We don’t often take credit for industry-wide trends, but we’re going to when it comes to Pixar pivoting away from making moral fables with occasional humor and back to making bug-fucking-nuts Tex Avery-style animated comedies.* Sure, Hoppers will probably have some sort of grade-A treacle at the center of its chaotic chocolatey coating, but man, we’re just so excited to see these guys have some true, honest-to-god fun again. After all, it’s a movie essentially making fun of the Avatar premise, where humans have invented little robot critters that they can inhabit and talk to animals with — and it stars what might be the cutest little beaver ever put into an animated film.
What else could you expect from a movie directed by Daniel Chong, the man behind Cartoon Network’s delightful We Bare Bears? God forbid one of these things actually be funny — you have Toy Story 5 to cry over in a few months if you want that. Anyway, this new trailer that Disney dropped on Thursday is, well, delightful, and if you need a bit of a pick-me-up to get you through the week, this’ll add some sunshine.
Take a look:
Here’s a synopsis for Hoppers:
“What if you could talk to animals and understand what they’re saying? In Disney and Pixar’s all-new feature film ‘Hoppers,” scientists have discovered how to ‘hop’ human consciousness into lifelike robotic animals, allowing people to communicate with animals as animals!
The adventure introduces Mabel, an animal lover who seizes an opportunity to use the technology, uncovering mysteries within the animal world that are beyond anything she could have imagined. Directed by Daniel Chong and produced by Nicole Paradis Grindle, ‘Hoppers’ features the voices of Piper Curda (‘May December’), Bobby Moynihan (‘SNL’) and Jon Hamm (‘Mad Men,’ ‘Fargo’).”
Hoppers leaps into a theater near you on March 6.
* In case you can’t tell, we’re being facetious.