Speaker 1: Ever since the days of Doctor Doolittle, Man has wondered
Speaker 1: what it would be like to be inside the mind
Speaker 1: of animals. Well, for Mabel, communicating with animals isn't just
Speaker 1: a thought experiment, but a necessity in order to defend
Speaker 1: the memory of her grandmother. It's Hoppers. I'm Ronald Young Junior,
Speaker 1: and I'm leaving the theater. All right. This is Ronald,
Speaker 1: and I am leaving the theater after seeing Hoppers. Hoppers
Speaker 1: written by Jesse Andrews, directed by Daniel Chong, starring Piper Curda,
Speaker 1: Bobby moynihan, John Hamm, Kathy Najimi, and Dave Franco and
Speaker 1: per usual. For complete listing of the cast and crew,
Speaker 1: check out the link in our show notes. It is
Speaker 1: just me today. Hoppers is the newest Pixar film, and
Speaker 1: I am not gonna lie to you. I've seen the
Speaker 1: trailer for this film dozens and dozens of times and
Speaker 1: was not looking forward to seeing this movie at all,
Speaker 1: not even one little bit. Leaving the theater almost always
Speaker 1: review the new Pixar had no idea what this was
Speaker 1: going to be. The preview had it looking pretty stupid.
Speaker 1: Human brains in the minds of animals, and I think
Speaker 1: this movie will be a victim of poor marketing because
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it. Okay, so let me just start off.
Speaker 1: So the whole premise of the film is that there's
Speaker 1: a main character named Mabel who has an emotional attachment
Speaker 1: to a glade that she used to spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time with her grandmother. That kind of helped her
Speaker 1: work through her anger issues, and she became one with
Speaker 1: nature and shared in the beauty of the glade, in
Speaker 1: the animals and the nature. And there is a mayor
Speaker 1: who wants to build a highway through it, and essentially
Speaker 1: Mabel and the mayor are going back and forth against
Speaker 1: each other over this glade. And one of the main
Speaker 1: ways that Mabel begins to fight is that she puts
Speaker 1: her mind in the body of a b through some
Speaker 1: technology at her local college, and as a result, she
Speaker 1: basically unwittingly starts an animal uprising. Now this is essentially Avatar,
Speaker 1: but with heart. Avatar but written by people who actually care. Avatar,
Speaker 1: but written by people who probably have some sort of
Speaker 1: understanding of human nature, of the nature of revolution as
Speaker 1: a whole, of the nature of people. It's it's you
Speaker 1: can tell it's different. This film, in my imagination, is
Speaker 1: way better than it probably actually is, meaning that as
Speaker 1: I sat there and started to think, allegorically, this is
Speaker 1: a film that really, I think hit the mark. I
Speaker 1: have to really think about if what I just saw
Speaker 1: I enjoyed by nature of itself. So let me talk
Speaker 1: it through with y'all. It is a very cute movie.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of cuddly that look cuddly. These animals
Speaker 1: don't look smelly and gross, they just look like cuddly animals.
Speaker 1: They do this effect where when the humans are looking
Speaker 1: at the animals, their eyes have no character. They're kind
Speaker 1: of just dead. But when the animals are perceiving each other,
Speaker 1: their eyes are full of life. They are kind of
Speaker 1: the pupils and eyes that you would expect from a
Speaker 1: Disney Pixar movie, Whereas when the humans are looking at them, they're,
Speaker 1: like I said, just dead beady eyes, which I thought
Speaker 1: was an effective way to describe how we view animals
Speaker 1: versus how animals may view each other's and themselves. So
Speaker 1: there's that. I think the easiest closest comparison to this
Speaker 1: would be The Wild Robot, which I loved, again, a
Speaker 1: story that talks about nature versus technology in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, in this case nature versus imminent domain or
Speaker 1: the building of a highway. So those parts I really enjoyed.
Speaker 1: There's some bars in this movie. There's one thing where
Speaker 1: the beaver says to the other who after some betrayal
Speaker 1: of trust happens. The beaver says, trust is like a damn.
Speaker 1: It's gonna leak sometimes, but you just have to patch
Speaker 1: it up. Man. They said that, not teared up, because
Speaker 1: the idea of trust being broken and never being able
Speaker 1: to regain is something that is a real sentiment amongst
Speaker 1: most people. But there are just some people out there
Speaker 1: who don't have the capacity to continue to hold a
Speaker 1: grudge or to continue to distrust. So for them, it
Speaker 1: is easier for them to work on it and allow
Speaker 1: trust to grow between people again, rather than let it
Speaker 1: to remain severed. And this is not instructive to anyone
Speaker 1: who doesn't feel that way. It was just a nice
Speaker 1: sentiment to have, and it kind of echoes nicely with
Speaker 1: something else where. There was this idea that everyone should
Speaker 1: be given a chance to be a good person. That
Speaker 1: one person says to another, everyone's good deep down, and
Speaker 1: they respond Is that true? And then she responds, wouldn't
Speaker 1: you like it to be? And yes, that is true.
