Hoppers is both the next movie and the next original feature-length offering from Pixar, and a new, just-released teaser gives a first look into its wacky and wild take on the natural world. Told from the perspective of Mabel, a girl who inhabits a robotic beaver to step into the animal kingdom. Thanks to the wonders of such technology (that is, according to the trailer, nothing at all like that used in Avatar), Mabel is able to communicate with every member of the food chain.

The movie will be next up from Pixar after Elio, which ScreenRant‘s review called the studio’s “best movie in years” despite its unfortunate box office returns. Hoppers hopes for a different outcome, and director Daniel Chong has emphasized how enjoyable the movie is in a theatrical setting. That’s due not only to the exciting Hoppers cast, which features Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, and Jon Hamm, but also its colorful art style and the sort of broad, easy-to-enjoy humor that is immediately apparent in the teaser trailer.

ScreenRant interviewed Daniel Chong about his work creating, co-writing, and directing Hoppers. Chong shared his original pitch for the movie, teased some big casting announcements on the way, and explained how this movie will stand apart from other Pixar offerings as well as recent classics like The Wild Robot. Plus, the director discussed the long and winding rollercoaster that is bringing a Pixar movie from ideation to completion.

Don’t Think Of Hoppers As “Animal Avatar”

Although Daniel Chong Likes To Use It As “A Grounding Point”

The teaser trailer for Hoppers pokes fun at its most obvious comparison, with even its in-world characters remarking that their scientific advancements are similar to those in James Cameron’s Avatar. Even director Daniel Chong admitted that he “used to call it ‘Animal Avatar’, although he stressed that “we found ways to actually make it something different.” Still, he said, “it’s really fun to be able to use Avatar as a grounding point for the audience, [to] let them know that it is that, but it’s not that. It’s going to be something different.”

“I think it’s good for the teaser to actually call it out,” Chong added, “because I’m sure a lot of people were, in their minds, going ‘Come on, [you’re] making Avatar again?’ But I think the joke is that it’s nothing like that. The movie will go into different places; it becomes a bit of a spy thriller and there are a lot of Mission: Impossible things in it that we were inspired by. And,” he said, “there’s a really broad comedy aspect to it too. I think there’s going to be a lot of fun to be had.”

Hoppers Was Originally About A Very Different Animal

But Pete Doctor “Was Just Not Having It”

“When I pitched it … I did not think this was going to be the movie I was going to make,” Chong said about what would eventually become Hoppers, “It was just a thing I threw out … but Pete [Doctor] and people in leadership saw the potential of this movie, and they encouraged me to keep developing it.” That support came with a bit of a condition, though: changing the animal at the heart of the film. “I wanted to make a penguin movie,” said Chong, adding, “I really love Adélie penguins.”

Chong was tenacious, though, revealing he “kept pitching it over and over again, and [Pete] kept giving the same note.” Finally, “after the third time,” Chong agreed to change Hoppers’ central creature, eventually landing on a beaver after some revealing research.

“I was learning about when they rewilded Yellowstone [National Park],” Chong said, adding, “they put wolves back in–it was this famous story of the rewilding of wolves there–but I think a big part of [the success] was when beavers came back. When they create their ponds and dams and lodges,” Chong shared, “they kind of restore a whole ecosystem. The habitat kind of forms, and all these other animals can live there now. These animals can be these ecosystem engineers and help everyone else survive; I think that just made me go, ‘Oh man, beavers are crazy cool.’”

It doesn’t hurt, of course, that “they’re also super cute and chunky.”

How Hoppers Stands Apart From Other Animated Nature Stories

“We’re Not Afraid To Be A Little Crazy”

Even by the time it releases in March 2026, Hoppers won’t be the only movie in recent memory about a robot interacting with the natural world. When asked how Hoppers will stand apart from films like the 2024 hit The Wild Robot from a story point of view, Chong said “Part of it is our willingness to be really weird.” The director promised that one character in particular, King George (Bobby Moynihan), is “running this little ecosystem of these animals” and is “a weird guy.” “I think it gave us license to create some weird rules,” the director reflected.

Otherwise, Chong highlighted the movie’s comedy, saying “the comic tone that we wanted to set up is going to hopefully help separate it from any other movie. I think the movie is willing to be a little chaotic [and] a little unhinged, and we’re not afraid to be a little crazy. I think that’s going to be some of the fun of experiencing the movie.”

