Film

Hoppers

Name: Hoppers
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Science Fiction
Released: 2026
Cast: Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, Dave Franco

Hoppers imagines a world where science lets you climb inside a lifelike robotic animal and live as one — part Twilight Zone, part children's-book whimsy. It's a bright, brisk adventure-comedy for anyone who talks to their pets and privately suspects they talk back, mixing gentle mystery, slapstick, and a real question about what we owe the creatures we share the world with.

TMDb rating

8.2

If you liked this

The Wild Robot2024

If Hoppers's premise of a mind piloting a mechanical animal hooked you, this is the emotional deep end — a shipwrecked robot raising a gosling, gorgeously painterly, and one of the best nature-versus-machine stories animation has told in years.

But It earns its tears the hard way — expect to cry, possibly in front of people you were trying to look tough for.

How to Train Your Dragon2010

Swap robot animals for dragons and you get the same thrill: a kid forming a forbidden bond with a creature everyone else fears, discovering it thinks and feels far more than expected.

But The sequels dilute the charm, and the central friendship, however lovely, is a familiar boy-and-his-dragon shape by now.

Migration2023no page yet

A family of ducks leaves the pond for the first time in an ensemble road-trip comedy that's fast, silly, and stuffed with the kind of animal-world sight gags Hoppers clearly loves.

But It's slighter than its premise promises — more sugar rush than substance, and mostly forgotten within a week.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Being John Malkovich1999

Hoppers is built on the fantasy of climbing into another body and seeing the world through it — Malkovich takes that exact premise and runs it through a wood-chipper of existential dread and absurdist comedy instead of family-friendly wonder.

This is what happens when 'what if you could climb inside someone else's body' gets asked by adults with nothing left to lose — funny, unsettling, and genuinely strange in ways few films dare.

But It's a deeply adult, surreal comedy about identity and control — nothing here is for children, and some of it is upsetting.

Zootopia2016

The animal world here isn't background dressing, it's the whole point — a fully built society with its own politics, prejudice, and mystery plot that rewards actually paying attention.

But The social commentary is broad enough that adults may find it a little pleased with its own cleverness.

Avatar2009

Take the mind-transfer-into-another-body concept and blow it up to planetary scale — a human consciousness piloting an alien form to finally understand a world it used to just exploit.

But It's a three-hour live-action spectacle with a fairly simple story; the plot is the least interesting part.

Chicken Run2000

Stop-motion chickens plotting a prison break with the seriousness of a war film — proof that animal-world stories can be gleefully weird and still work as pure slapstick adventure.

But The claymation style and dry British humour are a specific flavour that won't land in every household.

Over the Hedge2006no page yet

A raccoon con-man leading a woodland crew against suburbia is scrappier than Hoppers, but shares its delight in animals sizing up the human world and finding it absurd.

But It's minor-key DreamWorks — funny in the moment but largely forgettable once the credits roll.

Rio2011no page yet

A domesticated bird thrown back into the wild, forced to relearn what it means to actually be an animal — colourful, musical, and unabashedly good-natured in a way that pairs nicely with Hoppers's warmth.

But The plot is thin and the songs are more earworm than earned; it's comfort food, not a meal.

The Secret Life of Pets2016no page yet

The joke that your pet has a whole secret inner life when you leave the room is basically Hoppers's premise played for pure comedy instead of mystery — quick, silly, easy company.

But It's the shallowest option on this list — big laughs, very little to chew on afterward.

My Octopus Teacher2020

Hoppers imagines technology as the bridge to finally understanding an animal mind. This documentary builds that same bridge for real, over a year of diving with a wild octopus, with nothing but patience and no science-fiction shortcuts.

A real man forms a genuine, wordless friendship with a wild octopus off the coast of South Africa — it sounds implausible and then, watching it, becomes one of the most moving nature stories ever filmed.

But It's slow, quiet, and entirely nonfiction — a mood piece, not an adventure, and it won't deliver jokes.

My Neighbor Totoro1988

Both stories are about a child discovering the natural world is alive with minds stranger and more benevolent than adults let on — Totoro just does it with forest spirits and silence instead of robotics and gags.

Made decades before Hoppers, this is the gentlest possible version of the same wonder: two sisters befriend enormous, ancient forest spirits, and the film trusts total quiet to do the emotional work.

But There's barely a plot by blockbuster standards, and its slow, hushed pace will frustrate anyone expecting jokes or momentum.