“Hoppers” is the second film in a row from Pixar that caters more to adults than children. Last year’s “Elio” had a plot that most kids wouldn’t give a damn about, and the environmental message in this film will probably go over the heads of anyone under 7. At least “Hoppers” has a bunch of cute animals to keep the little ones riveted, even if the creatures are hatching a righteous plan to destroy all humans.
I liked “Elio” with some reservations. I did not like “Hoppers,” because its plot seams are prominently displayed as they unravel, and because its selfish protagonist is beyond obnoxious. The latter complaint shouldn’t surprise me; this film is written by Jesse Andrews, the same screenwriter who gave us the egregious “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” back in 2015. In addition to being rife with racial stereotypes, that film also gave us a selfish, obnoxious protagonist.
As evidenced by the upcoming “Toy Story 5” (for Pete’s sake, leave Woody and Buzz alone, people!), Pixar is running out of ideas. The main plot device in “Hoppers,” and much of its nature-based message, are lifted directly from “Avatar.” It’s so blatant that university professor and scientist Dr. Sam (Kathy Najimy) screams “it’s NOT like Avatar!” when her student, Mabel (Piper Curda), points out the similarities in the plot.
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This movie also rips off “Men in Black” in ways that would constitute a spoiler if I told you. All I’ll say is that Dave Franco is no Vincent D’Onofrio, and a certain element of this subplot gets a nice, morbid callback in the mid-credits sequence.
But I digress. Mabel is an animal lover and nature preservationist whose one goal in life is to stop evil Mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm) from building a highway that will destroy a crucial area of land that means a lot to her. The road will save commuters 3 minutes of time, hardly a good reason to displace the animals who’ll be affected. But the townspeople are all for it. They love Mayor Jerry and he’s cruising to an easy reelection.
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We learn just how important animals, and that specific patch of land, are to Mabel in the opening scenes. “Hoppers” flashes back to her time in grammar school, when she attempts to free all the animals in the classrooms. Mabel stuffs guinea pigs in the same bag as snakes (has she ever seen a National Geographic special?) and makes a beeline for the exit. When a teacher tries to stop her, she bites his hand so hard that we see it bandaged up.
This isn’t the first time Mabel has been in trouble and lashed out. But she finds a calming influence in her Grandma Tanaka (Karen Huie), who takes her to that aforementioned patch of land and tells her to listen to nature as a means of finding peace and tranquillity. This happy place becomes associated with Grandma after she passes away, giving Mabel a motive for wanting to preserve it.
Unfortunately, Mabel is the worst kind of activist, the single-minded kind that bulldozes everything and bogarts everyone to score points no one cares about but her. She’s irritating even after she’s been turned into a cute little robot beaver courtesy of Dr. Sam’s newest technology. One of the animals refers to her as “the shrill, unlikable beaver.”
To better understand animals, Dr. Sam and her colleagues, Conner (Sam Richardson) and Nisha (Aparna Nancherla), create a way to inject their consciousness into robot animals, sending them off into the wild to communicate with other animals. The humans accomplish this by putting on giant helmets and taking control of the robots. Yes, it is JUST like “Avatar,” Dr. Sam!
Of course, Mabel commandeers the beaver robot without learning how it works, because she discovers that the presence of one beaver on land will prevent, by law, the area from being destroyed by construction. Apparently, beavers create an ecosystem of other animals, building dams while listening to needle drops of Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend.”
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In her new guise, Mabel violates animal law, leading her newfound real beaver friend King George (Bobby Moynihan) to bring her before the court of animal rulers. One of those rulers, the Insect Queen, is played by Meryl Streep in a cameo role. Her son, the soon-to-be-Insect King (Dave Franco), becomes as big a nemesis to Mabel as Mayor Jerry is. And that’s before the animals hatch a plan to kill the Mayor (and most of humankind).
I’m down for the mass destruction of my species on film, so I found this section quite intriguing. But when you see the repercussions, you may ask yourself if Mabel caused more damage than she would have if she’d just listened to someone else for three seconds.
As with all Pixar movies, the voice talent is first rate. Moynihan brings a sweet vulnerability to King George, and Najimy has the comic frustration she’s best known for down pat. Hamm is delightfully, um, hammy as the Mayor who grows a conscience. And La Streep’s presence is memorable enough for you to believe her subjects would kill in her honor.
Visually, “Hoppers” is a step down from what we expect from Pixar. Unlike its best movies, there really isn’t anything to set this film apart from any other animation company’s work.
There was a lot of laughter at my screening, which means that your enjoyment of “Hoppers” is probably contingent on whether you find it funny. Unfortunately, I didn’t laugh very much, and the story didn’t work as well as the movies that inspired it.
★★½
HOPPERS
Directed by Daniel Chong. Written by Jesse Andrews. Starring Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Kathy Najimy, Meryl Streep, Dave Franco, Sam Richardson, Aparna Nancherla. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, suburbs. 105 minutes. PG (it gets pretty intense toward the end)
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Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.