On the animation side, Chong worked closely with Pixar animators to create a look that emphasizes not just a “broad, crazy, comedy,” and “a grounded emotional journey,” but also a natural world that invites audiences into the story. That’s where, Chong said, Hoppers and something like The Wild Robot most likely are “trying to accomplish the same things,” namely “trying to control the chaos of nature a little bit.”

To find that control, Chong said the team at Pixar “created this technology we called the Paintbrush tool” that allows them to “add paintbrushes to 3D models to simplify the background.” That tool, Chong said, “creates an impressionistic feel to the scene, a little bit, in three dimensions … that was the way they were able to depict the beauty of nature, but also not make it crazy to look at.”

For those who know that The Wild Robot also has a painted look, Chong clarified the difference between the two techniques, saying “We actually modeled everything traditionally in 3D, like any Pixar movie, [and] this effect that we created goes on top of it. I have a sense that [with] The Wild Robot, [the stylization] might’ve been more built into their process.”

Much Of Hoppers’ Cast Is Still A Mystery

But Some Names Will “Blow People Away”

As of this writing, only three actors are attached to Hoppers: Jon Hamm, Piper Curda, and Bobby Moynihan. Daniel Chong didn’t want to give anything else away, but stressed that comedic chops were a major metric by which potential cast members were evaluated. “That was the measure for every actor that we hired,” he said, “because I wanted the movie to be really, really funny and have a sense of humor.”

Chong praised Hamm’s comedic abilities, saying “he is not afraid to go there to do crazy outlandish things, and we definitely make him do it.” He also praised Curda who has made Mabel “unpredictable, but also very grounded, very down to Earth, and very lovable.” Moynihan is a longtime collaborator of Chong’s, so the director relayed how happy he was to collaborate “because we didn’t have to build a relationship.”

The director did tease some exciting additions to the cast, even if he didn’t reveal names: “There is some casting in our movie, once it’s revealed, that will blow people away. We got some people that shocked me.”

Environmental Themes Were Not Censored In Hoppers, Chong Says

“The Things That I Wanted This Movie To Say … Are Still In The Movie”

The trailer for Hoppers is being released at an interesting time for Pixar. The studio’s last movie, Elio, underperformed at the box office despite many stellar reviews, and a long piece by The Hollywood Reporter featured testimony from Pixar employees who spoke of behind-the-scenes turmoil on the film, including what the publication called “erasure of queer themes.” Hoppers was even name-checked in the piece, with an unnamed Pixar artist stating that the film had to “tone down themes of environmentalism.”

When asked about pressures he faced on his film, Chong replied by saying “I did not experience having been censored or being told not to do things. If anything, I felt a lot of alignment. I think there was a lot of desire for the themes that we were saying in our movie.”

That said, and speaking only of Hoppers, Chong added that “The honest truth about the process, though, is that every movie here goes through so much iteration and changes a lot, and I can see, maybe, to some other people’s eyes within the studio, [how] they might see [that] it looks like things are being censored. But, really, [the movie is] just going through its natural course of iteration and stuff–at least for our movie.”

But the director admitted that taking any movie from start to finish at Pixar is no easy task. “We’re asked to do a lot, as directors, in terms of malleability and being open to changes,” Chong said. “You can get lost in the process very easily,” he added, “the movie will morph with or without you.”

Surviving that process takes a lot, the director said. “The best thing you can do is just keep grounding yourself every time you change it to make sure, ‘Is this still the movie I want to make? Is this still saying what I want to say?’ and ‘Do I still see myself in it?’” Chong shared. In addition, he continued, “Part of it is also having a good team around you who can support it, fight for it, and protect it.”

In Chong’s experience, he did have that kind of team around him, and the director especially praised the leadership of Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer Pete Doctor. “Pete Doctor does a great thing,” Chong relayed, “After notes sessions, or even after he gives a lot of notes, he’ll ask me, ‘Are you okay with all these changes? Is there anything here that’s bumping for you?’ … [He] has been amazing in making sure I’m still on the ride and I didn’t fall off, and I am very grateful for that.”

Hoppers Was Made To Be Enjoyed In A Theater

“That’s What I’m Most Excited About”

Daniel Chong really wants you to watch Hoppers in the movie theater. “We got to test our movie with audiences a bit for test screenings,” he said, “[and] the thing that we experienced watching our movie with an audience [is that] it’s a rollercoaster ride. People scream during the movie, they freak out, they laugh, they are shocked, they cry, and they cheer. It runs the gamut. Even in its unfinished form, we got to experience a crazy fun adventure watching it with an audience.”

“That’s what I’m most excited about,” Chong finished. “I’m excited for you to see it, and I think it’ll be a lot of fun.”