The world doesn’t deserve rebel girls who speak truth to power, and animals, who in their own way, give humans a report card on how we’re taking care of the home we share. They could be just what comes between us and existential threats to the planet.
Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers” does remind us of that. The movie with little Mabel Tanaka wanting so much to free Crush, the classroom pet turtle. Crush gets poked around by kids who couldn’t care less. This is all too real for me. While doing a Museo Pambata story ages ago, I saw kids try to separate mating turtles with their pens and rulers. I was mortified on so many levels. Leave those turtles alone!
Unlike me that day, Mabel is a woman of action. She does free Crush and all the other classroom pets. Of course she gets into trouble. And thankfully, this does not deter her.
We meet 19-year-old Mabel again in college — curious, nerdy and relentless, whizzing by on her skateboard with Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl” as the soundtrack choice.
Mabel learns that the glade she and her grandmother used to visit connect with nature and feel some peace is under threat. Mayor Jerry Generazzo (John Hamm) is up for reelection and he wants to build the Beaverton Beltway right over said glade. He’s set all these machines to sabotage, drill, bomb, clear, build and pave.
Jerry and Mabel are not strangers, they regularly cross swords, butt heads. She confronts him at his rallies and takes all the opportunities to get in his way.
Rebel girls can be intrepid sleuths, in case you didn’t know. Mabel discovers her professor, Dr. Sam (Kathy Najimy) has a lab on campus and she and her team have been working on “hopping” which involves uploading human consciousness into a robot animal. Mabel hijacks this technology and becomes a beaver.
She becomes part of an animal community involving other beavers, rabbits, raccoons, snakes, a bear, ducks, all under the leadership of a beaver they call King George. The plot takes a lot of turns, and I have to say seeing their habitats get destroyed actually felt violent. Variety has described it as “Bambi on crack.”
I have a bit of an issue regarding the way Mayor Jerry was written. Spoiler: John Hamm has revealed in an interview that his character eventually acts like an “adult,” he actually sees for himself the implications of his big-ticket project. In today’s political climate, that almost seems like a fantasy.
Just like “Project Hail Mary,” “Hoppers” shows the beauty of community and collaboration across the board, whether you swim, slither, walk, or fly we all share the same home. The idea is not to throw a bulldozer at the problem because you can’t be bothered to think things through. And yet here we are in 2026.
“Hoppers” is going on its fourth week in local cinemas.