Hoppers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Daniel Chong
Screenplay by	Jesse Andrews
Story by	Daniel Chong Jesse Andrews
Produced by	Nicole Paradis Grindle
Starring	Piper Curda Bobby Moynihan Jon Hamm Kathy Najimy Dave Franco
Cinematography	Jeremy Lasky Ian Megibben
Edited by	Axel Geddes
Music by	Mark Mothersbaugh
Production company	Pixar Animation Studios
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures[a]
Release dates	February 23, 2026 (2026-02-23) (El Capitan Theatre) March 6, 2026 (2026-03-06) (United States)
Running time	104 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$150 million[2]

Hoppers is a 2026 American animated science fiction comedy film^[3] produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Daniel Chong and written by Jesse Andrews, the film features an ensemble voice cast led by Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, and Dave Franco. Its plot follows Mabel Tanaka, an animal lover, whose mind is transferred into a lifelike robotic beaver to communicate with animals and save their habitat from destruction, inadvertantly starting an uprising in doing so.

Chong began working on a new original film at Pixar in December 2020, after returning to the studio. The film was first officially announced as Hoppers in August 2024, along with Curda, Moynihan, and Hamm revealed as part of the cast.

Hoppers premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles on February 23, 2026, and is scheduled to be released in the United States on March 6, 2026. The film received positive reviews from critics.^[2]

In the city of Beaverton, young Mabel Tanaka spends her days with her grandmother in a local forest glade, home to many wild animals, particularly a colony of beavers. Inspired by her grandmother's love of nature, Mabel grows up with a deep passion for the natural world. Years later, Jerry Generazzo, the mayor of Beaverton, announces plans to replace the glade with a freeway, since all the animals have left. Now 19, Mabel actively campaigns against him. She attempts to rally the community through a petition, but to no avail. Her activism causes her to neglect her college studies, much to the frustration of her biology professor, Dr. Samantha "Sam" Fairfax.

One night, while trying to encourage the beavers to return to the glade, Mabel discovers that Sam and her colleagues have secretly been developing new technology to enhance wildlife research. Dubbed the "Hoppers" program, the device allows a human consciousness to "hop" into a robotic animal and experience life up close as that species. Seeing this as an opportunity to save the glade, Mabel hops into a robotic beaver against Sam's wishes and flees the lab, only to be snatched by an owl and dropped into the glade.

Mabel awakens there as the professors observe remotely through a robotic bird. She inadvertently agitates the animals, who believe that she is a real beaver, including beaver Loaf and bear Ellen. She is escorted to meet King George, the head beaver of the communal "Superlodge." Mabel destroys a noise-emitting artificial tree that Jerry had installed to drive the animals away. With the tree gone, George's subjects begin to return to the glade. As Mabel learns the community's customs, she grows closer to George, and the two exchange stories about their lives. After revealing that his father cast him out when he was young, George asks Mabel to serve as his personal advisor.

Enraged by the animals' renewed resistance, Jerry blows up the beavers' dam and installs additional noise-emitting trees. Mabel and George convene a meeting of the Animal Council in the Superlodge, attended by delegates from various species, including the Amphibian, Fish, Insect, and Bird monarchs. During an impassioned speech, Mabel inadvertently convinces the Council to assassinate Jerry and becomes a target herself after accidentally killing the Insect Queen. She flees the Superlodge with George.

Although initially upset that Mabel undermined his authority, George agrees to help her protect Jerry after she confesses that she is tired of feeling powerless. Using text-to-speech software on Jerry's phone, the three narrowly escape an assassination attempt orchestrated by the Council, now led by the vengeful Insect King Titus, who has succeeded his mother. Amid the chaos, a shark named Diane is dropped onto Jerry's car in an attempt to kill him, causing it to crash. Sam finally untethers Mabel from the robotic beaver, leaving George heartbroken as he cradles the lifeless robot.

The Council raids Sam's lab, tie up Jerry and Mabel, and force the scientists to build a robotic clone of Jerry for Titus to inhabit. Titus plans to impersonate Jerry and use the audio frequencies of the noise-emitting trees at a political rally to destroy the brains of the humans in attendance. Mabel reconciles with Jerry, realizing her anger had clouded her judgment. Jerry hops into the robotic beaver to free them both, and Mabel intervenes at the rally. She attempts to reason with Titus, but he refuses to back down and reveals his ambition to rule over all animals, shocking the Council. As Mabel's friends disable the trees, she chases a deranged Titus up the last remaining one. The robotic Jerry's face is torn off, preventing him from triggering the attack. The tree collapses, destroying the robotic body and igniting a massive wildfire that consumes the glade and rapidly spreads toward the city. George chooses to help Mabel, while Titus is devoured by the Amphibian King. Realizing it is the only way to save Beaverton, George orders his subjects to dismantle what remains of the dam, flooding the glade and extinguishing the fire.

In the aftermath, Jerry and Mabel reach an understanding. Jerry reroutes his freeway plans, helps restore the glade, and designates it a protected wildlife preserve. Refocusing on her studies, Mabel graduates from college. Though the Hoppers program is discontinued, Sam hires Mabel as her assistant. While they can no longer communicate verbally, Mabel and George's friendship endures, with George using text-to-speech software and emojis to communicate.

