Hoppers - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray SteelBook

When Pixar came on the scene, I was already into my teens and was seriously skeptical about their theatrical efforts when Toy Story became a box office phenomenon. Even A Bug’s Life failed to catch my attention. Nor Toy Story 2. It wasn’t until Monsters, Inc that I became a full-on fan of the studio where I could retroactively appreciate their previous films and then fully embrace what was about to dominate theater screens for the next 20 years. While the studio has had some ups and downs in recent years, I found Daniel Chong’s Hoppers to be a delightful return to form, delivering the sort of go-for-broke, semi-nonsensical, big-swing storytelling with a lot of heart they’re best known for. 

Our little opus centers around spitfire Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) and her efforts to save the scenic glade that meant so much to her and her late grandmother. But Mayor Jerry (John Hamm) is intent on pushing his giant beltway project through the area, disrupting the natural habitat. When Mabel hijacks her professor’s secret project that allows the human consciousness to inhabit a robotic beaver body (it’s not Avatar!), she has a chance to help the Mammal King beaver, George (Bobby Moynihan), and the rest of the animals retake the glade as their home.

For the last few years, I've felt that Pixar has been in something of a perpetual “win some, lose some” cycle. A new original comes along that’s met with great praise but doesn’t nail the box office. So the reaction is to dip back into their IP archive and throw out a sequel…or whatever the hell Lightyear was supposed to be. In this post-pandemic/Disney+ landscape, Pixar just hasn’t displayed the same intense creative moxie it used to throw out with ease. Like Inside Out 2, there have been welcome exceptions; Hoppers was one of those surprisingly genuine, heartfelt delights. 

One of the things I love about Pixar, when their work is really clicking, is when they seemingly know how absurd their premise is, but they take that big swing anyway. In Hoppers, they admit early on that, conceptually, this project is damned similar to James Cameron’s Avatar, but loudly declares it’s nothing like that franchise and set out to prove it. And I loved it. It embraces this wild idea that a human could turn nature to her advantage, but proves the reality is much more complicated. It gives the animal kingdom its own detailed and hilarious hierarchy to play around in while also touching on a potent themes of understanding and compromise as key to conflict resolution. And while it touches on a number of pertinent ideas, it doesn’t get lost in the weeds and always remembers to have fun with its concept. For those who haven’t seen Hoppers, I’ll just say that the story and all of the characters are a lot of fun, but wait until you meet Diane!

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
After a nice healthy run at the box office, Pixar’s Hoppers makes the leap to physical media with a two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital release courtesy of Disney in a bright, bold, and very yellow SteelBook case. At this time, it looks like the SteelBook is the only 4K option out there in the world. The 4K is pressed on a UHD66 disc with a BD50 serving up the 1080p and the extra features. The discs load to Disney’s standard language menu options before letting you proceed to the film or the animated main menu.

True to form for a Disney/Pixar release these days, Hoppers is another grand visual delight. From the human clothes to all of the fur, feathers, and scales of the animals, the details in the animation are crystal clear. I love how much of the film plays to some sort of almost photo-realistic accents but never forgets it's still a cartoon at heart. All of the character animations don’t aim to live in that realistic world at all. Flipping between the included Blu-ray (which is pretty damn good, too) and this 4K disc, the Dolby Vision grade is the true difference-maker. While the little extra bitrate boost on 4K helps the clarity and depth of the image, the extra punch in colors, contrast, and black levels wins the day.

On the audio side, we have a richly impressive Dolby Atmos audio track to enjoy. Considering all of the human, animal, bird, insect, amphibian, avian, and shark carnage, this mix delivers! There’s a wild amount of sonic engagement through the soundscape with those hemisphere channels delivering some great 360 immersion while there’s plenty of distinct and exciting overhead activity firing down at you. And considering all of the explosions and crashes, LFE is also nicely on point. Dialog is clear without issue, and the score from Devo’s own Mark Mothersbaugh delivers the big emotional and action-packed accents to our little adventure.

This Atmos mix sits in stark contrast to the rather limp effort on the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track on the Blu-ray. I really don’t know the reasons for the downgrade, but comparatively it’s pretty weak against the 4K Atmos track. To its credit, it gets the job done and delivers the important beats, but it lacks a lot of oomph and impact and, in general, just doesn’t feel as lively or engaging.

In the bonus features section of our little physical media opus, Hoppers enjoys the standard Disney treatment of some interesting but very brief extra materials. Through the various segments, we get a nice little bit of insight into how the project came together, the creative team’s approach to capturing the animal characters and the world design work. At just under an hour, we get some good material. I just wish there was more to dig into. 

• The Critter Diaries (HD 10:17)
• Hopping In: The Making of Hoppers (HD 11:46)
• “Meet King George” Scene Breakdown (HD 6:34)
• Beaverton Revealed (HD 4:12)
• Dam Good Bloopers (HD 2:04)
• Deleted Scenes (HD 19:34)

Just when I needed something wholeheartedly silly, Pixar’s Hoppers delivered. Director Daniel Chong and his co-writers Jesse Andrews and Jordan Harrison cooked up one wild, imaginative adventure that wasn’t afraid to be genuinely absurd and funny but also delivered a story with a lot of heart. I figured this one would be a good time. Conceptually, I was on board, but in the final viewing, I was truly delighted all the way through. On 4K UHD, the film scores an excellent Dolby Vision/Atmos treatment that perfectly accentuates all of the on-screen mayhem. Extras are a bit slim, but earn a little credit for quality. Compared to some other recent Pixar efforts, I’m actually really looking forward to revisiting Hoppers many more times. Highly Recommended