Hoppers Director Says Comedy Came First in Casting
Comedy was the top priority when Pixar cast Hoppers, director Daniel Chong told Deadline at Contenders Film.
The voice cast includes Meryl Streep, Jon Hamm, Dave Franco and Bobby Moynihan. Streep plays an insect queen, and Franco plays her character's son. Hamm plays a mayor who approves the razing of a glade, the wooded clearing where the story's animals live.
Chong said Hamm's career since Mad Men has leaned heavily into comedy, which made him a natural fit for a role built on a politician's bad decisions. He also described Streep arriving with a strange voice for her part. Franco, he said, was sweating after every take. Those small details are the kind of thing directors remember long after a recording session ends.
The film's young heroine, Mabel, is voiced by Piper Curda. In the story, Mabel uses Hopper technology to control a robot beaver, and she rallies the other animals to save the glade. The plot turns on that mix of gadgetry and community organising, with a child at the centre.
Producer Nicole Paradis Grindle joined Chong and Curda at Contenders Film, where the three spoke about the making of the movie. Pixar, a studio owned by Disney, has built many of its best-known films around animal or toy casts, and Hoppers continues that tradition with a voice line-up built for laughs.
Contenders Film is an industry event where awards-season hopefuls meet the people who make and promote films. Panels like this one give the creative team a chance to talk about choices that audiences rarely see: who got cast, why, and what the actors brought to the booth. Chong's comments make clear that comedy shaped those choices from the start.
