"Hoppers": The Political Children's Movie

“Every good children's movie makes you cry,” my friend Nina said in Peet's Coffee as I spilled the emotional turmoil I went through during my Hoppers experience. I had never thought of children’s films as emotionally perplexing pieces of art. Not because they can’t be, I was blinded by the stereotype of children’s films being immature. But that can’t be true as I think about laughing and sobbing through Hoppers in the Alamo Drafthouse. 

Hoppers is Pixar's newest film, and it is an incredible hit. The children’s movie has broken Pixar’s cold streak, which has lingered since 2017. The animation mogul, known for iconic film franchises such as Nemo, Monsters Inc., and Toy Story, has finally broken back into the spotlight. Hopper's, besides being a multi-hundred-million-dollar box office success, takes on very large-scale topics. Large-scale topics are typically tough enough in day-to-day adult conversation, let alone in a children’s film.

Mabel, played by Piper Curda, the protagonist in the film, takes on her local Mayor, Mayor Jerry, as he works to demolish a natural reserve to build an industrial highway. Mayor Jerry, who is voiced by Jon Hamm, is your run-of-the-mill, capitalist-centered, easily-loved politician running for re-election. The natural reserve was a space that Mabel shared with her grandmother, who passes away not long before our story begins.

In some early-life exposition, the audience gets an introduction to Mabel as she thrashes around her school and releases all of the pets in her teacher’s classrooms. When she gets scolded by her parents, we don't see their faces, suggesting that Mabel has anger management issues but isn’t finding solace in her parents. 

In a last effort, her mother drops her off at her grandmother's place. Mabel rages in and is soon feet high in a large tree. Her grandma begs her to come down as she has something to show her, and with that, the two find their way to a large rock overlooking a lake. “The Glade,” her grandmother calls it. The lake is a biome of life, behind it a forest, and everywhere around Mabel, life is buzzing. Her grandmother asks her to stop and listen. Soon enough, the anger subsides, and Mabel is calm. 

“That’s what nature does. It’s hard to be mad. When you feel like you’re part of something big.” 

Mabel soon becomes attached to the space and leans on it as she grows up and experiences emotional obstacles. When her grandmother passes, Mabel stays grounded in the space. The industrial takeover of the glade is the demolition of the Mabel’s grandmother's legacy. The politician holds the sword. 

Mabel, while only a high schooler during the time of the event, makes years' worth of emotional growth in the process of saving the glade. She realizes she’s the most emotionally present in nature, but also, she sees her grandmother reincarnated in the natural world. Mabel befriends a beaver named King George, and they embark on an adventure through the animal and human world. In the end, she finds a way to live her own life but still be close to King George through an iPad. Like every kid and their grandparent. 

Similar to Mabel, Piper Curda is a complex character who has not had a smooth path to success. She talks to Zach Sang on his podcast and describes that, per her parents’ wishes, she pursued higher education and graduated in 2019. Before making it in entertainment, Curda worked in retail at Allbirds, selling shoes during COVID, and joked about how “it was hard, but it was a process.”

Nonetheless, the process did come together as Sang describes how Curda has “been bestowed one of the greatest honors a thespian or a human could have, which is to voice a Pixar character.” Curda laughs when describing how deep lore goes. She handles intimate questions about her sexual history with grace and even describes her path to finding out that she was asexual. Curda’s openness to talk about such a stigmatized topic was heroic but also very similar to the character she plays on screen in Hoppers. She talks openly about educating young people and destigmatizing:

“Get rid of the stigma, man.” 

As a young person in the time of the climate crisis and someone who has seen the loss of grandparents, I felt seen and understood by the end of this movie. I did not feel like this at the end of Moana; the ocean didn’t separate for me as I demanded change in my life. But as a current DC resident, I saw the political turmoil in the movie as a sign. A sign that the cries of the youth and activists who have been begging for legislative change haven’t gone completely unnoticed. That the impending fear of an uninhabitable hometown or the last “White Christmas” were not individualized.

The calm political resolution between Mayor Jerry and Mabel is another modern hope that is depicted in the film. That these cries for climate awareness will be heard and all will be saved! By the end of the film, Mabel can recover the damaged biome, something many hope is still possible off screen. It’s the Liberal American dream, the modern fight against big oil, deforestation, data centers, mining, gas-powered cars, landfills, etc. This isn’t another Cinderella story; there is no glass slipper or pumpkin carriage. Yes, “hopping” isn’t realistic, but the plot of Hoppers is real. In the face of adversity and loss, there are few options and little is guaranteed. But this film reminds us that the main cycles of life will always continue:

Life, Love, Loss, and Rebirth.