It’s “Avatar,” but with beavers.

 By 

Belen Edwards

Belen Edwards

Entertainment Reporter

Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness.

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 on July 16, 2025

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Pixar’s upcoming Hoppers is what you’d get if you cross James Cameron’s Avatar with a nature documentary.

The film, directed by Daniel Chong (We Bare Bears) introduces audiences to 11-year-old animal lover Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda), who wants nothing more than to protect the idyllic glade near her house from Mayor Jerry’s (voiced by Jon Hamm) environmentally destructive construction project.

To save her local wildlife, Mabel takes advantage of Beaverton University’s newly invented “hopping” technology, which puts human consciousness into fake animal bodies. Hoppers will be able to blend seamlessly into the animal kingdom and understand the animals around them. It’s an unprecedented look into the natural world!

It’s also a tad familiar. In the film’s first teaser, an excited Mabel tells the scientists who created hopping, “Guys, this is just like Avatar!”

“This is nothing like Avatar!” the irate scientists reply. They’re right — it’s Avatar, but cuter!

The teaser for Hoppers dives into Mabel’s first forays into hopping, where she enthusiastically greets birds, listens to deer gossip, and overall, adjusts to the beaver lifestyle. In the teaser’s funniest sequence, Mabel saves a beaver from being eaten by a vicious bear, something that confuses both the hunter and the hunted. Apparently, “Pond Rules” dictates that the bear has to eat someone, and this beaver was totally OK with being that someone. Looks like Mabel will have a lot of work to do in order to better understand the animal kingdom!

Hoppers hits theaters March 6.

Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness.

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