HOPPERS Director Daniel Chong Explains the First Idea for the Film Was Much Bigger and More Difficult to Pull Off
Pixar’s latest release, Hoppers, is a hit in the box office, opening last weekend in the number one spot. Without a ton of competition, it was an ideal time for a new family film release, and audiences are enjoying it, but the movie was almost something very different.
The film follows scientists who discover a way to transform human consciousness into robotic animals, and use the new technology to uncover mysteries of the animal world that are beyond anything they could have ever imagined.
The film’s director Daniel Chong recently explained in an interview with CinemaBlend that the original concept for the movie was much more in depth.
“I think the hardest thing when you have a bunch of people that are just coming up with crazy ideas and laughing is that the movie gets a little untenable, size-wise. It gets too big.
“So originally the concept of this movie that I imagined, you know, it was gonna be like a Mission: Impossible spy thriller where it's, you know, globetrotting: you just go around the world, and we're going to this country, now this country. And we realized very quickly, like, 'Oh, that movie is hard to write.’”
He went on:
“You can't ground yourself in a place. So once we scaled that down, we were able to focus everything into one place and then have fun with the characters. I do miss the thought of like, oh, 'What if it was that big and we were going everywhere?' But I think maybe not for this one.”
The film follows Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda), who becomes the first human to transfer her consciousness into a robotic animal prototype. The voice cast also includes Bobby Moynihan (SNL, We Bare Bears) Jon Hamm (Mad Men, Top Gun: Maverick), Kathy Najimy (Hocus Pocus), Dave Franco (The Studio), Sam Richardson (Veep), Ego Nwodim (SNL), Vanessa Bayer (SNL), and Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada).
Hoppers is now in theaters everywhere.