Hoppers Trailer Proves There’s Hope for Pixar After Elio’s Box Office Flop

by

Instead of beavers taking on the role of Avatar, it’s Pixar who is introducing a new story. On Wednesday, the studio known for Toy Story and Inside Out 2 unveiled the first trailer for their upcoming original project, Hoppers, following the underperformance of Elio at the box office with $118 million in global ticket sales this summer. Set to hit theaters on March 6, 2026, Hoppers poses an intriguing question: What if you could communicate with animals and decipher their words?

In “Hoppers”, researchers have found a method to transfer human consciousness into lifelike robotic creatures that resemble animals, enabling individuals to converse with animals in their own language. Human character Mabel (Piper Curda), expressing her confusion in the trailer, asks, “So you’ve created a fake animal that tricks other animals into thinking it’s one of them? This is like Avatar!

The story presents Mabel, a passionate animal enthusiast, who leaps – or hops – to explore a groundbreaking technology enabling her to converse with animals. This technology unveils secrets in the animal kingdom that surpass anything she ever imagined. Hoppers, meanwhile, showcases the voices of Jon Hamm (from Transformers: Dark of the Moon) and Bobby Moynihan (from Monsters University)).

In a statement, Daniel Chong, the newcomer director at Pixar, expressed that the central question of our film is: ‘Imagine if we could converse with animals?’. In this movie, our protagonist Mabel experiences life as an animal herself, resulting in strange and frequently amusing situations. The adventures of Mabel disguised among animals promise a thrilling, roller-coaster ride through the film, complete with the emotional depth characteristic of Pixar productions. I’m excited for audiences to enjoy it at the cinema; I can hardly wait!

The animated film “Hoppers,” produced by Nicole Paradis Grindle, who has worked on movies like “Toy Story 3” and “Incredibles 2,” is set to be the first release in Pixar’s upcoming lineup. This collection also includes sequels such as “Toy Story 5” (June 2026), an unspecified “Incredibles 3,” “Coco 2” (2029), and the original film by Enrico Casarosa titled “Gatto” (June 2027), which was previously seen in “Luca”).

Following a financial setback at Pixar, as mentioned in a May 2024 interview with Bloomberg, President Jim Morris proposed a shift in strategy – blending sequels and spin-offs with fresh ideas. This change was triggered by the pandemic-impacted movies like Soul, Luca, and Turning Red, which were released directly on Disney+ from 2020 to 2022 without traditional theater screenings. However, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer, Pete Docter, has emphasized that the company remains dedicated to creating original stories.

In his conversation with EW, Docter expressed that perhaps the notion of providing more familiar content while stepping back from personal aspects might have been slightly misunderstood. While there’s some truth to this, he explained that they aim to identify shared beliefs and experiences that are universal. To illustrate, he mentioned his childhood belief that toys could come to life and monsters lived in closets. Essentially, they seek out big, common ideas that resonate with people, making them think, ‘This idea is original, but it’s also something I pondered myself.’ In essence, they are creating a sequel by tapping into shared experiences.

Each creation needs to be distinct due to their limited quantity, and we aim for them to resonate with a broad audience,” said Docter, who initially worked on the scripts for ‘Toy Story’ (1995) and ‘Toy Story 2’ (1999), later moving on to write and direct movies like ‘Monsters, Inc.’ (2001), ‘Up’ (2009), and ‘Inside Out’ (2015).

The film titled “Elio,” featuring Yonas Kibreab as an enthusiastic space aficionado who is mistaken for Earth’s leader by a galactic agency, earned $20.8 million domestically in June. This was the poorest opening for a Pixar movie released only in theaters, surpassing the debut of 2023’s “Elemental” ($29.6 million) and 2022’s “Lightyear” ($50.5 million), which ultimately grossed $218.8 million and $484 million respectively at the global box office.

Hoppers is only in theaters March 6, 2026.

Read More

2025-07-16 20:14