Posted in: Disney, Movies, Pixar | Tagged: hoppers

Hoppers: Pixar Artists Told To "Downplay" The Environmentalism Themes

According to a Pixar artist who worked on the upcoming Hoppers, the team was reportedly told to "downplay" the themes of environmentalism in the film.

Recently, word came down that Pixar was told to scrap a storyline from the upcoming show Win or Lose, which focused on a character expressing her trans identity. It restarted the conversation around performative activism as Disney plasters its parks and merchandise with rainbows every June, trying to say they are a safe place to be while also saying behind closed doors that telling LGBTQIA+ stories is not included in that activism. It feels like we have this conversation every couple of years, and it even happened with a Pixar film and a same-sex kiss in Lightyear that sent the homophobes off the depend for some reason. So when Disney throws up the rainbows this June, we'll know it's quite literally surface level because they'll sell our identities back to us on pins and shirts, but even hinting at telling our stories is a no-go.

And it's not just LGBTQIA+ issues that are being pushed back. On the one hand, Disney is using the release of Mufasa: The Lion King to once again talk about their work to save lions and other environmental work that the company is doing. However, in the same report about Win or Lose from The Hollywood Reporter, another Pixar artist revealed that Hoppers had been another victim of the company wanting to pull back. This wasn't about LGBTQIA+ issues, though; this was about environmentalism, as they were "forced to downplay its planned message of environmentalism," according to sources.

"Unfortunately, when you have your whole film based around the importance of environmentalism, you can't really walk back on that," says the artist who worked on the movie. "That team struggled a lot to figure out, 'What do we even do with this note?'"

So it's not just rainbow activism that is performative over at Disney; it appears that pushing environmentalism is too much, too, which is hilarious considering the entire existence of Animal Kingdom and the overall themes of that park. Hoppers is one of two original films set to come out from Pixar after they announced plans to rely more on established IP in the future. The article also cited some possible weirdness behind the scenes with Elio, but that seems a little more ambiguous. For now, it's a reminder for Disney fans specifically that for all this company might act as if it cares, it does not, and it never has, no matter how much fairy dust they try to blind you with.

Hoppers: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

What if you could talk to animals and understand what they're saying? In Disney and Pixar's all-new feature film Hoppers, scientists have discovered how to "hop" human consciousness into lifelike robotic animals, allowing people to communicate with animals as animals! The adventure introduces Mabel, an animal lover who seizes an opportunity to use the technology, uncovering mysteries within the animal world that are beyond anything she could have imagined. Directed by Daniel Chong and produced by Nicole Paradis Grindle, Hoppers features the voices of Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, and Jon Hamm. The film opens exclusively in theaters in 2026.

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