Hollywood First Look chatted with the pond crew up at Pixar for their new hilarious animated film, Hoppers.
Featured in this interview :
- Daniel Chong
- Nicole Grindle
- Margaret Spencer
- John Cody Kim
- Anna Scott
- Bryn Imagire
- Beth Albright
- Dr. Emily Fairfax
- Edward Chen
- Wesley Fuh
Only in theaters March 6, tickets on sale now!
We journeyed to Pixar Animation Studio’s campus in Emeryville, California to take a deep dive into everything that goes into making an animated film of this scale.
From the story, to the characters, backgrounds, and literal reflections in the water – so much care and thought goes into every component.
Fun fact: Coulda been Penguins!
We found out that the original pitch involved penguin characters, and director Daniel Chong shared that the original concept began in the Arctic and was a global in scope revenge thriller. Chong was quickly talked down from the concept for a variety of reasons. Number one being – we’ve seen animated penguin protagonists on screen plenty of times. However ultimately story drives everything that Pixar does and the story for the penguin caper was a bit too all over the place.
“Actually, the interesting story about that was, yeah, we originally had it as a globetrotting movie. ‘Cause, you know, we looked at, like, Mission: Impossible and spy thrillers like that, so. And I remember we were very lucky during the pandemic, we got to work with Damon Lindelof from Lost.
And he did a session with me just hanging out, and I pitched him through the movie. And that was the one thing that he was very adamant about. It’s like, “The movie’s too big. Just make it a local area that, you know, the movie’s based on.” He was right ’cause it really simplified, made the movie more manageable to write.”
Thankfully the story eventually found its footing, nestled in the form of a different creature: the beaver.
Bring in the experts
While the studio might know exactly what they’re doing when it comes to filmmaking, one thing they did seek outside help on was beaver behavior. That’s where Dr. Emily Fairfax, Ph.D dove in to help out. Dr. Fairfax walked us through the incredible impact beavers have as a keystone species. Also some nigh unbelievable beaver history – at one point in the 1940s the Idaho Department of Fish and Game actually parachuted beavers in boxes into Northwestern Idaho to help reinvigorate the wetlands there.
Yes – this is a very real thing that happened – and yes – there is footage of it online.
More about Hoppers
In Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers,” animal lover Mabel (voice of Piper Curda) seizes an opportunity to use a new technology to ‘hop’ her consciousness into a life-like robotic beaver and communicate directly with animals. As she uncovers mysteries in the animal world beyond anything she could have imagined, Mabel befriends charismatic beaver King George (voice of Bobby Moynihan) and must rally the entire animal kingdom to face a major, imminent human-threat: smooth-talking local mayor Jerry Generazzo (voice of Jon Hamm). The all-star voice ensemble also features Meryl Streep, Dave Franco and Kathy Najimy. “Hoppers” is directed by Daniel Chong (“We Bare Bears”) and produced by Nicole Paradis Grindle (“Incredibles 2”), with an original score by Mark Mothersbaugh.
