The movie begins several years ago, when Mabel was a young child in grade school. She smuggles different class pets in her backpack and walks down the hallway with them—only to get caught.

As a way to hopefully change her behavior, Mabel’s mom drops her off at her grandma’s. Her grandmother has a pond in her backyard. She helps Mabel connect with that as part of nature as well as the wildlife nearby.

Over the years, Mabel continues to visit her grandma… until her grandmother meets her demise. Shortly after, Mabel begins her sophomore year of college.

After her grandmother died, her property became unclaimed. Construction workers are now looking to build a highway there as requested by the mayor.

However, Mabel is against it. She even tries to convince them to stop. But she loses.

Later she starts a petition to save the pond instead of replacing it with a highway. Sadly, no one signs it.

One night, while by the pond, Mabel builds a fake dam, puts out food, and plays music, hoping it will lure a beaver. But she has no luck… until much later.

A beaver finally comes—except that it gets captured. Mabel follows the truck with the beaver. It goes to a special lab on the university campus.

Professor Sam and her assistant are working on this new technology they call “hopping.” It transfers the human’s mind into a fake animal. That way, they can study real wildlife without scaring them away.

Mabel makes it into the lab and decides to save that pond by “turning” into a beaver. So, she puts on the helmet, and her consciousness is transferred to the fake beaver.

As she escapes from the lab, a bird takes her, considering her his food. Mabel ends up in the wilderness and can understand the other animals.

However, she is unfamiliar with pond rules. This prompts all the creatures to go to their king, which is a friendly beaver called George. Mabel is introduced to him, and they form a friendly bond with each other.

Shortly after, though, the animals discover that there are fake trees with speakers. They were made by the mayor to get the creatures away.

After heading to the old pond, Mabel and George get to know each other. George even asks Mabel to be his assistant. But she refuses without revealing that she’s actually a human.

At some point, stakes related to the construction get so high that the animal council is summoned. It consists of not only George, who is the monarch of the mammals, but also the rulers of the fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects.

During the meeting, Mabel reveals that the mayor, whom she refers to as Jerry, wants to build a highway over the old pond and destroy animals’ habits. The other creatures view him as a threat and want to squish him.

Mabel even kills the bug queen by accident. So, she and George flee.

George ends up in an aggressive river, and Mabel saves him. Even though he’s disappointed in her, he still wants to protect her.

Sometime later, Mabel and her animal friends get into Mayor Jerry’s car and use his phone’s text-to-speech feature to communicate with him. They get him to drive—only for the birds to bring out a great white shark. This leads to chaos.

Not only that, but Mabel is also caught by Professor Sam. But she gives her a special earpiece to get Mayor Jerry to understand her.

However, once they’re back at the lab, and Mabel has returned to her human body, something terrible is about to happen…

Like many Disney Pixar films, this one kept my interest all the way through. This is because of the fast pacing, humor, and strong premise.

It also taught a crucial moral in protecting the environment. I think that is essential for everyone to do.

The concept was very creative and well-thought out—the idea of transferring a human mind into a fake animal to study wildlife. In addition, I appreciated the idea of using an earpiece to understand a human in a fake animal’s body.

Mabel was likable, flawed, and determined to achieve her goal. I particularly loved her friendship with George.

The pond rules were also interesting, such as when an animal needs to eat, they eat. They also focused on the importance of teamwork with the phrase, “We’re all in this together.”

All the characters were well-developed. I was also surprised that Mayor Jerry turned out to be good and didn’t become mad with power.

Lots of twists and turns occur in this film. See it to find out what they are.

Despite the strengths, though, I will admit that there was a minor flaw. That is how some scenes lagged a bit.

Otherwise, I enjoyed Hoppers. It was a fun and entertaining watch that people of all ages can like.

I give this film 4.5 out of 5 stars.