The sound you heard coming from PIXAR hometown Emeryville, CA last March was likely a collective sigh of relief. They’d just released their first original (non-franchise) hit in some time. (Since the pandemic?*) No mega-smash, but a solid stand-up double. In many ways it’s an odd film (a good thing after so much formula PIXAR), HOPPERS' story a variation on the old ‘pave paradise/put up a parking lot’ trope, with nods toward Cinderella’s time-limited transformation, as unlikeable characters & unattractive design choices seem to hint at self-criticism & acknowledged course correction. This being PIXAR, reset comes with a $150 mill price tag. (But who stuck those scary sharp teeth in a duck’s bill? Yikes!) Our nominal heroine, a self-righteous pain, is 19-yr-old squeaky-wheel Mabel, determined to save her spoiled childhood pond (and the critters who once lived there) in the face of highway development. Her antagonist a self-infatuated mayor (Jon Hamm, very good) who can’t compromise without losing face. The gimmick a science project that ‘hops’ personalities from one species to another. Mabel zapped into a beaver bod. The script, trying too hard to be fair to all sides, winds up celebrating false equivalency as if it were compromise. Not quite the same thing. But that’s politics; we’re here for art, yes? Good to see PIXAR questioning so much about itself. Even if it’s yet to find answers.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Dear PIXAR character animation team. The ‘cartooniness’ of the character animation design is worth pursuing, but this in-between stage is uncomfortable.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: They miss an opportunity when the various animals play call-and-response with their distinctive vocalizations. It plays like a song cue (‘I Bought Me A Cow’ from Aaron Copland’s Old American Songs?), but nothing comes of it. Pity.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *A sure theatrical hit lost to PIXAR when LUCA/’21 turned streamer in early pandemic days. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/07/luca-2021.html
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