By Alison Stateman
What if you could talk to the animals and understand what they’re saying? That’s the premise behind Disney and Pixar’s upcoming all-new feature, Hoppers, debuting exclusively in theaters on March 6, 2026. In the film, directed and co-written by Daniel Chong, scientists have discovered how to “hop” human consciousness into lifelike robotic animals, allowing people to communicate with animals as animals, á la Avatar. The rollicking adventure introduces Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda), an animal lover who seizes an opportunity to use the technology to embody a robotic beaver, uncovering mysteries within the animal kingdom beyond anything she could have imagined.
D23 had a chance to sit down with Chong to learn more about the inspirations behind the film, his penchant for animal leads, and much more.
D23: What inspired you to write Hoppers?
Daniel Chong (DC): When I came to Pixar, I had zero ideas, so I started from scratch. But when I came in, one of the things that inspired me a lot was these nature documentaries where they put robots into the animal world and they try to get them to fit in. I’m sure you might have seen these videos. They look kind of janky, these robots. It felt like it was ripe for comedy, this idea of how humans try so hard to fit into the animal world and the weird things that happen through that. That was the first jumping-off point for the movie. But then obviously there are Avatar influences, which we put in the teaser trailer [below]—we say it out loud. But there’s also this Mission Impossible spy-thriller quality to the movie too, because Mabel’s kind of infiltrating the animal world. And then on top of that, there’s this broad comedy tacked on top of that. All this and of course lots of heart, like you’d expect from Pixar. So, to me, part of the joy and the fun of creating this movie was mashing all of these genres together and making a movie out of it.
D23: How long did it take, from that original idea, for it to come to fruition?
DC: That is the painful question [laughs]. I came to Pixar in late 2019 and I pitched the beginnings of the story to the studio in early 2020—and I’ve been working on it since. All the way through the pandemic until now and we’re still working on it... so it’s a long journey! These movies do not come easily. They take a lot of work, a lot of iterations. It’s been a joy working here. I’ve worked here for a lot of my life, and coming back as a director, it’s just been a joy, working with people I love working with. So, yeah, no complaints. [Chong previously worked at Pixar on films including Inside Out and Cars 2 before developing the We Bare Bears TV series and subsequent movie, available to stream on Hulu.]
D23: How did your prior work for Pixar impact or inform the creation of Hoppers?
DC: I think knowing the process and how Pixar works definitely helped. If you came from the outside, it would be really jarring—because one of the defining things about the studio is that they rewrite a lot, they give a lot of notes, and you change things constantly. And that is something you just have to get used to when you work here. I think some of the best training I had was when I left the studio and made my own TV show, where I made like 140 episodes or something. I learned really quickly how to write fast and change things fast and come up with a lot of stuff really quickly—and that helped inform my process here and made me, hopefully, be more effective as a director.
D23: In your prior work, We Bare Bears, the focus was on animals seeking to fit into the human world. And now, with Hoppers, it’s the human desire to literally talk to the animals like Doctor Dolittle, that propels the action. What is the appeal of creating main characters from the animal kingdom for you?
DC: In terms of theme, there is a pattern that I’m starting to pick up; this idea of how humans and animals coexist together. That’s something that has always interested me. Animals have always been a big part of my life. The irony of it is that I’m allergic to most animals, but I did grow up learning to draw through animal books. I had this encyclopedia of animals when I was a kid and I remember just devouring that book and drawing every animal I could in there. That was my entry into drawing, and so I think I’ve always felt this connection with animals in that way. It’s just a fascinating thing. These animals live on this planet with us and they’re these living beings and we don’t understand them completely. It’s just a really interesting part of our Earth that I love exploring.
D23: For Hoppers... why beavers?
DC: I did not know how cool beavers were until we started writing and studying them. But I think beavers, when we started researching them, they are these ecosystem engineers. When they set up these dams and lodges, they basically create this ecosystem for all these other animals—and they can join in and live there. It is just such an incredible phenomenon, what they do. But on top of that, we also learned that they have a lot of positive effects for humans too. Like when forest fires come through and they eventually die down, they find that the places that don’t burn are beaver ecosystems, where lodges exist. So they can actually battle forest fires.
D23: Can you talk a bit about the cast and what each of the main voice actors—Piper Curda (Mabel), Bobby Moynihan (King George), and Jon Hamm (Mayor Jerry)—bring to their characters?
DC: One of the things I can say across the board about these three, and all the voice cast that we haven’t announced yet, are very funny. It is a comedy through and through in terms of the acting—and the chops that these people bring are fantastic. Jon Hamm, obviously everyone knows him as a dramatic actor, but also people are starting to see he’s very, very funny. He’s done a lot of stuff in the comedy space too. And in our movie, we are having him go really crazy and kind of off the wall and he was down for everything. He’s just such a fun presence in the movie, where he can play very slick and smooth, but also crazy. Piper, who plays Mabel, is also a chaotic energy in herself, but also just so grounded and lovable. We just had so much working with her. And Bobby, it was just such a blessing working with somebody I already knew and had a relationship with. [Moynihan voiced Panda, one of the lead bears in We Bare Bears.] To be able to pick up where we left off, I couldn’t be more grateful that I could bring him along to help me make this movie.
D23: Disney has created many beloved and iconic animal characters. Do you have a favorite?
DC: There are a lot of great ones. You know who I love a lot, who gets a lot of flak? Flounder from The Little Mermaid. I just have a soft spot for not the smartest, but sweetest character. That’s kind of a sweet spot for me. So Flounder fits in there.