One of the most unforgettable parts of visiting Pixar for the Hoppers Press Event wasn’t just watching the film, or viewing all the concept art – it was hearing directly from the people who brought the film to life.
Listening to the filmmakers from all departments offered a rare glimpse into the heart of Pixar storytelling, technical achievements, and pushing the comedic line front and center.
We were able to chat with some of the filmmakers to learn how they created this next chapter in Pixar’s film legacy.
FINDING MABEL
Director Daniel Chong shared how finding and developing Mabel’s character was one of the team’s biggest challenges, “She’s unpredictable, loud, and combative–she’s a fighter. Some of her traits can come across as a bit intense. Finding a way to make that personality palatable for everyone took time to shape. She was on the wilder side to begin with–a bit more outrageous and overly bombastic. The hard work from there was finding ways to ground her more. And then when Piper Curda came in to record, we navigated a lot of that with her as well. We workshopped a lot of angles to try and find the right tone and attitude that made sure you were still on her side. Piper walks that line perfectly, and she makes
you just love Mabel.”
“A lot of Mabel’s character is also built around my relationship with my partner, Renee,” Chong continues. “She has a strong sense of justice. There’s a line that King George says, ‘You fight for
what’s right, you say what’s on your mind, you’re not afraid of anything!’ That’s her. And I think there’s something aspirational about a character like that.”
CASTING MERYL STREEP
When it came to casting the Insect Queen, Chong admits there was only one actor he and the team wanted, “We needed the Insect Queen to exude power and presence immediately–and I don’t think we could imagine anyone other than Meryl Streep. We met on Zoom initially, and I pitched her the film in its early stages. What stood out to me was how much she clearly understood the tone and comedy–and she laughed in all the right places. She also had a soft spot for beavers, thankfully.”
As Chong has shared, he wanted a comedy first film, and noted that with Meryl, “comedy came very natural to her, and you could tell she had fun doing it.”
POND RULES
The film showcases a virtue of sorts, called Pond Rules.
- Rule 1: Don’t be a stranger
- Rule 2: When you gotta eat, eat
- Rule 3: We’re all in this together
These principles didn’t stop at the screen. The filmmakers adopted the Pond Rules as their own, using them as a shared set of values to define how the team collaborated, supported one another, and brought the film to life.
“I give so much credit to Nicole and her suggestion that we create Pond Rules for our team,” Chong says. “We both wrote out the things we value as leaders, and what we expect from our leadership. We made sure that we lived by them, and it helped set the tone. Everybody knew how to keep us accountable.”
“Daniel and I both have a very similar set of values,” Grindle says. “For us, it was really important to build a community where creators feel safe to bring their best work. Having fun is part of that foundation–you don’t want people to be afraid about their performance or worry about being judged. Daniel and I are less hierarchical in our values, and we wanted to celebrate that as well. We promoted that idea, that people at any level in production should feel free to speak up and give their opinions. That worked really well. And Daniel is very accessible, which also helped.”
“It’s a hard process, making a movie at this scale,” Chong continues. “So, to have everyone be able to enjoy each other’s company, and have a mission statement specific to the production, was huge. If the team is having a good time, if they’re laughing and the meetings are enjoyable and we love each other’s company, it shows up on the screen. That was one of the key parts of making the movie–that everyone had fun making it. I hope they did. I know I did.”
VISUAL WORLD
Hoppers’ visual style is a really exciting mix of creativity and innovation. The team faced the challenge of animating nature in CG, which is naturally busy and unpredictable, and instead of fighting that, they explored how to simplify it in a way that still felt beautiful and natural.
This curiosity led them to create a brand-new technological pipeline and to work closely across departments to ensure the environments and characters shared a cohesive, stylized look that supported the film’s unconventional tone.
“I was warned early on that nature is really hard to depict in CG,” Chong says. “If you take a picture outside, it’s quite busy–there’s a lot of information, a lot of visual noise. There’s no order, and it’s not always easy to look at. But we needed to simplify things so we can focus on the characters. The question became, ‘How do you calm down nature and depict it in a way that looks beautiful and recognizable but isn’t distracting?’ There was a lot of coordination across departments to stylize and simplify the shapes and the overall look while making it feel natural.”
“We didn’t want the visual style to be different between the environments and the characters,” says visual effects supervisor Beth Albright. “And there was a question of what to lean into in terms of style, because the tone of the movie was always a little unconventional. We were creating an unpredictable absurdist comedy that’s also a spy thriller with a science-fiction undertone. And ultimately, we wanted to immerse the viewer in the beauty of nature. Daniel was super focused on the story he wanted to tell, the tone that he wanted to tell it with, and also gave us a lot of room for exploration.”
That exploration led the team to develop a custom brushstroke technology that turned complex natural details into painterly textures that felt soft, expressive, and immersive. This approach helped the characters stand out while still keeping the audience grounded in nature.
Meeting the filmmakers behind Hoppers made it clear that the team values connection, care, and collective effort when they were creating Hoppers. We have so much more to share from our experience, as well as additional interviews, and will be sharing them soon.