At least as of this review, I’ve seen every single Pixar film, which is an achievement in and of itself. Seeing the complete works of any studio is impressive, even if it’s “just” an animation studio like Pixar. And I don’t think anyone is making the argument that Hoppers belongs at the very top of Pixar’s catalog. I also hope nobody is making the argument that it belongs at the very bottom. Realistically, it’s somewhere in the middle, probably almost smack dab in the center.

Pixar has struggled in recent years to create the kind of transcendent works that defined the John Lasseter era. Those films remain iconic to this day: Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles, Cars, and Up, which became Pixar’s first Best Picture nominee, though not its last. At this point, however, you start to wonder if it might be their last, because Pixar doesn’t seem capable of consistently finding the same creative spark that once made the studio untouchable.

I do appreciate that Hoppers arrived just in time for Pride Month, because I always hear about “hoppers” within the gay community. Or maybe that’s something else. If you get the joke, you get the joke. If you don’t, you don’t.

The actual movie is surprisingly similar to Avatar. Our protagonist, Mabel, wants to save a local biome that has a personal connection to her family. Unfortunately, the area is about to be developed by the town’s mayor, voiced by Jon Hamm, in the appropriately named town of Beaverton. To stop the project, Mabel uses technology that allows her consciousness to inhabit the body of a robotic animal and sets out to convince the king of the mammals, a beaver voiced by Bobby Moynihan, to return his community to the area they abandoned. If the animals are living there, development can’t proceed, and the habitat can be preserved.

Naturally, things do not go according to plan. The film has some genuinely funny ideas, and the Avatar-style technology ends up being used in some bizarre and entertaining ways. Dave Franco has a particularly hilarious role that I won’t spoil because it’s one of the movie’s biggest highlights. If your kids are in their all life is precious phase, be aware that Hoppers quite hilariously celebrates the Circle of Life ideology. When you gotta eat, eat!

What surprised me most is that Hoppers doesn’t really have a villain until it decides it needs one. For much of its running time, the conflict is more of an “eye to eye” situation, as Disney once sang about in A Goofy Movie. It’s fundamentally about people who need to understand one another and find common ground. Jon Hamm’s character isn’t irredeemable. The question is whether the path the film takes to redeem him is enough to make the audience invested in him. It’s a tough sell, and an element of the film that I’m not entirely sure stuck the landing.

For me, Hoppers falls into what I would call Pixar’s second tier. It’s one of the better Pixar films, but not one of the best. Below my favorite Pixar movies is a category occupied by films like Hoppers, Elio, and Elemental. These are movies I enjoyed and would absolutely recommend, but they don’t create the same emotional connection I have with Pixar’s greatest achievements.

Truthfully, since John Lasseter left, the only non-sequel Pixar film that has truly resonated with me has been Luca. Soul deserves an honorable mention, but I don’t really count Inside Out 2 or Incredibles 2 in this discussion because those are continuations of concepts that originated during Lasseter’s tenure.

So Hoppers ends up in an interesting position. It’s better than some of Pixar’s recent output, but not as good as most of what made the studio legendary. I’m not sure that’s where Pixar wants to be, but I’ve certainly seen them release far more mediocre films over the past decade. The fact that Hoppers rises above that level is worth acknowledging.

At the same time, it’s hard not to compare the current Pixar to the studio that once operated under Lasseter’s philosophy. Despite his personal faults, he was fiercely protective of originality. The best example is probably Newt, Pixar’s canceled project that was shelved after Fox Animation released Rio. Even though I would argue Rio was the weaker film, the similarities were close enough that Lasseter chose to kill a project that was already in production rather than risk accusations of imitation. Supposedly some of Newt’s ideas eventually found their way into Inside Out, but I still would have preferred to see Newt completed rather than watch Rio and its sequel.

That commitment to originality helped create the films that defined Pixar’s golden age. Today, Pixar feels a bit like Disney did after Walt Disney’s death. There was a long period where the studio struggled to rediscover its identity before eventually finding a creative renaissance with films like The Little Mermaid. Pixar seems to be going through a similar process now, trying to climb out of its own creative wilderness and rediscover what made it special in the first place.

Hoppers is a promising sign. It features memorable vocal performances, some clever ideas, and an environmental message that never becomes overly preachy. Unfortunately, it still falls short of the incredibly high standard Pixar established for itself years ago.

Kids will enjoy it. Families will have a good time with it. There’s even a song during the end credits, though I doubt it’s going to factor into any Original Song conversations this awards season. More importantly, the audio description track from Deluxe is straight fire. There’s a lot going on here, and the film is very expressive, and the film catches and matches the moods. There’s the whole sequence when Mabel first arrives among the other creatures that shapes this big, bright, beautiful world at the pond, and the description really found as much as it could.

Hoppers may not be the Pixar classic that reminds everyone why the studio once ruled animation, but it is a solid, enjoyable step in the right direction. Right now, that may be enough.

Fresh: 8.1/10