Hoppers

image for Hoppers

Short takes

Not suitable under 7; parental guidance to 8 (violence, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Hoppers
  • a review of Hoppers completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 23 March 2026.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 7 Not suitable due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 7–8 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 9 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Hoppers
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild threat
Length: 104 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

As a young child, Mabel (voice of Lila Liu) gets very angry at injustices she sees, particularly against animals, and is often in trouble at school. Her Grandma (Karen Huie) teaches Mabel to be still and immerse herself in nature in their special place called Beaverton Glade. They sit and watch the animals emerge, which brings calm to Mabel’s fiery nature.

Years later, as a university student, Mabel (Piper Curda) is very upset to discover that the local Mayor, Jerry (Jon Hamm), plans to destroy the glade and erect a highway across the river. She tries her best to encourage neighbours to protest, without any luck. They tell her all of the animals are gone from the glade anyway. Mabel returns to the glade and discovers this is true, when she sees a lone beaver. The beaver turns out to be a robot who contains the mind of Mabel’s university professor Dr Sam (Kathy Najimy), through a technology she invented called ‘Hopping’. Mabel forces her way into the hopping machine and becomes the beaver. From there, she discovers the terrible truth of why the animals have left the glade and she is determined to change that around with the help of all of the forest creatures.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Science Fiction; Conservation; Nature.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Young Mabel jumps on her teacher and bites her.
  • Mabel’s grandma admits to punching a teacher in the face when she was young.
  • Mabel and Jerry argue fiercely.
  • Explosions of bridges, buildings and the dam.
  • Dr Sam’s colleague, Nisha, threatens Mabel with a laser.
  • Dr Sam hits Mabel as the robot and Nisha throws it up into the roof space.
  • Mabel robot falls from the sky and lands in the forest.
  • The head of the council is a butterfly who attacks Mabel robot, who then accidentally squashes the butterfly.
  • A large flock of birds attack a stork.
  • The snakes try to eat George.
  • A car crashes into another vehicle.
  • Mabel has to steer a car after the driver takes his hands off the wheel. The car crashes down a hill and lands upside down.
  • Mabel and Jerry are strapped to chairs, tied with cables.
  • A large tree falls on Robot Jerry, who explodes, causing a fire. The fire spreads, causing much mayhem. Mabel tries to put out the fire with her Grandma’s jacket, which starts to burn. George tries to rescue Mabel when a burning tree falls on George. He looks dead but Mabel saves him.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • A large grizzly bear is quite scary and attempts to eat robot Mabel.
  • Jerry gets mad a lot and looks quite scary. Robot Jerry is even scarier looking, with wild eyes.
  • The council of animals contains some large, strange-looking creatures, such as a big pink fish and what looks like a three-headed snake (is actually a trio of snake sisters). The snakes hiss and are threatening.
  • A huge shark is lifted out of the water by a flock of birds. It has big teeth and scares Jerry.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • A beaver nearly gets hit by a van but is then snatched up into the van.
  • A stork picks up robot Mabel in its claws, apologising to her but says his kids need to eat.
  • The glade animals are all terrified by a loud noise that only they can hear.
  • Dr Sam and Nisha are seen with snakes across their backs.
  • George is very sad when he discovers Mabel is a robot. He thinks she stole and lied to him.
  • The King butterfly, as Robot Jerry, threatens to make a noise so loud it will kill all humans. His eyes turn red and he is about to press the button. He laughs manically. Mabel pulls his head off, revealing a metal, scary-looking face.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Mabel is arrested by the police and carried off.
  • Mabel remembers her grandma, who has now passed, with great sadness.
  • King George moves a finger across his throat, signifying death to the offender. The council decides to ‘squish’ Jerry, which means to eliminate him.
  • The head of the council butterfly has a very spoilt larvae son, who quickly metamorphosises into a butterfly after his mother’s death. He pretends to cry but then laughs out loud and says he’s been waiting for this all of his life.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • George is a beaver and king of the animals. He thinks Mabel is attracted to him and says he ‘gets that all the time, but he’s married to his job’.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Shut up.
  • Name calling such as:
    • Jerk
    • Stupid
    • Loser.

In a nutshell

Hoppers is an animated, sci-fi, action movie with some great messages about conservation. It is, however, quite intense in places, particularly the final scene, making it best suited to families with children over 8. Parental guidance is recommended for 7 to 8-year-olds.

The main messages from this movie are that it’s hard to be mad when you’re part of something big; and the importance of looking after the environment and the animals in it.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Mabel is a strong, passionate and persistent young woman.
  • Don’t be strangers – get to know people and try and understand differences.
  • Collaboration and team work.
  • Knowing that one person can make a difference.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • There needs to be a balance between progress and conservation.
  • Mabel feels guilty that she lied to George and that she used her friend. She does apologise and they make up but parents could talk about the need for honesty between friends.