposed to be realistic!" because shut up. Animated movies don't always have to be so exaggerated with their stories you know. So here's a tip for any future filmmakers and writers: if you're making a movie with this kind of story, please stop doing this! You're just giving a very unfavourable impression of us humans in a failed attempt at getting the message across. While I'll praise this movie for its more nuanced take on environmentalism, I'll also criticize it for not being nuanced in that sense. If they'd shown that more people than just Mabel care about the environment, that would've made the message even stronger and even less black-and-white is what I'm trying to say here.

As is, big pet peeve aside, I actually have very little to complain about with Hoppers. It's so staggering how that trailer made it look so bad and yet the final product ended up being so good instead. It's like Transformers One in that regard: bad trailer, great movie. While not a Pixar masterpiece by any means, it is easily one of their most fun films they've done in quite some time and proof their original movies can still be great...

Section 2: The Characters

Let's see what new characters Pixar has for us in this movie, shall we?

First up is our protagonist, Mabel Tanaka (voiced by Piper Curda). I think Mabel might be one of my favourite Pixar protagonists they've ever created. She was such a strong protagonist here and a refreshing reminder that you can have strong female characters while also making them flawed as well. Mabel is a nature lover who cares for animals and the environment, but can be way too headstrong about it due to her temper issues and being too firm in her beliefs. She means well, but is too stubborn to hear the other side of the argument and that ends up being problematic for her. That said, her behaviour does come from a place of insecurity, namely how she hates feeling helpless and just wishes she could make a change. It makes her more sympathetic and helps us understand where she's coming from. And over time, she comes to truly understand the delicate balance that nature requires from animals and humans to be harmonious and when her cause ends up being twisted for evil means, she's quick to try and fix everything. Mabel was amazing and I loved every minute she was onscreen, both in human and beaver form. Speaking of, one of my favourite aspects of the movie is that once Mabel is out of the robot beaver, she never goes back in and we get the rest of the movie with her in human form. That I felt was a refreshing change of pace and made for a stronger climax since it's Mabel having to help as herself rather than as the robot beaver.

While in her beaver form, she befriends many animals, the most noteworthy of the bunch being King George (voiced by Bobby Moynihan). I love this guy! He may be a king, but he's also a very friendly, overly trusting guy who just likes to party and give all the animals a fun time. Even when he's enforcing law and order, he's pretty chill about it. We could do with more rulers like him I say. That said, King George isn't just a goofball. He does impart actual wisdom to Mabel that plays a huge part in her character development. I especially loved his beaver dam metaphor when talking to Mabel about trust, that was smartly written I thought. This guy was great and I enjoyed all his scenes. I'd probably say he's my overall favourite character of the movie.

Next up is Mayor Jerry Generazzo (voiced by Jon Hamm). I cannot stress enough what a breath of fresh air he is. We have FAR too many evil politicians in media (though we can hardly blame writers and content creators for that), so the fact this guy WASN'T the main villain of the movie was very welcome and also helped in making this movie far more nuanced than it had any right to be. It's very common in nature vs. man movies that man is 100% the bad guy and the animals are 100% the good guys. Here though, Mayor Jerry isn't really a bad guy. While yes it's wrong of him to trick animals out of their homes and build this highway through a nature glade, I do appreciate how he actually bothered to get the animals out the way in a humane way that avoids killing any of them, thus showing he isn't completely heartless. He's also shown to be genuinely loving towards his mother and nice to the people he interacts with, thus showing he may be a politician, but he's still human at least. And in the end? He's able to compromise with Mabel and both sides get what they want in the end without upsetting one another. Now I think about it, Mayor Jerry's kind of the Pixar equivalent to Emperor Kuzco from The Emperor's New Groove. Both are big political figures with a high position of power who want to destroy a bit of nature in order to build something, but they both have a change of heart in the end. All that's missing was for Jerry to turn into a llama and we would've been complete. XD

Now let's move onto the actual villain of the movie, King Titus (voiced by Dave Franco). It is SO rare that in a movie like this, the animal is the bad guy this time around. King Titus was surprisingly menacing for a little butterfly due to his desire for revenge and conquest driving him to insane lengths in order to get what he wants. He's pretty unhinged in all the best ways and I kinda love him for it. I also love how he brings up a solid point about Mabel not being so different to Jerry since she lied and manipulated just like he did, which in turn fuels Mabel's change for the better. And as mentioned earlier, Titus is a scarily accurate depiction of those who twist a good cause for their own diabolical means, thus making him a frighteningly relevant villain in this day and age. My only problem with him is that we barely get any time to know him before he enters the picture and thus it feels like he was barely developed as a character. He needed more scenes before his ascension to full-on villain in my eyes.

The rest of the characters are more-or-less comic reliefs and aren't as important as the main four I've just mentioned. You get Dr. Sam, Dr. Nisha and Conner for the scientists behind the hoppers technology, you have Tom, Loaf and Ellen as Mabel's other friends and you have the council of other animal rulers who get riled up to fight back against mankind. While less important than the big ones, they're all memorable in their own way. I'll especially remember Diana the Shark for how surprisingly cheery she is despite being, well, a shark. XD

This movie gave us a cast that have some of Pixar's strongest and most memorable characters we've had in ages and they all manage to be lovable or memorable in many different ways...

Section 3: The Animation

Time for me to say the obvious yet again: the animation is fantastic. In other news, Illumination's making yet another Minions movie. Anything more you want me to go all Captain Obvious about? =P

Jokes aside, Hoppers will be a more interesting case since this is one of Pixar's more cartoonish movies, and the visuals reflect that. We'll cover that in a sec as I want to start with the more "traditional" Pixar visuals if you get what I mean.

