By George & Josh Bate
When Hoppers hit theaters on March 6, Pixar will have released its whopping 30th movie in just over 30 years. Whether through calculated intent or perfect coincidence, the juggernaut of family animation picked a perfect film to commemorate such a milestone as Hoppers delivers everything you want from a Pixar film – there’s wit, vibrant animation, a creative premise, and more than a few opportunities to shed a tear or two.
The HoloFiles recently had the chance to speak with Hoppers star Piper Curda about the new film, how it fits perfectly into her career trajectory, her ferocious yet endlessly likable protagonist, the movie’s powerful environmental message, and more.
From director Daniel Chong (We Bare Bears) and writer Jesse Andrews (Luca), Hoppers follows passionate animal-lover Mabel Tanaka (voiced by Piper Curda). After the death of her beloved Grandma Tanaka (voiced by Karen Huie), Mabel finds peace in the beautifully tranquil glade she spent much of her upbringing immersed in with her grandmother. That is, until plans to build a new highway cause the animals who once occupied the glade to flee before construction begins. While trying to save the glade, Mabel stumbles upon a new technology that allows her consciousness to “hop” into a lifelike robotic beaver and, in turn, communicate freely with other animals. Now, Mabel has to team up with other members of the animal kingdom, including the endearing beaver leader King George (voiced by Bobby Moynihan), to prevent the destruction of the nature that she and her grandmother bonded so closely over.
From its gut-wrenching beginning to its range of wacky twists and turns, Hoppers follows Curda’s character Mabel every step of the way. Mabel is combative, impatient, and even a bit abrasive at times but also unconditionally kind with an infectious affinity for nature. Curda credits her director Daniel Chong with carefully balancing Mabel’s personality traits to ensure the film’s protagonist never became too outrageous or overwhelming. “I think a huge part of it was definitely [director] Daniel Chong and his energy that he brought into the room,” Curda reflected. “You don’t realize how much work it takes to sustain that certain amount of energy, you know? And I think, if Daniel either was not in the room or wasn’t who he was, my performance might have fallen flat…. I think he just knew exactly the points where we needed to pull back and exactly the points where we needed to lean in.”
But Mabel was not just the product of director Chong and screenwriter Jesse Andrews. Curda leaned into her own tendency to feel emotions authentically and intensely in crafting Hoppers‘ lead character. “I think another element of it too is I’m a lot like [Mabel], you know?” Curda revealed. “She can come off really aggressive and intense, but it’s always from a place of caring and just like really deeply feeling things. And so knowing what that’s like and that it can be a lot sometimes, you know? I also know how to sort of temper myself in ways and not in others, which I think you also see in Mabel. She has so many feelings and I think that’s something a lot of people can relate to and just not something you see a lot [in movies].”
During the interview, Curda noted how Mabel was a fully developed character prior to her involvement in the project but that there was element of her character that was altered during production. “The only thing that changed sometimes was they were playing around with her age a little bit,” Curda recalled. “They were like, ‘Is she in her 20s? Is she still a teenager? She can’t be a kid, because she’s doing all this stuff. But also she can’t be too old or it’s weird.’ And so that was something that they definitely kind of played around with a little bit.”
While interviewing Curda in-person just one day after seeing Hoppers, something remarkable happened. Curda made several subtle facial expressions, such as a little scrunch of her nose and a particular widening of eyes, that her character Mabel replicates in an uncannily exact manner in the film. On numerous occasions, speaking with Curda was like speaking with Mabel – not just due to their shared voice, but due to the incredible similarities in the ways they emoted and expressed themselves.
Curda explained how the visual and auditory similarities between her and Mabel are no coincidence. “When I go in and record the lines, they would always have a little camera kind of trained on me,” Curda stated. “And the third session in, I was like, ‘What is that for, by the way? And they were like, ‘Oh, it’s just right on your face and it captures your face when you do the lines.’ So then if they need to reference how your face is moving when you say [lines] they can go look at the video.”
Curda was astonished at how detail-oriented the Pixar animators were in imbuing Mabel with some of her idiosyncrasies. “So not only does this character already kind of look like me a little bit, she’s also going to have my face moving,” the actress said. “That’s nuts. And then that explained so much to me why Pixar feels so real, even though it’s like an animated movie. Why it still feels so accurate and visceral. It’s because they are leaning into those little details like that.”
