Chong began developing a new original film at Pixar in December 2020 after returning to the studio. The project was officially announced as Hoppers in August 2024, with Curda, Moynihan, and Hamm revealed as part of the cast. Development on the film lasted six years. Mark Mothersbaugh composed the score, while SZA wrote and performed the end credits song "Save the Day".
Hoppers premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on February 23, 2026, and was released in the United States on March 6. The film received positive reviews from critics[2] and has grossed $302 million worldwide, becoming the third highest-grossing film of 2026.
Plot
In the city of Beaverton, Mabel Tanaka spends her childhood with her grandmother in a nearby forest glade teeming with wild animals. Inspired by her grandmother, Mabel grows up with a deep appreciation for nature and continues watching over the glade after her estranged parents leave town and following her grandmother's death. When Beaverton's mayor, Jerry Generazzo, announces plans to replace the glade with a freeway—claiming that all the animals have left—Mabel campaigns against the project but receives no support. Her activism causes her to neglect her college studies, drawing the disapproval of her biology professor, Dr. Sam Fairfax.
While attempting to lure the animals back to the glade, Mabel discovers that Sam and her colleagues, Nisha and Conner, have secretly developed a new technology designed to enhance wildlife research. Known as the "Hoppers" program, it allows a human consciousness to "hop" into a robotic animal and experience life as that species. Despite Sam's warnings that interfering with the animals' natural lifestyles could have disastrous consequences, Mabel—seeing an opportunity to save the glade—hops into a robotic beaver and flees the lab.
Believed by the animals to be a real beaver, Mabel is brought before Mammal King George, a beaver monarch who shelters the glade's displaced animal residents in a massive, overcrowded dam. She discovers an artificial tree emitting sound waves audible only to animals, which Jerry secretly installed to drive them away. Despite Conner's attempts to return her to the lab, she destroys the device, prompting George's subjects to begin returning to the glade. Mabel grows closer to George, who shares his past and asks her to serve as his personal advisor. She is about to reveal her true identity when the animals are driven back to the dam by Jerry, who installs more sound-emitting trees and resumes construction.
Mabel and George arrange a meeting with the Animal Council in the dam, attended by monarchs representing the Insect, Amphibian, Fish, Reptile, and Bird classes, with George representing the mammals. Initially uninterested in helping, the Council is swayed when Mabel presents the destroyed sound tree and warns that Jerry will force them from their homes as well. However, this inadvertently persuades the Council to assassinate Jerry. When she attempts to stop them, she accidentally kills the Insect Queen, making herself their next target, and she and George flee. The animals destroy the robotic animals Nisha and Conner had hopped into to help Mabel escape, untethering the scientists and exposing the deception. The Insect Prince, Titus, crowns himself king and assumes control of the Council.
Although initially upset that Mabel has undermined his authority, George agrees to help protect Jerry after she confesses how lonely and powerless she feels. With the help of three other animals she befriended, Mabel and George locate Jerry and force him to drive to the glade using text-to-speech software, hoping to stop construction of the freeway. Seagulls acting on behalf of the Council pursue them, attempting to kill Jerry by dropping a shark named Diane onto his car. They narrowly escape, but Jerry refuses to abandon his freeway project, believing the ordeal to be a ploy by Mabel to intimidate him into cooperating. Frustrated, Mabel inadvertently reveals their location to both the Council and the scientists. The scientists arrive and untether Mabel from the robotic beaver, causing her to faint and leaving George confused and saddened.
Mabel awakens tied up in Sam's lab alongside Jerry, where the Council has taken everyone hostage and forces the scientists to build a robotic clone of Jerry for Titus to inhabit. Titus plans to impersonate the mayor and use the frequencies of the sound trees to massacre the humans attending a political rally at the glade. Realizing that her anger has clouded her judgment, Mabel reconciles with Jerry, who reluctantly hops into the robotic beaver to free them both.
At the rally, Mabel attempts to reason with Titus, but he refuses to abandon his plan. Jerry, the animals, and the scientists attempt to unhop Titus, but this fails and destroys the robotic beaver. During the struggle, Mabel knocks Jerry's phone onto a sound tree and climbs it to retrieve it. She tears off the robot's face, preventing Titus from using facial recognition to unlock the phone and activate the attack. Enraged, Titus tears down the tree, revealing his intent to have the insects kill every other species, shocking the Council. The tree then collapses onto the stage, destroying the robotic body and igniting a wildfire that consumes the glade and spreads toward the city. After Titus is eaten by the Amphibian King, the Council joins Mabel, George, and the other animals in dismantling the dam, flooding the glade and extinguishing the fire before it reaches the city.
