{"id":267178,"date":"2025-07-16T17:50:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T17:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/267178\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T17:50:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T17:50:18","slug":"inside-pixars-most-bonkers-premise-in-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/267178\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Pixar’s Most Bonkers Premise In Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 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\u2026 hang on. That\u2019s the opposite of a tale as old as time, a weird and wild premise that proves Pixar<\/a> isn\u2019t done experimenting with new ideas (even while the likes of Toy Story 5<\/a> and Incredibles 3<\/a> await for the studio). Get ready for Hoppers, the feature debut from We Bare Bears creator Daniel Chong, set to emphasise the word \u2018original\u2019 when it comes to \u2018Pixar originals\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018They’re not gonna pick this\u2019,\u201d Chong tells Empire, looking back on his Pixar pitching session. \u201c\u2018It’s too crazy.\u2019 And then here we are, five years later.\u201d The plan, he explains, is to make \u201csomething with spectacle, a crazy, wild ride. How that fits in the Pixar canon, I can only guess.\u201d Let\u2019s take a closer look at that trailer.<\/p>\n

Meet Mabel<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

Mabel in Pixar’s HOPPERS. Photo courtesy of Pixar. \u00a9 2025 Disney\/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Things are different from the off. Pixar protagonists tend to be adults (often as anthropomorphised animals \/ toys \/ emotions\u2026 delete as applicable), or young kids. But Mabel, Hoppers\u2019 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, \u201ca little unhinged\u201d, a force to be reckoned with. \u201cMabel is this woman who loves nature, loves animals, and she desperately wants to protect them,\u201d he teases. \u201cThere’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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weird science<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

(L-R) Dr. Sam and Dr. Nisha in Pixar’s HOPPERS. Photo courtesy of Pixar. \u00a9 2025 Disney\/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Behind the respectable facade of Beaverton University, bizarre experiments are going down \u2013 like human consciousnesses being beamed into artificial animal bodies. \u201cThese scientists, are working underground \u2013 they\u2019re professors by day, but brilliant scientists by night,\u201d says the director, \u201cwho have created this technology secretly, because they know it’s very powerful, and they did not get any licence to do this.\u201d 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. \u201cThere’s definitely an espionage quality to it, because she’s sneaking in there,\u201d he teases. \u201cThere’s a Mission: Impossible aspect to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Na\u2019vi<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

As Mabel points out, this wild concept is \u2013 in a way \u2013 Avatar<\/a>. Except, it\u2019s also not. \u201cIt’s good to let the audience know that we know what we’re doing,\u201d says Chong. \u201cWe know that it sounds like Avatar \u2013 but it isn’t, it’s a jumping off point.\u201d While the filmmaker hasn\u2019t personally crossed paths with James Cameron, contact has been made. \u201cThe president of our studio, Jim Morris, used to work for ILM, so he worked with Jim Cameron a lot,\u201d Chong says. \u201cI 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.\u201d Either way, Avatar: Fire And Ash<\/a> will hit screens several months before Hoppers does its own thing. \u201cI don\u2019t want to bother him,\u201d laughs Chong. \u201cGo make your masterpiece!\u201d<\/p>\n

Driving lessons<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

When Mabel\u2019s mind is transferred into a tiny beaver body, it\u2019s going to take some time for her to figure out the parameters. \u201cThere’s going to be a learning curve for her, not just using this animal body, but also navigating the animal world,\u201d teases Chong. \u201cThere’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.\u201d Dam.<\/p>\n

Say what you meme<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

In her beaver body, Mabel can suddenly understand all animal language \u2013 including some deer saying \u201c\u2026and they were in the same den.\u201d Could it possibly be a reference to that viral \u201c\u2026and they were roommates\u201d clip? \u201cIt definitely is,\u201d Chong laughs. Picking up the conversations of the animal world will be a major part of Hoppers. \u201cThat is the big idea, the wish fulfilment,\u201d the director says. \u201cThere 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 \u2013 how the animal world and the human world interact with each other, how they push up against each other, how they coexist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meet Mabel\u2019s mates<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just like the circle of life taught us: some animals hunt, and others get eaten. And as Mabel learns \u2013 when she stops a bear chomping down an oblivious fellow beaver \u2013 the animals are used to that. Said bear is Ellen, and the little dopey beaver is the (excellently-named) Loaf. \u201cThey will all be along for the journey,\u201d promises Chong. \u201cThey kind of start unifying into a little group. There\u2019ll be other animals that will come forward as the movie goes on.\u201d Including, but not glimpsed in this trailer, the previously-announced \u2018King George\u2019, a crown-wearing beaver voiced by Bobby Moynihan. \u201cWe modelled this character, and [Pixar legend] Andrew Stanton saw it, and he\u2019s like, \u2018Oh! We\u2019re actually doing that?! OK!\u2019 He was down, he loved it, but you are going there. It\u2019s a leap for the audiences, but our movie is that crazy. It\u2019s a world where you\u2019ll accept that a beaver can wear a crown and be a king.\u201d<\/p>\n

New natural order<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

With Mabel now going rogue in her beaver form, the trailer teases big consequences: the natural order is about to be disturbed. \u201cShe has a mission that she\u2019s trying to accomplish,\u201d 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. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the genre, the spy thriller \u2013 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.\u201d Who\u2019s ready for Pixar to go full animal-crackers.<\/p>\n

Hoppers comes to UK cinemas from 6 March<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a tale as old as time: a young woman transfers her consciousness into the mind of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-267178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114864182522660266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}