A meticulous attentiveness to minute details was not the only thing that surprised Curda about working with Pixar, a studio she emphatically professed her fandom for dating back to childhood. “I didn’t know that no one ever recorded in the same room together, like literally ever,” Curda divulged. “I learned the only time they ever did that was when they all came back for Toy Story 3….But it always sounds so seamless.”
Even more astonishing is that Curda, despite being the star of the movie, has not read a full script for Hoppers. “I have to this day never read a script,” revealed Curda. “[Pixar] keep it all super locked up. The only parts of the script that I’ve seen are the ones that I recorded. So, when I went to watch the movie for the first time, that’s when I learned how the movie ended, which is nuts but kind of cool and fun. It’s like a little mystery box.”
For as fun and delightfully weird as it is, Hoppers also dabbles in more serious subject matter. The new Pixar film commendably champions an important environmental message you wouldn’t typically see in a big tentpole studio release. This aspect of the story resonated with Curda, who hopes it will inspire others to care about the world in which we live. “What I really love about it is the way that Mabel cares about nature and about the Earth and about animals is really accessible and easy to relate to,” Curda stated. “Obviously she’s fighting for a cause and she has a purpose, but, at the end of the day, it’s less about fighting something and more about being a steward of the Earth and I think that’s really beautiful.”
Curda continued on the positive influence Hoppers may have on audiences, “I hope people resonate it with. Whether or not that means leaving no trace when you go out hiking or if that just means loving your dog a little more. Whatever that is to you. I think it’s a really cool thing, especially for kids, to be introduced to, maybe for the first person. I like that. And I like that we’ll maybe be a part of the journey for people.”
But audience investment in the story and Mabel will come long before the environmental message of the film solidifies. That’s because Hoppers features a touching yet gut-wrenching prologue that can be best compared to the similarly devastating beginning of Pixar’s Up. This prologue introduces audiences to Mabel and her grandmother, highlighting their shared loved of nature before Grandma Tanaka sadly passes away. “I am so so close with my family,” disclosed Curda. “I think, because of us moving all the time and then just the nature of this job is so unstable and all over the place, that my rock and anchor has always just been my family. And so that wasn’t a hard thing for me to convey – that deep connection and relationship and the importance that one person holds in your life. And, when that’s gone, just the complete void that is left there.”
In conveying the close bond between a child and her grandmother, Hoppers touches on an under-representing relationship that will hopefully capture the experiences of many. “I have a lot of friends who are way tighter with their grandparents than they were with their parents,” said Curda. “And I like that that’s being represented in stories [like Hoppers], which you usually don’t see.”
Hoppers also represents a poetic bookend to this burgeoning chapter of Piper Curda’s career. The Chicago-raised actress first burst on the scene in the Disney Channel sitcom I Didn’t Do It and now returns to the Disney family over a decade later for first starring role in a major feature film. “I’ve had an interesting career, because it’s never been really a steady rise necessarily,” Curda contemplated. “The first time people ever really knew who I was was when I was on Disney Channel. And now, a little over a decade later, I’m doing Pixar, which is crazy… it does feel weirdly right, you know?” Curda continued, “It feels very much like visiting your old college campus. And you’re like, ‘I remember when I had classes there. And I remember that and all this stuff.’ And you’re like, ‘How have I grown? How have I changed? How have I not?'”
During the interview, Curda recounted a recent drive down Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, during which she saw Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande on a massive billboard advertising Wicked: For Good. This made Curda think, “It feels right that the first really big movie that I’m leading and I’m a part of is animated, because I don’t know if my constitution could handle otherwise.” The actress joked, “I don’t know if I could handle that….If it was my face, I probably would have just turned off my phone by now.”
Well, we think Curda may need to get used to that level of attention as her incredibly emotional and endearing performance in Hoppers will likely kick off an exciting new chapter in her career. “This is the 30th Pixar movie,” Curda said. “It’s such a well-oiled machine by now. You go in and they know exactly how the schedule goes and how it works. And it works, you know? And you’re just this brand new cog that’s put in this really old machine that works realy well. And you’re like, ‘Okay, I hope I turn.'” Watch Hoppers and you’ll see that Curda certainly turns (and elicits plenty of laughs and tears along the way).
Hoppers is in theaters March 6
