‘Hoppers’ Review: Pixar’s Beaver-Centric Sci-Fi Comedy Is Dam Good

It’s an old joke, but it’s true: Pixar has a formula, and their formula is feelings.

What if toys have feelings? That’s “Toy Story.” What if bugs have feelings? That’s “A Bug’s Life.” What if monsters have feelings? What if fish have feelings? What if cars have feelings? What if superheroes have feelings? What if robots have feelings? What if old people have feelings? What if [checks notes] feelings have feelings?

The list goes on, but for a while, I thought the pattern had permanently broken with last year’s “Elio,” a film that dared to ask if queer kids had feelings, until Disney heartlessly forced Pixar to erase all queerness.

But now comes Pixar’s follow-up, which has found a new, amusingly anti-Disney gag to transform into a successful animated feature. That’s David Chong’s “Hoppers,” which asks the question someone should have asked a long time ago: What if James Cameron’s “Avatar” had feelings?

“Hoppers” is a sci-fi comedy from the creator of the TV series “We Bare Bears,” and it’s the best Pixar movie since “Coco.” This isn’t a gigantic compliment, since Pixar’s been in a bit of a slump since “Coco,” but there have been some good films since and “Hoppers” is the best of them. And yes, it’s basically the same set-up as “Avatar.” “Hoppers” acknowledges that on camera.

Why? Probably because it’s the elephant in the room. There are only so many movies about using sci-fi technology to shunt your consciousness into another species in order to intermingle, form deep relationships and start a war, and the rest are mostly named “Avatar.” But maybe there’s also something more sly and insidious afoot, since the direct comparison works in “Hopper’s” favor. “Hoppers” isn’t just James Cameron’s “Avatar” if it had feelings, it’s also James Cameron’s “Avatar” if it was good.

“Hoppers” stars Piper Curda as Mabel, a 19-year-old animal rights activist trying to stop her town’s mayor, Jerry (Jon Hamm), from building a freeway through her favorite forest glade. Jerry can’t get a permit if the glade is full of wildlife, but all the wildlife have mysteriously vanished, so it’s up to Mabel to solve the mystery and save the glade.

Fortunately, Mabel’s college professor Dr. Fairfax (Kathy Najimy) has just invented “Avatar” technology, which can shunt a human being’s mind into a realistic beaver robot.

Look, just… just go with it, okay? This movie is fun if you just go with it.

Mabel leaps into the robot beaver and scurries into the forest, where she meets King George (Bobby Moynihan), a beaver who rules over all the local mammals. He’s a chill guy, but his laissez-faire policy about carnivores is off-putting. (They gotta eat somebody, so if they eat you, you’re just supposed to go with it.) Mabel gets in trouble for breaking the pond’s rules, specifically by stopping a bear from eating another beaver, but eventually she finds a place for herself and, skipping ahead a bit, accidentally convinces most of the animals to declare war on humanity.

“Hoppers” escalates quickly, in imaginative directions. It embraces the wonder of the premise, and Mabel’s ongoing awe at her circumstances translates to the audience as well. Daniel Chong and screenwriter Jesse Andrews (“Luca”) peel back the layers of animal society, revealing that it’s both adorable and upsettingly like our own. Mabel’s well-intentioned politicking lacks nuance, and her all-or-nothing approach to animal policy bites her and potentially the rest of the world in the butt, which is a valuable lesson about how politics are supposed to work.

But there’s a difference between how politics are supposed to work and the way things actually work, and “Hoppers” eventually proves its story may be optimistic, but it’s not naive. King George believes that everyone is a good person, deep down inside, and Mabel disagrees because she’s been paying attention. “Hoppers” isn’t about Mabel learning that King George is right, it’s about Mabel learning that he should be right, and we should all work towards a world where that’s our reality. But also, if an honest-to-goodness tyrant can’t be reasoned with, that’s a huge exception, so anyone who cares about anything decent should stop them at all costs, optimism and diplomacy be (all puns intended) dammed.

“Hoppers” is such a funny, clever, kind, playfully dark and wonderfully weird film that, again, it throws into sharp relief how much we’ve settled for “Avatar’s” faulty approach to the same premise. James Cameron repeatedly used the concept of leaping into the body of another species to tell attractively animated, but tiresome and racist and hackneyed colonial fantasy adventures about how indigenous people are helpless without a white savior. “Hoppers” uses the same premise to tell a more complicated story about an interloper who means well, screws up, and gets taken to task for their condescending lies.

What’s more, “Hoppers” concocts wild new ways to break its story open, utilizing its sci-fi technology in novel ways and taking advantage of its cartoony style to get weird with the plot points. By the time there’s a car chase with a giant shark — it makes sense in context, I swear — you’ll be smiling ear-to-ear.

It’s smart, it’s wacky, it’s morally complex, and we need more films like it. Not just great Pixar movies, but great Pixar movies that playfully trash what Disney is doing elsewhere.

“Hoppers” opens exclusively in theaters on March 6.

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