Release date - March 6, Cert - U,

Run-time - 1 hour 44 minutes,

Director - Dominic Chong

NINETEEN-year-old Mabel (Piper Curda) wants to protect a glade from highway construction, leading a group of beavers to rebel and creating greater tensions between humans and animals.

It hasn't been that long since the likes of Soul and Turning Red, or even Inside Out 2, but when a studio as notable as Pixar has just one stumble (I wasn't a fan of Elio's overstretched busyness) it can sometimes feel a while since a film of theirs hit - especially after many went direct to streaming during the pandemic and others since have been franchise titles. Hoppers feels like the studio simply having fun with an idea, and making a rather entertaining film whilst doing so.

There's a sparky rebelliousness to 19-year-old protagonist Mabel (Piper Curda). Intent of protecting the peaceful glade she spent much of her childhood observing with her grandmother (Karen Huie) she frequently argues with city mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) about an imminent highway construction there. The glade has been a place of peace for Mabel since a young age - we see her in an opening scene finding calm there after angrily failing to free the class pets in her backpack.

She's an energetic character, even more so when her consciousness is placed into a robot beaver courtesy of her university professor (Kathy Najimy). Very quickly she's leading an animal revolution alongside beaver King George (Bobby Moynihan) to retake the glade and stop construction. However, when a council of animal leaders become involved (including a role for Meryl Streep) tensions are quickly grown between humans and animals, with the lives of the former put at risk.

There's plenty of fun to be had as this develops - including a very silly moment involving a shark. Humour such as this helps see the film through as it starts to feel as if its trying to find its way towards an ending rather than having a known route to one. It means that things feel about 10 minutes too long, with some ideas dealt with separately in a step-by-step manner rather than together.

But, there's still a number of chuckles along the way, helping see things through amongst the brief emotional beats surrounding Mabel's relationship with her late-grandmother - definite peaceful highlights, alongside the aforementioned, tonally different, shark. Much of the humour comes from the well-placed supporting characters and the ways they play into the narrative a step above plain comic relief.

With these characters, and the workings of the world and technology at hand, you can feel the creatives having fun. The film may not quite match the rebellious nature of the likably propulsive lead character but it certainly matches her energy when first entering the animal world. Hoppers may not be Pixar at their strongest, but it's a piece of entertaining animation that they still manage to do rather well.

Four stars