Speaker 1: I want people to be good deep down and this
Speaker 1: movie imagines that people have the capacity to be good
Speaker 1: people deep down inside, which is the type of movie
Speaker 1: that we need. Right now, I'll tell you why. I
Speaker 1: am currently in the midst of a three day, four
Speaker 1: movie marathon, so I'll see. I am sitting in the
Speaker 1: parking lot of Springfield Mall right now, I will leave
Speaker 1: here and go to Tyson's Corner to watch The Protector
Speaker 1: starring Miya Joviovich, which will be the movie that comes
Speaker 1: out next week. This week you're hearing Hoppers. Two weeks
Speaker 1: from now, you're going to hear Project Hail Mary with
Speaker 1: Daryl C. Murphy. Daryl C. Murphy, it goes on an
Speaker 1: epic rant in that episode, make sure you listen, and
Speaker 1: epic rant about propaganda and basically what Project Hail Mary is.
Speaker 1: And I had a moment where I was sitting there
Speaker 1: and I thought to myself, Man, it would have been
Speaker 1: nice for since Darryl and I saw Project Hail Mary
Speaker 1: last night and today I got to see Hoppers. I
Speaker 1: wish Darryl had been with me. For hoppers, because this
Speaker 1: film essentially is grappling with the notion of all of
Speaker 1: us being in it together and having to work together
Speaker 1: to solve problems versus the US versus them mentality, and
Speaker 1: then it also plays around a little bit about revolution
Speaker 1: and overthrow, what it looks like to actually kill the
Speaker 1: masters in this case. And so I think that this
Speaker 1: ends up being It's a much smaller movie than something
Speaker 1: like Project Hill Mary. The stakes are only limited to Beaverton,
Speaker 1: which is the city in which all of this happens,
Speaker 1: and the surrounding forest very organ coded in that way,
Speaker 1: and it ends up being a small movie about polics
Speaker 1: in the way that we imagine them to be. It
Speaker 1: is us having the best intentions because we're working together,
Speaker 1: meaning that even if we have opposing ideas about methods
Speaker 1: or about how we get there, ultimately we compromise and
Speaker 1: we agree because we all have the best intentions of
Speaker 1: one another. And that's what this movie is kind of presupposing.
Speaker 1: At some point a villain, a real and true villain,
Speaker 1: does emerge, but even that villain, as they emerge in
Speaker 1: this film, had a sympathetic backstory, and it's teased out
Speaker 1: when they have to interact with the protagonist in a
Speaker 1: very specific way, regardless of the decision they make. Next,
Speaker 1: think of kill Manger being hurt by the way that
Speaker 1: the Wakandans treated him, his family, and the rest of
Speaker 1: the world as opposed to retreating now. Granted, doesn't forgive
Speaker 1: all of the other things that kill Monger does in
Speaker 1: Black Panther. However, it does at least make you pause
Speaker 1: to say, this guy kind of has a point. And
Speaker 1: there are several times in this film in which it
Speaker 1: is suggested that we go murder the humans and I
Speaker 1: sat there like, yeah, no, that's yeah, you're cooking, go
Speaker 1: get them, Like what are you talking about? We absolutely
Speaker 1: should go kill these humans, And I feel like the
Speaker 1: movie convinces me that there is a better way. But
Speaker 1: I will say, the idea of someone coming and taking
Speaker 1: and taking and taking constantly and there being no recourse
Speaker 1: for us, I'm tired of those plot lines. This movie
Speaker 1: suggests that, sure, you could do violent revolution, which in
Speaker 1: some cases may be necessary, but it also says, but
Speaker 1: what if we just tried this other thing first? And
Speaker 1: I appreciate that because while it does not satisfy my bloodlust,
Speaker 1: it did give us an opportunity to try to do
Speaker 1: something a little bit better, which I mean, why not
Speaker 1: why not make a movie that's about opposing opinions and
Speaker 1: methods and let it end in a way that people
Speaker 1: have to compromise. Why not end that way, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Why not have more movies that end
Speaker 1: like that, especially right now in this time, Which is
Speaker 1: why I'll reference Daryl C. Murphy again. Which if y'all
Speaker 1: are listening to this episode you have not heard Project
Speaker 1: hell Mary yet. It'll come out in a couple weeks.
Speaker 1: I encourage you to make sure you listen to that
Speaker 1: because for me, if you watch Project hell Mary and
Speaker 1: you don't get to watch Hoppers, I feel like you
Speaker 1: might leave depending on your perspective, thinking about what filmmakers,
Speaker 1: what movies, what studios are trying to tell us about
Speaker 1: the world, and missing a place like Pixar still being
Speaker 1: very subversive in their messaging, still sending messages like a
Speaker 1: work together, a care about each other, a look out
Speaker 1: for each other. Hey, let's overcome and kill the bad guys.
