PixMix Episode 36: Hoppers

In this episode of PixMix, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 2026 Pixar animated film Hoppers. Co-written and directed by Daniel Chong, the creator of Cartoon Network's We Bare Bears, Hoppers focuses on a 19-year-old young adult named Mabel who has a love and passion for animals and nature due to her grandmother. When she passed away, the forest glade that her and Mabel would go to often is in danger of being replaced by a freeway led by the mayor of her town. One day while trying to lure one beaver to the glade to restore it, she sees a beaver wandering around. She follows it and learns that it's a robot beaver created by her college professor Dr. Sam Fairfax under the project Hoppers to have their human consciousness into robotic animals to observe them. Mabel places her consciousness into the robotic beaver to find beavers to save the glade. She meets up with all the animals in a small, crowded part of the forest led by a beaver named King George who knows everyone and sees the good in everyone. When the film premiered in theaters, it made over $164 million dollars with a $150 million dollar budget. It received positive reviews from critics and fans calling it a hilarious, insane, yet heartfelt film that was a refreshing change of pace from the previous Pixar films. It became the highest grossing opening for an original Pixar film since 2017 when Coco premiered. What did Arun and Patricia think of the film?