Perhaps Pixar has another chance to prove itself with an original movie, before it’s fully relegated to sequels for the rest of time. Next year’s Hoppers has just released its first trailer, and it shows what looks like a delightful talk-to-the-animals movie. But will it be enough to rescue the studio after Elio’s box office bombing?
I hope so! And from this first lighthearted teaser trailer (although, given this plays out like a regular trailer, I don’t think the word “teaser” has any meaning left at all), it sure looks like it deserves success. Pixar certainly thrives when it comes to meatier discourse, exploring complex emotions and relationships, but it’s hard to argue against the studio aiming for a more broad comedy.
The premise—a group of scientists create a device that allows a human mind to inhabit a mechanical animal so as to blend in and learn about their culture—is so blatantly lifted from Avatar that the opening of the teaser just flat-out acknowledges it. However, subject Mabel Tanaka gets into the body of a beaver and then refuses to leave, in order to help the local creatures battle an evil construction company set to destroy the local habitat.
The two-minute trailer shows lots of fun observation humor about animal life, based on Mabel’s sudden ability to understand what the other creatures are saying. It’s the sort of goofball territory I feel Pixar hasn’t reveled in since the days of A Bug’s Life, and I’m very happy to see it happening. However, I’m also pretty aware that this is perhaps considered Dreamworks’ territory—the rival animation house dominates the field with its Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda franchises, and even the brief life of Over the Hedge. It’ll be interesting to see how that works out.
Hoppers isn’t quite Pixars last chance—Enrico Casarosa’s (Luca) next animated feature Gatto is due for early summer 2027, featuring a black cat called Nero who befriends a Venetian graffiti artist while attempting to escape from the feline mob. That’s quite the pitch. Luca, sent straight to Disney+ during the pandemic, became a sleeper hit with a massive fanbase, so if Disney can figure out how to market Gatto to that audience—i.e. market it as if it were a sequel—it could fly.
Otherwise, it is just sequels. Pixar’s upcoming roster for the next few years includes Toy Story 5, Incredibles 3, and Coco 2, with Inside Out 3 all but inevitable. But the reality is, their top-grossing movies all have at least a “2” in the title, with no original property ever hitting the all-important $1bn box office. However, the wise person might want to point out you cannot ever have any of those billion dollar sequels if you don’t have the first movie first! Hopefully someone at Disney can recognize this—even if Hoppers isn’t the all-consuming megahit they way, Hoppers 2 very well could be.
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