Producer: Nicole Paradis Grindle   Director: Daniel Chong   Screenplay: Jesse Andrews   Cast: Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, Dave Franco, Eduardo Franco, Aparna Nancherla, Tom Law, Sam Richardson, Melissa Villaseñor, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Steve Purcell, Ego Nwodim, Nichole Sakura, Meryl Streep, Karen Huie, Vanessa Bayer, Joe Spano, Demetri Martin and Lila Liu   Distributor: Disney Motion Picture Studios

Grade: C+

There was a time when Pixar was the gold standard of animation, but “Hoppers” suggests that time is truly past.  Daniel Chong’s movie is certainly antic and technically expert, and it has a few laugh-out-loud moments, but it’s basically an ecological sermon in the form of a furry-animal adventure that’s surprisingly dark and violent.

It’s set in a town called Beaverton, where Mabel Tanaka (voiced by Lila Liu) is introduced as a tyke caught trying to liberate all the caged pets kept in the classrooms of her elementary school, causing pandemonium in the process.  Berated by her mother, she’s comforted by her grandmother (Karen Huie), a wise woman who takes her to her favorite spot, a wildlife-rich glade where one can commune with nature in peaceful quiet while sitting atop a prominent rock overlooking a pond.  Though her mom moves away, Mabel decides to stay with grandma and by nineteen (now voiced by Piper Curda) is a college student whose environmental activism takes precedence over her classwork.

She’s a peculiarly lonely sponsor of a petition drive to squelch the final leg of a massive highway being constructed over the glade by Beaverton Mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm), a glad-hander business type who for some reason is rendered as a cartoon likeness of Gavin Newsom.  Not only has she no comrades in arms—an oddity in any college town—but all the residents she approaches to sign up slam the door in her face, save for one elderly gentleman (Joe Spano), who, she discovers only after doing all the chores around his house, hasn’t heard a word of her spiel because his hearing aids aren’t on.  (That’s a funny episode.)  Mabel also is unaware, until informed by Dr. Sam Fairfax (Kathy Najimy), her geobiology teacher, that all the wildlife, including the beavers, had, for some reason, abandoned the glade even before the mayor’s project was approved.

In her efforts to discover why, Mabel discovers that Sam and her helpers Nisha (Aparna Nancherla) and Conner (Sam Richardson) have developed a technology that allows them to “hop” their consciousness into robot animals to study the wildlife more effectively.  (Perhaps the best joke of the movie has them deny that the system is anything like the one portrayed in another picture that also happens to have a Disney connection.) Naturally Mabel decides to hijack the process and becomes a robot beaver that can, miraculously, converse with the real animals in the forest.

That brings her into contact with a host of amusing critters—a dim beaver named Loaf (Eduardo Franco), a cautious lizard named Tom (Tom Law), a hungry bear named Ellen (Melissa Villaseñor), but most importantly the chatty, eager-to-be-friendly king of the beavers, George (Bobby Moynihan), who enforces the “pond rules” that dictate the cycle of life in his domain.  (Why everything in the animal world must be monarchical is never explained.)

Mabel discovers that the reason the animals have left the glade is that Jerry had erected a fake tree with speakers emitting a sound that drives them away.  When she destroys the tree, they return, but the furious mayor not only installs more fake trees but bombs King George’s massive lodge.  

That prompts Mabel to encourage George to summon the Animal Council, the rulers of the other species, to decide on joint action.  Thus, we meet the Bird King, a goose (Isiah Whitlock Jr. ), the Fish Queen (Ego Nwodim), the Amphibian King, a frog (Steve Purcell), the three snake Reptile Queens (Nichole Sakura) and, prima inter pares, the imperious Insect Queen, a monarch butterfly (Meryl Streep), who’s accompanied by her scheming son and heir apparent, caterpillar Titus (Eman Abdul-Razzak). 

What follows is a frantic melee in which the Insect Queen is accidentally killed (a good gag) and succeeded by Titus (who soon morphs into a butterfly voiced by Dave Franco), a decision is taken to kill Jerry, and Mabel and George go on the run to save him, which they manage to do when the Council drops mega-shark Diane ( Vanessa Bayer) on his car on a mountain road.

But Titus turns the tables when Mabel is disconnected from the robot beaver, leaving George disconsolate, and forces Sam to insert his malevolent consciousness into a robot Jerry with which he seduces the residents of Beaverton to a freeway-opening rally where retooled sound-emitting trees will turn their brains to mush.  Mabel intervenes, but the resultant chaos causes a wildfire that only emergency action by George can stop from threatening the town.  Jerry reroutes his freeway, the glade is restored, and Mabel and George remain steadfast friends.

“Hoppers” is engaging, but rather preachy, and especially down the homestretch it gets pretty frightening—perhaps too much so for very young children.  It’s blessed, however, by starry voice work, with Moynihan the obvious standout, and beautiful visuals thanks to Bryn Imagire’s production design, the cinematography by Jeremy Lasky and Ian Megivven, the animation supervised by Alon Winsterstein and the effects supervised by Beth Albright.  Axel Geddes’ editing moves things along spiffily and Mark Mothersbaugh backs up the visuals with a sprightly score.

But if one’s looking for a Pixar movie about interspecies friendship that hits all the right notes without a hitch, sweet, endearingly old-fashioned “Luca” (2021)—co-written by Jesse Andrews, who takes solo credit here—remains unsurpassed.