Inside Pixar's Most Bonkers Premise In Years

It’s a tale as old as time: a young woman transfers her consciousness into the mind of a mechanical beaver, in order to infiltrate the animal kingdom and save the local ecology. Or… hang on. That’s the opposite of a tale as old as time, a weird and wild premise that proves Pixar isn’t done experimenting with new ideas (even while the likes of Toy Story 5 and Incredibles 3 await for the studio). Get ready for Hoppers, the feature debut from We Bare Bears creator Daniel Chong, set to emphasise the word ‘original’ when it comes to ‘Pixar originals’.

“I was like, ‘They’re not gonna pick this’,” Chong tells Empire, looking back on his Pixar pitching session. “‘It’s too crazy.’ And then here we are, five years later.” The plan, he explains, is to make “something with spectacle, a crazy, wild ride. How that fits in the Pixar canon, I can only guess.” Let’s take a closer look at that trailer.

Meet Mabel

Things are different from the off. Pixar protagonists tend to be adults (often as anthropomorphised animals / toys / emotions… delete as applicable), or young kids. But Mabel, Hoppers’ hero, is a 19-year-old college student, whose time at Beaverton University is about to take a strange turn. Voiced by Piper Curda, Mabel is, says Chong, “a little unhinged”, a force to be reckoned with. “Mabel is this woman who loves nature, loves animals, and she desperately wants to protect them,” he teases. “There’s a specific place in the movie, a glade, that she cares a lot about, so the movie is really about her trying to protect this natural space. She loves nature, but she is also chaotic energy herself. She has wildness in her.”

Weird science

Behind the respectable facade of Beaverton University, bizarre experiments are going down – like human consciousnesses being beamed into artificial animal bodies. “These scientists, are working underground – they’re professors by day, but brilliant scientists by night,” says the director, “who have created this technology secretly, because they know it’s very powerful, and they did not get any licence to do this.” Chong cites BBC wildlife documentary Spy In The Wild as an influence, in which scientists disguise cameras in model animals, to get up close and personal with various species. “There’s definitely an espionage quality to it, because she’s sneaking in there,” he teases. “There’s a Mission: Impossible aspect to it.”

In the Na’vi

As Mabel points out, this wild concept is – in a way – Avatar. Except, it’s also not. “It’s good to let the audience know that we know what we’re doing,” says Chong. “We know that it sounds like Avatar – but it isn’t, it’s a jumping off point.” While the filmmaker hasn’t personally crossed paths with James Cameron, contact has been made. “The president of our studio, Jim Morris, used to work for ILM, so he worked with Jim Cameron a lot,” Chong says. “I know that he reached out to James Cameron’s people. They obviously wanted to make sure it was okay to say [Avatar], and I think they gave the OK. I don’t know if Jim Cameron actually knows, or just people, but there is awareness.” Either way, Avatar: Fire And Ash will hit screens several months before Hoppers does its own thing. “I don’t want to bother him,” laughs Chong. “Go make your masterpiece!”

Driving lessons

When Mabel’s mind is transferred into a tiny beaver body, it’s going to take some time for her to figure out the parameters. “There’s going to be a learning curve for her, not just using this animal body, but also navigating the animal world,” teases Chong. “There’s a lot of [real] animal logic that is intelligence, we just don’t really understand it. Mabel will find this whole weirder side of the animal world, and she’s got to navigate it and figure out how to get what she needs when these animals might not cooperate. It’s not going to be easy for her.” Dam.

Say what you meme

In her beaver body, Mabel can suddenly understand all animal language – including some deer saying “…and they were in the same den.” Could it possibly be a reference to that viral “…and they were roommates” clip? “It definitely is,” Chong laughs. Picking up the conversations of the animal world will be a major part of Hoppers. “That is the big idea, the wish fulfilment,” the director says. “There have been a couple of movies that have dealt with [humans and animals] interacting, but this is really about it in a much bigger scale – how the animal world and the human world interact with each other, how they push up against each other, how they coexist.”

Meet Mabel’s mates

It’s just like the circle of life taught us: some animals hunt, and others get eaten. And as Mabel learns – when she stops a bear chomping down an oblivious fellow beaver – the animals are used to that. Said bear is Ellen, and the little dopey beaver is the (excellently-named) Loaf. “They will all be along for the journey,” promises Chong. “They kind of start unifying into a little group. There’ll be other animals that will come forward as the movie goes on.” Including, but not glimpsed in this trailer, the previously-announced ‘King George’, a crown-wearing beaver voiced by Bobby Moynihan. “We modelled this character, and [Pixar legend] Andrew Stanton saw it, and he’s like, ‘Oh! We’re actually doing that?! OK!’ He was down, he loved it, but you are going there. It’s a leap for the audiences, but our movie is that crazy. It’s a world where you’ll accept that a beaver can wear a crown and be a king.”

New natural order

With Mabel now going rogue in her beaver form, the trailer teases big consequences: the natural order is about to be disturbed. “She has a mission that she’s trying to accomplish,” says Chong, refusing to give much away of where Mabel goes next. But safe to say, those scientists characters are going to be on her (literal) tail. “That’s part of the genre, the spy thriller – you have to go undercover, sneak around, not get caught. The scientists are one slightly antagonistic force of Mabel getting to [do] what she needs to do.” Who’s ready for Pixar to go full animal-crackers.

Hoppers comes to UK cinemas from 6 March

Inside Pixar’s Most Bonkers Premise In Years

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