• Piper Curda as Mabel Tanaka, an animal loving 19-year-old Japanese-American college student whose mind is transferred into a robotic beaver^[4][5][6][7]
  • Lila Liu as young Mabel^{[citation needed]}
• Bobby Moynihan as King George, a beaver monarch^[4][5][6]
• Jon Hamm as Jerry Generazzo, a greedy mayor^[4][5][6][8]
• Kathy Najimy as Dr. Samantha "Sam" Fairfax,^[9] Mabel's biology professor who created the hopping technology^[8]
• Dave Franco as Titus (Insect King),^[9] a butterfly and the Insect Queen's son^[8]
  • Eman Abdul-Razzak as Young Titus (Insect Prince), a caterpillar^[10]
• Eduardo Franco as Loaf,^[9] a slow yet staunch beaver^[8]
• Aparna Nancherla as Nisha,^[9] Dr. Sam's astute colleague^[8]
• Tom Law as Tom Lizard,^[9] a lizard who prefers to avoid drama^[8]
• Sam Richardson as Conner,^[9] a graduate student working under Dr. Sam^[8]
• Melissa Villaseñor as Ellen,^[9] a big, menacing, mostly grumpy bear always on the lookout for her next meal^[8]
• Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Bird King,^[9] a goose monarch^[8]
• Steve Purcell as Amphibian King,^[9] a frog monarch^[8]
• Ego Nwodim as Fish Queen,^[9] a fish monarch^[8]
• Nichole Sakura as Reptile Queens,^[9] a trio of snake sister monarchs^[8]
• Meryl Streep as Insect Queen, a butterfly monarch who is the most respected and feared member of the all-seeing and all-powerful Animal Council^[11][9][8]
• Karen Huie as Grandma Tanaka,^[9] Mabel's grandmother^[8]
• Vanessa Bayer as Diane,^[9] a shark assassin^[8]
  • Heidi Klum voices the character in the German dub of the film^[12]
• Demetri Martin as flock of birds^{[13][non-primary source needed]}
• Joe Spano as an elderly Beavertonian^{[citation needed]}
• Eric Edelstein as an additional voice^{[14][non-primary source needed]}
• Lori Alan as Mabel's mother^[15]

In the United Kingdom release, Alan Carr and Amanda Holden voice Alan the Squirrel and Amanda the Spider, respectively.^[16]

In December 2020, Daniel Chong revealed on Twitter that he had returned to Pixar following the completion of his Cartoon Network television series We Bare Bears (2015–2019) and the release of We Bare Bears: The Movie (2020) and that he was developing an original feature film.^[17] At the D23 fan event in August 2024, Pixar's chief creative officer Pete Docter announced that the film would be titled Hoppers.^[4][5][6] Shortly after, Jesse Andrews revealed on his Twitter account that he had been working on the film for three years.^[18] As part of the film's announcement at the D23 event, Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, and Jon Hamm were revealed to be part of the voice cast.^[4][5][6]

In an interview with D23, Chong said that one of his inspirations for the film were the nature documentaries in which robot animals are placed in the animal world; "It felt like it was ripe for comedy, this idea of how humans try so hard to fit into the animal world and the weird things that happen through that." He additionally stated, "obviously there are Avatar influences, [...] But there's also this Mission Impossible spy-thriller quality to the movie too, because Mabel's kind of infiltrating the animal world."^[19]

Chong initially pitched the film with penguin protagonists. However Docter disapproved, arguing that penguins had been protagonists in several other animated films, so Chong changed the protagonists to beavers after doing research on how they affect the environment; "These animals can be these ecosystem engineers and help everyone else survive; I think that just made me go, 'Oh man, beavers are crazy cool.'"^[20]

In December 2024, The Hollywood Reporter stated that, according to a former Pixar artist, the filmmakers were told to "downplay" the film's "planned message of environmentalism."^[21] However, in a July 2025 interview with Screen Rant, Chong denied that the film's themes were censored, stating, "If anything, I felt a lot of alignment. [...] The honest truth about the process, though, is that every movie here goes through so much iteration and changes a lot, and I can see, maybe, to some other people's eyes within the studio, [how] they might see [that] it looks like things are being censored. But, really, [the movie is] just going through its natural course of iteration and stuff–at least for our movie."^[20]

In August 2025, it was announced that Mark Mothersbaugh would compose the film's score, marking his first composition for a Pixar feature film after composing for the Toy Story Toons short Hawaiian Vacation and several Cars Toons shorts for the studio.^[22] In addition, the film will feature an original end credits song written and performed by SZA titled "Save the Day", which was released on February 20, 2026.^[23]

Hoppers premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles on February 23, 2026,^[24] and was screened at the New York International Children's Film Festival on February 28, 2026,^[25] which will be followed by a theatrical release in the United States by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on March 6, 2026.^[26]

A first-look image of the film was publicly shown at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2025.^[27] Later that month a short teaser, featuring a lizard repeatedly typing the lizard emoji into a phone, played in theaters after the end credits of Pixar's Elio.^[28][29] In August 2025, Pixar revealed that the lizard's name is Tom and that he would appear in the film.^[30]

Yogurtland promoted the film with a limited edition sugar-free frozen yogurt flavor known as Mabel's Nutty Adventure.^[31]

In the United States and Canada, Hoppers was released alongside The Bride!, and is projected to gross $40 million from 4,000 theaters during its opening weekend. This would make it the best opening for an original Pixar film since Coco (2017) and in the post-pandemic era. The film is also projected to reverse Pixar's low opening streak for its originals, overtaking the lukewarm openings of Elemental (2023), which would eventually become a sleeper-hit, and Elio (2025), which became a box-office bomb.^[32][33]

Hoppers received positive reviews, with critics praising its animation, story, and humor.^[2] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 94 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "An eager beaver for endearment that has the charm to back it up, Hoppers is a sprightly riot that might just be the funniest entry in the Pixar canon yet."^[34] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[35]

Several critics called the film a "return to form" for Pixar.^[36] Nell Minow from RogerEbert.com gave the film 4 stars out of 4, saying the film is "Pixar at its very best. It has charm and a touch of magic but it is grounded—literally."^[37]

• Official website
• Hoppers at IMDb