It’s been more than 30 years since the release of Pixar Animation Studios’ first feature film hit, “Toy Story,” the first fully Computer Generated Imagery feature film, released Nov. 22, 1995.

“Toy Story 5” is set for release in movie theater June 19.

Meanwhile, there’s Pixar’s “Hoppers,” an animation feature film hit which has been No. 1 at the box office two weeks in a row, grossing nearly $90 million domestically, and counting.

Pixar has released 30 feature films in three decades from its Emeryville, Calif., studios: a stream of commercially-successful, critically-acclaimed and award-winning feature films, including “A Bug’s Life,” 1999; “Monsters, Inc.,” 2001; “Finding Nemo,” 2002; “The Incredibles,” 2004; “Cars,” 2006; “WALL-E,” 2008; “Up,” 2009; “Inside Out,” 2015; “Coco,” 2017; “Soul,” 2020, and many sequels.

Luxo Jr., the white desk lamp Pixar logo (from the studio’s 1986 short film of the same title) has hopped to $1 billion or more in worldwide box office grosses for each of 11 feature films,, led by “Inside Out 2,” 2024, with $1.7 billion.

As of July 2023, Pixar feature films have grossed more than $17 billion at the worldwide box office with an average of $589 million per film. Thirteen of Pixar’s feature films are among the 50 highest-grossing animated films.

Pixar has received 23 Academy Awards, including 11 Pixar films receiving the Oscar for Best Animated Feature after the category was established in 2002.

Which brings us to “Hoppers,” which to put it mildly is no “Toy Story.”

I was really looking forward to “Hoppers”: cute anthropomorphic animal characters, a story line about the environment and Pixar animation. What’s not to like? Plenty.

“Hoppers” proceeds at a frenetic, histrionic pace with the voice characterizations often delivered shrilly and loudly as if they were shouting across the movie theater to the seats in the back row.

The storyline, such as it is, pertains to the Mayor of Beaverton, Jerry Generazzo (voiced by John Hamm). His re-election platform is built on the completion of a highway bypass through a glade, a pond and wetlands in an open space in a forest.

Meanwhile, Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) is a 19-year-old animal-loving college student who stumbled upon a lab experiment by her professor Dr. Samantha “Sam” Fairfax (Kathy Najimy). Dr. Sam has developed a hoppers program, whereby human consciousness can hop into a robotic animal.

Mabel hops on board and becomes a robotic beaver. She returns to the glade where she had spent many hours with her grandmother, communing with nature. Mabel meets King George (Bobby Moynihan), who is the leader Beaver of the glade’s animals who are subject to Pond Rules and who were displaced by the mayor’s fake trees speaker system sound waves only audible to the animals.

There’s more to the plot, which borders on eco-terrorism. The movie literally jumps the shark with the appearance of Diane (Vanessa Bayer), a shark, a real fish out of water hoisted by a flock of seagulls that chases a car that the mayor is driving.

The phrase “jump the shark” is when a TV show or creative work has exhausted its original ideas. The phrase refers to a Sept. 20, 1977, episode of the ABC-TV sitcom “Happy Days” when Fonzie (Henry Winkler) in swim trunks, leather jacket and on water skis jumps over a live shark.

“Hoppers” is directed by Daniel Chong (Primetime Emmy Awards nomination, “We Bare Bears,” 2018) in his feature film directorial debut.

The “Hoppers” screenplay is by Jesse Andrews (screenplay, Luca,” 2021; “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” 2015) from a story by Andrews and Chong.

The animation is detailed and high-quality.

Piper Curda is engaging as the voice of Mabel. Bobby Moynihan is memorable as the voice of King George. Jon Hamm chews up the scenery as the Mayor.

The film’s score is by Mark Mothersbaugh (four Daytime Emmy Awards nominees; of the rock band Devo).

The soundtrack throwback songs include “Working for the Weekend” (1981) by Loverboy and “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” (1976) by Leo Sayer.

“Hoppers” is aimed at children and family movie-goers. The movie may be too violent and disturbing for children.

I would not advise you to see it beforehand to determine whether it’s suitable. I would say skip it and wait for “Toy Story 5.”

“Hoppers,” PG (Parental guidance suggested: Some material may not be suitable for children.) for action-peril, some scary images and mild language; Genre: Comedy, Adventure, Science-Fiction, Animation; Run time: ! hour; 44 minutes. Distribute by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Credit Readers Anonymous: There’s a mid-credits scene in “Hoppers,” which portends a sequel. And at the very end of the end credits is a scene with one of the human characters. SZA sings “Save The Day” over the beginning of the end credits.

At The Movies: “Hoppers” was seen in the Dolby Theatre at AMC, AMC Center Valley 16.

Theatrical Movies Domestic Weekend Box Office, March 20-22: “Project Hail Mary,” the science-fiction film starring Ryan Gosling, opened at No. 1 with $80.5 million in 4,007 theaters, for the biggest opening of 2026.

2. “Hoppers” dropped one place from its two-weeks-straight at No. 1 with $18 million in 3,675 theaters, $120.3 million, three weeks. 3. “Dhurandhar The Revenge,” an Indian Hindi-language Action Thriller, $9.5 million in 987 theaters, $13.5 million since March 19 opening. 4. “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” starring Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Elijah Wood in the Horror Comedy, $9.1 million in 3,010 theaters, opening. 5. “Reminders of Him” dropped three places, $8 million in 3,441 theaters, $33.1 million, two weeks. 6. “Scream 7” dropped two places, $4.3 million in 2,560 theaters, $114.5 million, four weeks. 7. “GOAT” dropped two places, $3.5 million in 2,537 theaters, $97.5 million, six weeks. 8. “Undertone” dropped five places, $3 million in 2,570 theaters, $15.2 million, two weeks. 9. “Wuthering Heights” dropped one place, $475,000 in 601 theaters, $83.3 million, six weeks. 10. “Avatar: Fire and Ash” moved up five places, $280,000 in 250 theaters, $403.8 million, 14 weeks.

Movie box office information from Box Office Mojo as of March 22 may be subject to change.

Unreel, March 27:

“They Will Kill You,” MPA rated R; 1 hour, 34 minutes: Kirill Sokolov directs Zazie Beetz, Tom Felton, Patricia Arquette and Heather Graham in the Action Comedy Horror film. A woman takes a job as a housekeeper in a mysterious New York City high-rise.

“The AI Doc: Or How I Became An Apocaloptomist,” MPA PG-13; 1 hour, 43 minutes: Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell direct Sam Altman, Daniela Amodei and Dario Amodei in the Documentary. A father-to-be tries to determine what AI is all about.

Movie opening dates information from Internet Movie Database as of March 22 may be subject to change

Two Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes