It is that time of the year when Disney remembers its animation roots and gives us some kind of cute, cartoon movie.  I try not to pay attention to such things, though it is difficult given my other role as one half of the dynamic duo known as Oh Man Disney.  I am the Catholic half, anyway, and you can check us out on YouTube and TikTok.  Actually, mentioning those two platforms is not a terrible way of segueing into a discussion of Hoppers, the Mouse’s latest creation.  It is a production for the digital world, and it is self-aware of the cultural background from whence it springs.  Frankly, it pains me a little to be able to notice the references to its cinematic cousins, and I blame it on the fast-paced social media environment we all inhabit that has saturated our content with Easter eggs and little substance.  I am not being fair.  The film does have some good moments in it, and I am here to discuss them with you.

The person I am going to start my discussion of Hoppers with is our main character, Mabel Tanaka (voiced by Lila Liu).  She is in elementary school, and already her affinity for animals has her trying to save all the pet creatures in every classroom in the building.  She almost succeeds, too, but being caught not only lands her in the principal’s office, but has her exasperated mother taking her to her grandmother’s (voiced by Karen Huie) house in order to settle down.  It is Grandma Tanaka that shows little Mabel the wonders of being still and quiet in nature, a great lesson for Faith, but such ideas are far from the proceedings.  The lesson, though, sticks with Mabel, and we next meet her when she is a nineteen-year-old college student (Piper Curda) in her home town, the aptly named Beaverton.  Grandma’s lessons have turned Mabel into a militant crusader for the environment, and the main sticking point at the moment is Mayor Jerry Generazzo’s (voiced by Jon Hamm) signature project of building a beltway around the city.  Specifically, it is going to destroy the glade in which Grandma Tanaka taught Mabel to appreciate nature.  While she is unable to prevent the blowing up of the beaver dam that made the pond, she is given forty-eight hours to come up with enough ballot signatures to put a halt on construction.  This is an abject failure as nobody wants to listen to her strident pleas, but there is another hope.  One of the stated reasons the mayor feels emboldened to bulldoze the glade is because of the lack of animals.  After getting some hasty, and only partially heard, advice from her science professor, Dr. Samantha “Sam” Fairfax (Kathy Najimy), Mabel tries to lure a beaver into the partially dried body of water.  She is about to give up when she notices one of these industrious rodents glance at the pile of food and sticks she leaves out before carrying on with its wanderings.  Curious, she follows the creature, which leads her back to a laboratory in the basement of the college.  She is even more surprised when she discovers that it is Dr. Fairfax who had been apparently controlling the animal.  Dr. Fairfax and her colleagues have come up with a way of injecting their minds into robotic versions of animals, and controlling their movements sort of telepathically.  Even the film knows how much this sounds like Avatar.  Mabel sees this as an opportunity to convince a beaver to move into the glade, though Dr. Fairfax and the others try to stop her.  They fail, and soon Mabel is gallivanting through the forest in search of a furry ally.  Eventually, her wanderings bring her to King George (Bobby Moynihan), the ruler of the area’s mammals.  The affable King George is wanting to help Mabel, but he claims that no animals will go to the glade because of a strange noise that keeps them away.  Upon approaching the dried-up pond, she hears nothing but the others are in agony.  Soon, discovers a fake tree with speakers in it that project a sound that has been repelling the local fauna and thus giving Jerry what he needs to proceed with habitat destruction.  Enraged, Mabel takes down the fake tree by herself and things begin to return to normal.  However, that night Jerry’s forces return and destroy all the work done by the critters.  Using the trust she has built with King George, she convinces him to call to order the Animal Council.  Mabel expects them to band together and overcome the construction site.  Instead, led by the Insect Queen (voiced by Meryl Streep), they decide they are going to squish Jerry.  Things are spiraling out of control for Mabel, and her calls for restraint go ignored.  What is worse, she accidentally kills the Insect Queen.  Her death means her bratty offspring, Titus (voiced by James Franco), and he is even more gung-ho about attacking the humans.  Thus, with some assistance from King George, who loves everyone, Mable must protect her sworn enemy in Jerry.  What devolves into a car chase scene ends with Dr. Fairfax finally locating Mabel and untethering her from the robot.  Unfortunately, the Council captures them all and brings them back to the laboratory.  There, Titus has Dr. Fairfax build for the new insect king an automaton version of Jerry into which the bug can insert its mind.  The goal is to not just squish the mayor, but all the towns folks.  During this sequence, it is revealed just how much Mabel has betrayed King George, but, bless him, he is willing to forgive when she realizes how selfish she has been.  Though they are successful in preventing Titus’ planned genocide, a forest fire breaks out that threaten Beaverton.  This time, it is the animals to the rescue, who destroy King George’s dam in order to save Beaverton.  With these actions, Jerry and Mabel gain a new appreciation of each other and the environment.  The film closes with Mabel, just graduated from college, going back to the glade to spend some time with King George.

There is something to notice about Hoppers that is evident when looking closely at this final scene between King George and Mabel.  Whenever Mabel is in human form, the animals have all black eyes that do not betray an intellect.  However, when Mabel is “hopping,” as the process of transporting one’s consciousness into a robot is called, the animals have human-like eyes.  It is a subtle feature, but one that works for Mabel when she is in control of the beaver.  In other words, humans see, and arguably more importantly hear, her like any other dam building mammal.  What is happening here is part and parcel of the usual Disney way of anthropomorphizing furry creatures.  As a Catholic, I am typically against such things.  I have no wish to see such creatures treated in barbaric ways, but nor do I think it is right to imbue them with human traits.  This is one of the many reasons I do not enjoy most Disney productions.  I am also in line with Church teaching on the matter.  Though the Catholicism seeks to treat all living beings, including animals, with kindness and a measure of dignity, and does not abide by raising them to the level of a human being.  At the same time, some of this is turned on its head by humans actually becoming animals, or robotic versions thereof.  I also do not wish to necessarily impugn the film based on this one issue because there are some genuinely good aspects to it.  I bring this all up in order to explain why this is not my kind of movie.

Still, there are other aspects of Hoppers that made it more my kind of movie.  For example, I chuckled a bit when Mabel is referred to as a St. Joan of Arc-like figure.  Of course, because this is Hollywood, they left off the “St.” bit, but the others words were definitely used.  More broadly, I appreciated the sense of inclusion fostered throughout the proceedings.  The Church provides that for us who are a part of the Faith, but these are ideas that are so important in this day and age.  King George puts it best when he refers to everywhere as one “big place.”  Because we all inhabit it, no matter who we are, we should treat one another with love and respect.  That is a Christ-like sentiment, and one needed right now.  All the same, my favorite moment comes early when Grandma Tanaka is talking to the younger Mabel.  The main phrase to come out of their discussion was “be still.”  When I hear these words, this Catholic’s mind immediately goes to Psalm 46:11, “Be still and know that I am God!”  Again, the movie is not referencing religion, but the effect of Grandma Tanaka’s advice and Scripture is the same.  Everything else but God is a distraction.  Even me writing this review, or you reading it, can be said to be taking us away from worshipping God.  This is not something God wants out of a desire to force us to do something, or that He needs us.  He prompts us because He desires you, and me, to worship Him.  As Mabel experiencing, when we let those distractions get to us, we lose sight of the beauty all around us, of His beauty and presence.  Being still draws our attention back to what is important, and that is the best lesson of all from the film.

Though I used the words “best” and “this film” in talking about Hoppers, that should not be taken as a recommendation.  As I walked out of the theater with my girlfriend, I cataloged for her the number of disasters triggered by Mabel.  They are intended as fun, but it is not my brand of fun, so I pass on this one.