A 19-year-old animal lover uses technology that places her consciousness into a robotic beaver to uncover mysteries within the animal world beyond her imagination.
Chuck says:
In addition to being manic, overlong and much too loud, Justin Chong’s “Hoppers” contains the kind of confused message only a human could justify. While in the end, it espouses a pro-environmentalist message, the narrative avenue the director and co-writer Jesse Andrews use to get there is confused and contradictory. Of course, it’s muddled theme will fly over the heads of young viewers who’ll be engaged by the antics of its animal menagerie on display. As for adults, they may not wish to sort through it all after being assailed by a series of seizure-inducing action sequences that, rather than entertain, bludgeon the viewer.
Mabel (voice by Piper Curda) is the kind of activist you wish would just shut up already. Introduced to the calming, sacred qualities of nature at an early age, the 19-year-old is hopping mad. Seems the mayor of Beaverton, Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm) is intent on building a freeway through a glade that’s precious to her. Seems the area has been abandoned by animals, so the politician has no reason not to develop it. However, Mabel’s college professor, Dr. Sam (Kathy Najimy) points out that if beavers were reintroduced to the glade, they’d build a dam, leading to wildlife repopulation that would stop the mayor in his tracks.
Rather than simply trap a beaver and dump him in the glade’s lake, Mabel has another plan. She commandeers Dr. Sam’s radical invention, that of a robot beaver designed to temporarily house a human being’s consciousness. A bit of technological hocus pocus occurs and Mabel finds herself in the robot beaver, going out into the wilds to convince an actual version of the animal to relocate in the targeted locale.
While I wouldn’t call the premise inspired, it manages to get the job done where getting the animals’ point of view is concerened. Mabel is surprised by what she finds when see meets King George (Bobby Moynihan), a portly beaver who rules over the mammals in the forest. He drives home the lesson that nature is a delicate system that cannot be tampered with and that while aspects of it may be unpleasant (Read: The Food Chain!), they are necessary to maintain a healthy, ecological balance.
All well and good, but he goes the extra mile to point out that the ecosystem includes humans and that, “We’re all in this together.” I’d have no problem with this message if we were still muddling along without modern technology, hunting for our food and living off the land. But to legitimize efforts to rend the environment for convenience’s sake- the freeway will cut commuter travel time by seven minutes! – then this argument doesn’t fly. Things become so twisted that the animals tear down a dam of their own making to save Beaverton from a runaway wildfire.
Not to put too fine a point on this and it’s likely silly to do so, but I don’t think animals would be working hand in hand with us as we take away their habitat and force them to live in a smaller area. Such a place is the Super Lodge, which sounds an awful lot like an old-school reservation of Native Americans. All the displaced animals have taken up residence there and live in a rather shaky détente.
The movie is most effective when Mabel is expressing her frustration in not being able to effectively exact change. Her lament that “Everything is broken! I can’t make a difference!” will likely hit home with older viewers, the character giving voice to feelings that become more valid with each passing day. Unfortunately, this lament is brief, Chong devoting far too much time on kinetic chases, of which there are three, that needlessly prolong the misery and add nothing to the story, sequences of this nature having regrettably become a part of the modern animation landscape.
While “Hoppers” ultimately proclaims we need to be more aware of the environmental consequences of our actions, it’s a hollow message. Delivered with a lack of sincerity, I wouldn’t be surprised if the film was ultimately endorsed by real estate developers across the country. Had Chong wanted to deliver a valuable message, it should have been that adults sometimes don’t mean what they say, but I guess that’s not necessary. They find out soon enough.
2 Stars