As usual, the backgrounds all look very well designed and highly detailed with beautifully rendered textures everywhere you look. The town of Beaverton has this cosy, small town look to it that looks believable as a small civilization somewhere in America, which gives this fictional location a believable feel to it that it could exist and we could see it for real, which helps with the immersion as the film brings us into this new world. But of course, the highlights of the background animation are the scenes in nature. The whole natural side of Beaverton looks absolutely gorgeous with all the trees, grass, bushes, water etc. being so perfectly rendered and detailed from the bark on the trees to the leaves on the branches and the water in the rivers. The glad that Mabel is so fond of especially looks beautiful and tranquil, which is important since the film does need us to sympathize with Mabel's attachment to the place. The opening montage manages to get us as attached to the glade as Mabel herself since it not only looks beautiful, but we see how important it is to her as it helps deal with her temper issues and is also a place where she and her grandmother bonded. In a movie about the environment, it's important that the environment plays a big part in the story, and both the writing and animation pulled it off spectacularly here.

But now let's cover the more interesting aspects of the animation: the character designs and the character animation. Design wise, the humans have a bit of that traditional Pixar look to them but with a more cartoonish twist to them so they look more like cartoon characters than humans. That said, the designs aren't too over-the-top to the point they look weird. They managed to strike the perfect middle ground in my eyes. Mabel's design especially is one that I really liked. I dunno what it is, I just really like how they designed Mabel in this film from her hair-do to her face. I'm well are a lot of people REALLY liked how Major Jerry looks here. Seriously, the amount of people thirsting over him was to the point Piper Cruda and Daniel Chong are amused by it. XD But then you have the Hoppers technology in action and we go into the natural world. Once Mabel ends up in the robot beaver body, we get all the animals in the forest in where they all look like a bunch of cartoon characters with more stylized proportions and the big cartoon-y white eyes with black dots for pupils. When my brother reviewed this film as part of his Pixar marathon earlier this week, he said to me how the animals look like they came out of a Julia Donaldson (author of books such as The Gruffalo) book, and I can see what he means. I just find it weird how they struck a middle ground with the humans, but the animals all look cartoonish. That said, when we see the animals from the human's point of view, they look slightly less cartoonish and they're given more animalistic looking eyes. It find it visually interesting how the animal's eyes change depending whose point of view we're in so we can better see how the characters are perceiving everything. I also love the world-building around the animals and how each species has its own designated ruler and all from the mammals to the birds to the amphibians to the fish to the reptiles and of course, insects. Obviously it's not an original idea, but it's still a fun one to see and each ruler is visually distinct from one another with the council consisting of a goose, a frog, three snakes acting as one and a butterfly respectively. I wouldn't mind going with a concept like that if I was to ever write my own books set in the animal kingdom...

Now for the character animation. As this is one of Pixar's wackier movies, the character animation reflects this with more zany and fast-paced action, expressive faces and body language and how actions and expressions are more exaggerated than usual. That being said, the film never feels like it gets over-bearing and is able to slow down and tone back the humour in the more serious scenes to show the animation isn't all just cartoon-y humour. The best examples include when Mabel and her grandmother are getting in tune with nature in the glade, Mabel's flashbacks to her grandmother as she was getting closer to the end of her life and the talk between Mabel and George where they share their problems and philosophies on the world together. Giving us slower scenes like this allow us to better understand the characters and get to know them while also allowing the funnier scenes to hit harder since it's not just constantly happening all the time, something a lot of animated films nowadays tend to forget. The climax itself being surprisingly intense also helps too. Yes it does have some comedic moments, but it's mostly played seriously once a fire starts and threatens to consume not just the glade, but Beaverton as well.

As for the humour itself, a lot of it is effective as it is because of the animation. The gags are well-timed and creative in a lot of ways and the animators don't hesitate to go crazy with the visuals at times. The best example of that is during a chase scene with Mabel and Jerry. I'm just going to say that you'll forever wonder how the hell they managed to get a shark of all things to participate in a car chase. Yeah, it really gets as wacky as that, and it's glorious! XD The best kinds of animated films for me are those who take their concepts and run wild with it, and this movie is definitely no exception. This is also something that puts it above Avatar too since Avatar is all pretty visuals but nothing else. Hoppers at least has fun with its concept and gives us some visually impressive and creative moments that can get a good laugh out of the audience.

Pixar always impresses when it comes to their animation and this film is more than enough to prove they haven't lost their touch at all. While their films don't have writing as strong as their classics, the animation at least remains as strong as ever...

Conclusion

This year's barely started, yet already Hoppers feels like the biggest surprise of the year. Pixar have shown they still got it with a story that's more nuanced than we may have thought, the tone gets ludicrous in the best way, the characters are great and the animation is spectacular. If you want Pixar to make more original movies and less sequels, then support that cause in the same way Mabel supports her cause for the environment and go see the movie while you can. You're in for a much better movie than it had any right to be. It's no Pixar masterpiece, but it's still a very enjoyable movie and a fun time from beginning to end...

And that's all I have for Hoppers. What do YOU think to the film? Leave a comment down below and let me know.

For now, I'll be taking a break from uploading blog posts as I'm working on one of my biggest projects to date: a retrospective of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics I once read. When will it release? Probably a few weeks from now. Maybe even a month. Until then, see you later media fans!

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