Every Pixar movie for the past three decades has gotten me thinking about the world a little differently, and the studio's latest movie Hoppers is no different. The new film coming up soon on the 2026 movie schedule follows an animal lover named Mabel as she “hops” into the body of a robotic beaver and discovers what it’s like to be in their paws. If you’re thinking it sounds like James Cameron’s Avatar you’d be right, but I was surprised to learn the director had another massive influence.
Hoppers was pitched to Pixar by Daniel Chong, who famously created Cartoon Network’s We Bare Bears, along with being a longtime story artist at the studio. Here’s what he told SFX Magazine on CinemaBlend about the movie’s Avatar similarities:
That is probably the most obvious thing. But everything else around it was different influences and different movies and different trajectories that we wanted the movie to have. But [Avatar] became a really nice shorthand, though, to get people to understand the concept.
The movie revolves around a new invention created by Mabel’s biology professor that allows human consciousness to be temporarily transferred into a robotic beaver. In Hoppers’ own trailer, Mabel says “Guys, this is like Avatar!” when the concept is explained to her before the scientists who invented it defensively say “It’s nothing like Avatar!” So, that reference point was intentional. Still, it's not the only nod to another major movie franchise. Hoppers can also trace its roots to one Mr. Tom Cruise.
Here’s what Chong said about what other franchise also inspired the Pixar movie:
To me, the fun deviation [after the Avatar parallel] is that it is kind of like a spy movie where you’re going into the animal world undercover… So it felt like that was the nice, interesting pivot. We play in all these kinds of Mission: Impossible spy movie tropes, but in ways that you weren’t expecting… There’s a lot of feelings of a spy movie that we recognize, but in a totally refabricated way.
See, I definitely wasn’t expecting the filmmaker to drop comparisons to Mission: Impossible, but that only makes me more excited to see what’s coming in the animated comedy. We know that once Mabel goes into the consciousness of the robotic beaver herself, she gets to know her local woodland animal community as they face their habitat being destroyed by a construction company.
Mabel then decides to help the animals stop the impending loss of their habitat, which is fronted by Jon Hamm’s character of Mayor Jerry. That’s the point of the movie where I can see what the director perhaps means by the spy movie elements of Hoppers.
Pixar has had a “rough time” lately making original films that are also big hits, but my fingers are crossed this one has the stuff! The studio is also bringing us Toy Story 5 this year, and is hard at work on Incredibles and Coco sequels. We're set to get another original with Gatto in 2027, and I’m personally excited for it all to come down the pipeline, and not just the tried and true sequels.
Hoppers has an all-star voice cast that even includes Meryl Streep as Insect Queen! Other notable names are Bobby Moynihan, Kathy Najimy, Dave Franco, Sam Richardson, Melissa Villaseñor, Ego Nwodim and Vanessa Bayer (so many great SNL cast members!) You can catch Hoppers in theaters on March 6.
