Hoppers - Review

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

WITHOUT ever coming close to hitting the heights that Pixar is capable of, Daniel Chong’s Hoppers is a fun, visually stunning slice of animation that carries a worthwhile environmental message.

Co-produced by Pixar veteran Pete Docter and co-written by Jesse Andrews, the film follows plucky teen crusader Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) as she attempts to save the peaceful woodland glade near the house she used to share with her late grandmother (who first introduced her to her passion for nature).

She’s pitted against evil Mayor Jerry (voiced by Jon Hamm), who intends to destroy this glade to make way for a freeway, in a move that will all but guarantee his re-election.

Mabel realises that the only way to stop him legally is to repopulate the glade with the beavers and other animals who have mysteriously vanished - and ends up transporting her mind into a lifelike robotic beaver so that she can communicate with them (after happening upon a secret experiment being carried out by teachers at her university).

It’s a pretty wacky concept that owes more than a passing resemblance to Avatar (which it doesn’t try to hide) but which sets the scene for a zany, energetic adventure that zips along at a fair old pace (even if the almost two hour running time seems overly generous).

The message behind it is good too - and there’s no attempt to conceal it. This is pointing the finger at those who would look to ruin the planet, while hailing the virtues of the natural world, from its green spaces to the animals, birds, fish and insects that inhabit it.

Mabel is an eco-warrior and her efforts are genuinely worth rooting for. Jerry may as well be the mayor from Jaws - and perhaps that’s the point, given that he is actually chased by a shark (while driving a car no less) at one point.

As you can probably guess from the concept alone, this isn’t a Pixar offering that veers towards their more subtle work. It’s not a Wall-E and it pales by comparison to another recent animation that tackled conservation - The Wild Robot (which is far more intelligent).

But Hoppers’ heart is certainly in the right place and the off-kilter energy it projects does win you over, even if some of the bickering between characters becomes incessant and some of the sequences (such as a dance/party sequence) owe more to Madagascar than Toy Story.

Kids, though, will probably be having too much of a good time to notice, while there’s several laugh out loud moments for parents too.

Chong’s film is therefore a wild ride that hits more than it misses. It’s heartfelt, often beautiful to look at (particularly with its creature designs) and boasts a really important message.

Certificate: U

Running time: 1hr 44mins