Entertainment

Pixar’s Zany Sci-Fi Hit Unveils Its Biggest Secret in New Behind-the-Scenes Sneak Peek [Exclusive]

Published

3 weeks ago

28 May 2026

NewsAdmin

Pixar built a brand on creative, heartwarming, and often quite funny storytelling through the medium of animation that anyone could enjoy. Their legacy is defined by classics like Ratatouille, starring a talking rat with big culinary dreams, WALL-E, following a lonely robot on a journey to save humanity, and Inside Out, tracking the emotions at work in a young girl’s mind following a big move. In 2026, at a time when its greatest successes have largely been sequels of late, the studio proved it could still capture audiences with something special in the form of Hoppers. The nature-centric adventure was a big win for an original Pixar idea, scoring over $385 million at the box office and earning rave reviews along the way. Now, nearly three months after release, Mabel and her furry friends are coming to streaming.

Disney confirmed that Hoppers will officially hop onto Disney+ at last on June 3. Directed by Daniel Chong of We Bare Bears fame in just his second feature effort after We Bare Bears: The Movie, the film has been described as somewhere between James Cameron‘s Avatar, Mission: Impossible, and a nature documentary. I Didn’t Do It star Piper Curda voices Mabel, an animal-loving college student who takes advantage of experimental technology that allows the human consciousness to “hop” into lifelike robotic animal bodies. Inhabiting a mechanical beaver, she takes in the wonders of nature, understanding the language of all creatures, befriending another charismatic beaver played by Bobby Moynihan, and leading a fight to save the local glade from being turned into a freeway. Ahead of its streaming arrival, Collider can exclusively share a new sneak peek that pulls back the curtain on some of the Easter eggs with help from the cast and crew.

The short video poses the question “What Easter eggs can fans find in Hoppers?” to the people involved, which is surprisingly hard to answer. As someone who’s only seen the film once, Dave Franco makes the case for viewers to watch it multiple times because he has no idea what secrets are hidden within. Not even Moynihan and Curda can remember everything, and they were told! Their memories are quickly jogged with some great references to past Pixar films, like a “Hi, my name is Crush” sign underneath a class pet turtle honoring Finding Nemo, Toy Story 5 figures on a windowsill, and a jam-packed chalkboard of nods. It’s a little exploration of all the team’s favorite little cues, with Chong and producer Nicole Paradis Grindle stressing just how deep the rabbit hole goes, with sometimes multiple references crammed in a single frame.

‘Hoppers’ Pays Homage to Chong’s Beloved TV Show

The streaming release will now make it easier than ever to catch the many Easter eggs and homages to past films Chong and the team hid within. In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, the director teased that, not only are there notable Pixar references aplenty, as shown in the video, but also some deep-cut callbacks that animators snuck in throughout the process. More personally, a nod to his own past work is featured in a brief shot that viewers can also catch in our sneak peek.

“There’s also a special reference to the TV show I made before this, We Bare Bears. The team modeled the bears and stuck them in there. It’s definitely not where people will be looking in that shot, and if they’re looking at it, we probably did something wrong. It’s probably something they can screengrab or freeze frame at some point. Then we have one other one that’s really important to us, and that’s in the council. There is a reference to the short For the Birds.”

Hoppers hit theaters as one of the most positively reviewed Pixar films ever made, though even now, it still stands at an impressive Certified Fresh 94% from critics and Verified Hot 93% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Collider’s Ross Bonaime called it one of the studio’s “funniest movies yet” in his 8/10 review, saying it “manages to do everything you’d want and expect from Pixar, but in a packaging that’s funnier than most, leans into strangeness, and has a blast in the process.” Chong developed the story with help from Luca co-writer Jesse Andrews, who reunited with Pixar to pen the screenplay. Kathy Najimy and Jon Hamm also star in the film, with a deep roster of famous voices populating the animal kingdom, from Meryl Streep to Ego Nwodim and Sam Richardson.