Dam It All To Hell

Pixar has always been investing in protecting the Earth, at least in its movies. A Bug's Life illuminated the role of insects in an ecosystem, Finding Nemo called attention to marine pollution and coral reefs, and WALL-E , the most radical of them all, imagined a planet destroyed by corporate greed and rapacious consumption. These films all concerned a non-human protagonist leaving home and engaging with the world, an era followed by a slew of films more concerned with the interiority of humans, such as Inside Out , Soul , and Turning Red. In this way, Hoppers , a movie about a girl who uploads her consciousness into a lifelike beaver robot to save a patch of forest, feels like a return to form.

Hoppers , like Pixar's pre-Disney films, is a delight. The beavers' world is immersive and richly realized, grounded in science but never dry. The plot zigs and zags between moments of absurdity and emotional heft to stirring effect; I cried multiple times, and not just because of the low-hanging fruit of grandma death. Despite the film's ultimate conclusions—about the rather pressing matter of what activism can and should look like, which left me bitter and jaded like the old man from Up before he gets his groove back—I had a blast. (Warning: Spoilers ahead!)

Hoppers tells the story of Mabel Tanaka, who we meet as a child as she attempts to liberate the captive turtles, guinea pigs, and birds from her elementary school. Heist foiled, Mabel visits her grandmother, who takes her to a forest glade fringing the city of Beaverton that teems with beavers and birds. Here, Mabel's grandmother teaches her that she is a part of nature, and it is her job to take care of it.