Disney Reducing Environmentalism Message In Pixar’s “Hoppers”
Earlier this summer, at the D23: Ultimate Fan Event, Pixar revealed a brand new film called “Hoppers.” The film introduces Mabel, an animal lover who seizes an opportunity to use new technology to ‘hop’ her consciousness into a life-like robotic beaver.
The upcoming film has been directed by Daniel Chong and produced by Nicole Paradis Grindle, “Hoppers” features the voices of Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan and Jon Hamm.
While we don’t know too much more about “Hoppers” yet, some information has been revealed by THR as part of an investigation into changes in Pixar, as the studio has shifted its focus on creating content with less messaging and trying to appeal to a larger audience as possible.
According to a former Pixar artist, the team behind “Hoppers” have been forced to downplay its planned message of environmentalism.
“Unfortunately, when you have your whole film based around the importance of environmentalism, you can’t really walk back on that. That team struggled a lot to figure out, ‘What do we even do with this note?’”
Covering the impacts of environmentalism is nothing new for Disney or animation, as we’ve seen many films such as “Wall-E”, “Ferngully” and “Avatar” deal with the topic. Most recently, “Strange Worlds” also had a strong environmental message, but the film was a huge box office flop that has resulted in many projects at Disney refocusing on trying to reduce its messaging and putting the story first.
Earlier this year, Bob Iger even said publically that Disney is going to be pulling back on messaging within its films and shows:
“The bottom line is that infusing messaging as sort of a number one priority in our films and TV shows is not what we’re up to. They need to be entertaining, and where the Disney company can have a positive impact on the world, whether it’s, you know, fostering acceptance and understanding of people of all different types, great.”
With “Hoppers” still having a couple of years of development before it hits cinemas, they’ve still got plenty of time to rework the story and animation to try to get that balance right between having a positive message and also not being considered too preachy or political.
No doubt some people working on “Hoppers” aren’t going to be happy with pulling back on the overall message about environmentalism. Still, ultimately, Disney is doing this to ensure more people see the movie and to make a profit, keeping all those people working on the film employed for the next project.
Roger’s Take: While the idea of climate change and looking after the environment isn’t anything new, Disney knows it has to get the balance right, as the company tries to avoid political situations to keep its audience and shareholders happy. No doubt, many projects currently in development at Disney have gone through some form of adjustment in the past year or so.
Hopefully, “Hoppers” can find that balance, as personally, the idea of looking after your environment shouldn’t be considered political, since who doesn’t want less pollution, clean water and fresh air, but unfortunately, it has become a hot topic.
“Hoppers” will be coming to theatres in 2026, and it will be coming to Disney+ at a later date.
What do you think of the idea of the overall message of “Hoppers” being downplayed? Let me know on social media!
