Hoppers

Going into this movie, I really had no clue what to expect.  I heard it was supposed to be good and like a return for Pixar but I feel it's more of a departure than any kind of return.  I feel Pixar has wavered in quality with more of their recent films and when it comes to Hoppers I feel it is more cohesive and has a more interesting plot than most Pixar movies over the last ten years but the execution is where I feel it suffered.  The way this movie felt, it felt like I was watching an Illumination film with pop song montages and it's over the top meta humor.  Don't get me wrong I like meta humor but it just felt out of place here.  It felt too on the nose and too much like Disney flexing it's IP recognition muscles a bit much.

Nothing in Hopper really stood out for me either.  The artwork was nothing unique or groundbreaking to me.  No characters really got me invested as it just felt very typical for animated slop that hits at the lowest common denominator, just like Illumination.  And what sucks is that the story has potential to be better or at least delivered in a better way and I had different thoughts while watching the film on how they were setting up for something truly impactful but would always be disappointed in how the obvious story beats would play out.  At first I was expecting this heartbreaking story between Mabel and her grandmother passing like Up but it felt very underwhelming, like the death of her grandma was treated more like them checking a box than being this meaningful moment in Mabel's life.  

Another part was how Mabel drove the main antagonist at the end to be motivated to oppose her, trying to avoid spoilers by being vague here.  And the idea with the story beat I felt was perfect but the way in which it played out, gave a certain shock value but again felt it was undercut by the movie trying too hard to be a comedy where it seems like Pixar would normally take a moment to be more serious.  Not that they can't be funny or shouldn't be but it felt more like trying too hard to be.

So I guess in the end, Hoppers ended up just being wasted potential.  But maybe that's just how I see it and maybe everyone else will like it because those Illumination movies are popular so with the concept like this that's better than anything Illumination will ever do, maybe this is why I heard so much that this one was supposed to be good because in the sea of Illumination slop we get every year this is just the best of that but even the best Illumination film is still just a mediocre Pixar film.