‘This Is Like ‘Avatar’’: Disney Drops A Self-Aware First Trailer For Pixar’s Next Original Feature, ‘Hoppers’

Pixar dropped the first, very self-aware, trailer for its upcoming feature Hoppers, introducing audiences to Mabel (voiced by Zombies and Shook star Piper Curda), a tech-savvy animal lover who jumps at the chance to experience life in the animal world.

The film, directed by We Bare Bears creator Daniel Chong, will hit theaters on March 6, 2026.

According to the studio’s official synopsis, Hoppers imagines a world where humans can “hop” their consciousness into robotic animals (just like in Avatar!). Mabel uses the experimental technology to uncover hidden mysteries inside the animal kingdom, leading to what Pixar describes as a “wild, roller coaster ride of a movie, with all the heart you expect from a classic Pixar film.” Bobby Moynihan and Jon Hamm round out the supporting cast, with Nicole Paradis Grindle producing.

In a release, Chong explained:

In ‘Hoppers,’ the question we’re answering is: “What if we could understand and communicate with the animal world?” Our main character, Mabel, gets to discover the animal kingdom as an animal, which can be weird and often hilarious. Mabel undercover in the animal world leads to a wild, roller coaster ride of a movie, with all the heart you expect from a classic Pixar film. It’s going to be so much fun to watch in the theater; I can’t wait for everyone to see it.

Hoppers arrives at a volatile time for Pixar. During and shortly after the pandemic, the studio’s most popular new films were sent straight to streaming, while later theatrical bets frequently failed to pay off. After this summer’s disastrous Elio release, it’s fair to ask: Can Pixar, long seen as the gold standard, still draw families back to theaters in force with an original proposition?

The historic success of Inside Out 2 in 2024, it became the highest-grossing animated film of all time before being deposed by Ne Zha 2 this year, suggested a possible turnaround, but inconsistent box office results for non-sequel, non-IP releases continue to raise concerns about audiences’ appetite for original animated films, especially outside summer and holiday windows. The March release slot may signal confidence from Disney, but it also positions Hoppers in a relatively untested part of the release calendar for Pixar. Onward and Turning Red were both released in March, but the pandemic immediately confronted the former, and the latter went straight to Disney+.

Whether Hoppers can reverse the slide in original animation box office remains to be seen. But at the very least, Pixar is still taking risks with something new, strange, and unmistakably theatrical. The studio has also recently announced Gatto, another original from Luca director Enrico Casarosa, set for release in 2027.