Speaker 1: It's still a very like old school Disney messaging. I mean, granted,
Speaker 1: Disney's not perfect. There's still a corporation and I won't
Speaker 1: say that maybe there isn't some propaganda piece that I'm
Speaker 1: missing in this film, but I think it is important
Speaker 1: to note that movies like this are still being made
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six, and that feels good. With all
Speaker 1: of that being said, excellent movie. I think it's a
Speaker 1: little small and I'm sitting here thinking about things like
Speaker 1: character development. This was more about relationship building than it
Speaker 1: was about individual characters. There's some plucking of the heartstrings,
Speaker 1: there's some ways in which they're kind of doing the
Speaker 1: typical Pixar playbook stuff. I don't think this movie made
Speaker 1: me feel the way that I felt watching The Wild Robot,
Speaker 1: but I believe I gave The Wild Robot five stars.
Speaker 1: I feel comfortable giving this film my highest rating of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six so far, a four point two five stars.
Speaker 1: Not perfect, made me feel good, perfect palate cleanser for
Speaker 1: a different film like Project Hail Mary, which was good.
Speaker 1: It was a good movie, and you'll you'll hear me
Speaker 1: talk about that in a couple of weeks. But this one,
Speaker 1: this is what I wanted. This, This is the type
Speaker 1: of satisfying film that I was looking forward to seeing
Speaker 1: that makes you feel good. That makes you leave the
Speaker 1: theater with a little hope, not feeling dread or any
Speaker 1: type of despair or wistfulness, nothing like that. So yeah,
Speaker 1: four point twenty five of five stars. And with that,
Speaker 1: Leaving the Theater is a production of Oh It's Big
Speaker 1: Ron Studios. I mixed this episode, And as I just mentioned,
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of a three day four movie marathon.
Speaker 1: I saw Project Hail Mary yesterday. I just saw Hoppers
Speaker 1: right now. I am leaving here at a six thirty.
Speaker 1: I have a seven pm showing of The Protector in
Speaker 1: Tyson's Corner Center, which is going to It's going to
Speaker 1: give me just enough time to get over there, subtle
Speaker 1: into my seat, maybe get a bite to eat. Then
Speaker 1: tomorrow I'm going to see Normal starring Bob whatever his name,
Speaker 1: Bob Odenkirk, Yes. And then on Saturday, I'm going to
Speaker 1: see movies for fun. I'm going to see the OSCAR
Speaker 1: nominated animated shorts and live action film, which I'm actually
Speaker 1: excited about. That's going to be fun. That's not for
Speaker 1: leaving the theater. I'm going to be in a theater
Speaker 1: a lot over the next few days. And the idea
Speaker 1: is that when I'm able to see a bunch of
Speaker 1: movies like this. It means that I can go home,
Speaker 1: edit them in succession, get them ready, and have them
Speaker 1: ready to post when they come out. For people that
Speaker 1: are looking for a Project Hail Mary. That means that
Speaker 1: for folks that are in the patreon, they will get
Speaker 1: Project Hail Mary the review on the day that the
Speaker 1: movie comes out. Everyone else will have to wait till
Speaker 1: their normal normal Monday with ads. But if you're in
Speaker 1: the patreon, you won't be hearing this. So because they
Speaker 1: don't even hear what I'm saying right now in the patreon,
Speaker 1: I cut all of this in the patreon. So if
Speaker 1: you're sick of hearing me advertise the patreon, join the patreon.
Speaker 1: But also, if you want to hear some movies early,
Speaker 1: if you want to get them before Monday, I put
Speaker 1: them out as I edit them, or on the day
Speaker 1: that the movie is released. So if I edit and
Speaker 1: finish it on a Sunday morning, the episode comes out
Speaker 1: on Sunday morning, you're good to go. You don't have
Speaker 1: to wait till Monday. If I edit and it comes
Speaker 1: out before the movie is released. In the case of
Speaker 1: Project hell Mary, you'll get it on the day that
Speaker 1: the movie comes out, which means they're getting reviews sooner
Speaker 1: in Patreon, which is why I like being able to
Speaker 1: see a bunch of movies early and often I say
Speaker 1: that to you, to say that all takes effort, it
Speaker 1: all takes work. I am enjoying the work, I really am.
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying it because I'm feeling like I've hit my
Speaker 1: stride and I'm moving in a good direction, and i
Speaker 1: feel like I'm finally providing to patrons something that I've
Speaker 1: been promising for what feels like years. I'm actually giving
Speaker 1: out the extra content. I'm working hard, I'm thinking through
Speaker 1: what value is provided to patrons who continue to contribute.
Speaker 1: All of that being said, it's still labor. It's still labor.
Speaker 1: It's a labor of love, but it's still labor. And
Speaker 1: if that means something to you, go to patreon dot
Speaker 1: com slash oh It's big Ron, or go to the
Speaker 1: link in our show notes. Show art from Heather Wilder,
Speaker 1: theme music by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. For more information
Speaker 1: about Hoppers, check out our show notes. You can follow
Speaker 1: me on Instagram, Blue Sky, TikTok, threads, or letterboxed at
Speaker 1: Owitz Big Ron. That's at h I T S B
Speaker 1: I G R o N. You can find out more
Speaker 1: about this show and other Ow's Big Ron Studio shows
Speaker 1: by following us on Instagram at Owitz Big Ron Studios.
Speaker 1: Leaving the theater will be back soon. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: I'm Ronald Young Junior and I'm thinking about human brains