See the exclusive 'Hoppers' deleted scene that changes everything
Mabel's mind gets transferred into a robot beaver in Pixar's "Hoppers," but an exclusive deleted scene shows the original plot was very different.
Brian Truitt“Hoppers” is one of the more audacious Pixar movies of recent record, an animated sci-fi comedy with people getting their brains transferred into robot animals. And it was almost a little bonus bonkers.
A theatrical hit that arrives to rent or buy on digital platforms April 28 (and 4K Blu-ray/DVD June 2), “Hoppers” centers on a 19-year-old activist named Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) who gets mind-hopped into a mechanical beaver and learns all about the animal kingdom while trying to protect critters’ homes. USA TODAY has the exclusive debut of a deleted scene that offered a different way into this crazy technology.
In the final cut, Mabel accidentally stumbles upon research being done by her biology professor (Kathy Najimy), discovers the technology, and hijacks a robot beaver. This deleted scene, however, reveals “a very different trajectory for the movie,” says director Daniel Chong. In it, Mabel is instead recruited to be a Hopper.
A beaver first appears to her in Mabel’s beloved glade and starts talking to her, freaking the youth out. She’s then visited by a bunch of talking animals who want Mabel to come with them, including two extra animal scientists: a moose and a wolf, who’s driving their van.
"It seemed a really funny way to introduce Hopping and to start wrapping your head around the situation,” Chong says.
Editor Axel Geddes adds that it’s one of the scenes he’s always loved (“There’s just little surprising moments and ideas”), but Chong admits that "when we put it all together as a first act, it just didn’t add up and it just took too long.”