Mabel and Jerry reach an understanding. The freeway is rerouted, and the glade is restored as a protected wildlife preserve. Mabel graduates from college, and although the Hoppers program is discontinued due to her actions, she is hired as Sam's assistant. Though they can no longer communicate verbally, Mabel and George remain friends, with the latter using text-to-speech software to communicate with her.
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 and the mother of Titus [14][12][11]
Karen Huie as Grandma Tanaka, Mabel's elderly grandmother who teaches Mabel to respect nature and to listen to the sounds of the forest.[citation needed]
In the United Kingdom release, Alan Carr and Amanda Holden voice Alan the Squirrel and Amanda the Spider, respectively.[19]
Production
Development
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.[20] At the D23 fan event in August 2024, Pixar's chief creative officer Pete Docter announced that the film would be titled Hoppers.[6][7][8] Shortly after, Luca writer Jesse Andrews revealed on his Twitter account that he had been working on the film for three years.[21] 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.[6][7][8] Development on Hoppers lasted for six years.[22]
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."[23]
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.'"[24]
Writing
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".[25] 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."[24]
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 (2011) and several Cars Toons shorts for the studio.[26] In addition, the film features an original end credits song written and performed by SZA titled "Save the Day", which was released on February 20, 2026.[27]
Tom Lizard has been heavily used in the film's marketing and promotional appearances.
A first-look image of the film was publicly shown at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2025.[31] Later that month a short teaser, featuring a small green gecko repeatedly typing the lizard emoji into a phone, played in theaters after the end credits of Pixar's Elio.[32][33] In August 2025, Pixar revealed that the lizard's name is Tom and that he would appear in the film.[34] The character of Tom Lizard quickly went viral, and was the focus of several internet memes, which Disney reported earned up to 316 million views. A mascot of Tom Lizard was used in several appearances surrounding Hoppers, including special screenings, promotional events, and televised appearances in affiliated networks such as "photobombing" ESPN's coverage of Super Bowl LX.[35][36]
Yogurtland promoted the film with a limited edition sugar-free frozen yogurt flavor known as Mabel's Nutty Adventure.[37]
In the month of the release of the film, the free-to-playkart racing gameDisney Speedstorm introduced Mabel as a racer; she was added to the game on March 6 during the mid-season of Season 18: Piston Cup.[38] Likewise, a cosmetics bundle for Fortnite, including a Tom Lizard skin, was released one day earlier.[39]
The city of Beaverton, Oregon declared March 5 "Hoppers Day" in honor of the film's release.[40] Piper Curda and Bobby Moynihan visited the city as part of the film's world tour on March 5, 2026. During the proclamation ceremony, Mayor Lacey Beaty presented the two cast members with a handmade wooden key to the city. In exchange, the actors gifted the city a custom piece of artwork created by Pixar. In addition, Beaty moderated a Q&A between the cast and students from the local school district.[41]
Reception
Box office
As of March31,2026[update], Hoppers has grossed $142 million in the United States and Canada and $159 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $301 million.[4]
In the United States and Canada, Hoppers was released alongside The Bride!, and was projected to gross $40 million from 4,000 theaters during its opening weekend. The film was projected to reverse Pixar's low opening streak for its originals, overtaking the lukewarm openings of Elemental (2023), which became a sleeper hit, and Elio (2025), which became a box-office failure.[42][43] The film collected $13.2 million on its opening day, including $3.2 million from Thursday previews, which was seen as ahead of expectations.[44][45] The film proceeded to open to $45.3 million in the US and Canada and $42 million overseas for a worldwide total of $88 million, taking first place at the box office.[46] In doing so, Hoppers became the highest opening for an original Pixar film since Coco (2017), and the highest opening for an original animated film in the post-pandemic era.[42] The better-than-average performance was attributed through positive word-of-mouth and the film's release during a slow market for family films.[47]
In its second weekend, the film grossed $28.7 million, remaining in first and dropping 37%.[48] The film dropped another 37% during its third weekend, finishing in second behind newcomer Project Hail Mary, and added $17.8 million.[49] It eased a further 31% and added a further $12.2 million in its fourth.[50]
Critical response
Hoppers received positive reviews, with critics praising its animation, story, and humor.[2]On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 217 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."[51]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[52] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[53]
Several critics called the film a "return to form" for Pixar.[54]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."[55] Wilson Chapman of IndieWire gave it a "B+", stating that "there's not enough time to deepen the sweet friendship between Mabel and George into something as powerful as, say, Marlin and Dory in Finding Nemo (2003). Still, what we do get is pretty uniformly delightful."[56] William Bibbiani of TheWrap felt that "Hoppers isn't just James Cameron's Avatar (2009) if it had feelings, it's also James Cameron's Avatar if it was good."[57]
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