Pixar Announces Original 'Hoppers' As Second 2026 Film

You’ve got to be out of your mind to not be a believer in the beavers

Have I been worried about Pixar getting too sequel-happy? Hell gnaw. You should beaver-y happy. The studio’s segment of the Disney Entertainment Showcase at D23 featured the announcement of a new original film for spring 2026, spaciously preceding the June 19 release of Toy Story 5, and it’s called Hoppers.

No, it’s not an A Bug’s Life spinoff about clones of the villain that would very much be recast if it were real. Hoppers is about a girl named Mabel (yes, definitely, absolutely) voiced by Piper Curda who transfers her brain into a beaver in order to live among them. Yes the James Cameron Avatar comparisons have already been made. It also stars Bobby Moynihan as a beaver that goes by King George, and Jon Hamm voices the mayor who has an anti-animal platform. It seems the title is more about the brains hopping more than the abilities of the target animal.

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The film is directed by Daniel Chong, the creator of Cartoon Network’s We Bare Bears, which he indicates was pretty much immediately followed by Hoppers. He’s reunited with Moynihan, who voiced Panda on the 2015-2019 series. Previously a storyboarder for Bolt at Disney and Illumination’s The Lorax, Chong is back at Pixar where he storyboarded Cars 2 and Inside Out, and teased his presence for a “huuuuge Pixar announcement”, saying he’s held it in for four years. He winked very hard at news about a new Pixar film being announced, and sure enough this was it. It’s also been worked on by Jesse Andrews.

Curda, whose first major acting roles were recurring as Kennedy Van Buren on ANT Farm for five season 3 episodes before landing main character Jasmine Kang in the ensemble of I Didn’t Do It, which led to starring in Teen Beach 2 and guest starring on Liv & Maddie, joked “ok fine i guess i’ll go back to disney” before shouting out Chong in a tweet quoting the news of his directorship of the specific project saying that’s my director!!!! shoutout to threebarebears for believing in me and making pixar do it too <3”. Recently, Curda appeared as Avery Ho on The Flash in two final season episodes. This included the series’s final moments being empowered by Barry’s lightning, as in the comics where Ho isn’t just a speedster, but a Flash.

Here is the logo for the movie, to end this on a nice relevant and visual note.

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Sources: Deadline, Daniel Chong (1, 2), Piper Curda (1, 2)