Review: Hoppers

The animation feature topped the box office opening weekend

There was a lot of buzz that the animation feature Hoppers beat out The Bride!, making it Pixar's biggest opening weekend in a decade. 

Hoppers was screening at our neighbourhood theatre so we took two kids, aged 7 and 8 to watch this film -- in 3D. 

The 3D enhances the animation, but it isn't totally used to its advantage.

Mabel is an environmental activist in her teens

Nevertheless, the storyline is creative. Japanese-American Mabel Tanaka grows up to be an environmental activist influenced by her grandmother and promises to protect the glade that they used to appreciate together in the city of Beaverton.

But then the mayor, Jerry Generazzo has plans to destroy the natural habitat for animals in order to build a freeway and Mabel is desperate to stop him.

She asks for help from her biology professor Dr Samantha Fairfax, but then Mabel discovers they have developed technology that helps them communicate with animals.

Mabel uses it to try to convince them -- in particular beavers, as they are "nature's engineers" -- to move back to the glade, along with everyone else, but it's not as easy as she thinks.

The premise of the film, that Mabel can communicate with the animals is fun, creative and she also learns "pond rules" and the hierarchy of the animal kingdom. 

Dr Fairfax (left) is Mabel's biology professor

Some of the humour, both physical and the dialogue is funny, but not particularly laugh-out-loud hilarious, but enough to keep the audience interested in seeing what happens next.

Actor John Hamm makes for a sneaky mayor, and Bobby Moynihan is a funny beaver monarch named King George. I was surprised to see Meryl Streep voiced the Insect Queen, a short, but amusing cameo.

Apparently the Pixar animators enlisted the help of ecohydrologist Emily Fairfax who studies beavers and how they change landscapes by altering the flow of streams and rivers.

Hoppers has a strong environmental message, how to strike a balance between conservation and development, and how most humans view their role in the world as being at the top of the food chain.

Ecohydrologist Emily Fairfax

Oh and yes the animals are cute too, thanks to director Daniel Chong's passion for the project. Originally he had pitched a feature on penguins, but it was nixed because it's been done before already!

But then he discovered that beavers are "nature's engineers" and thought that was really cool and took six years to develop Hoppers.

Don't watch too many of the trailers because some of the gags get old really fast. Just go watch it in the theatre!

Hoppers

Written and directed by Daniel Chong

105 minutes

Remembering Coco Lee

Lee's sisters want fans to remember her "bright smile"

Fans are mourning the loss of singer Coco Lee, who died on Wednesday after she attempted suicide on Sunday and had been in a coma since then. She was 48 years old.

Her older sisters made the announcement on Instagram, saying in part:

"With great sadness, we are here [to] break the most devastating news: Coco had been suffering from depression for a few. years but her condition deteriorated drastically over the last few months," the sisters said.

She married Rockowitz in 2011 at the Ritz-Carlton

"Although Coco sought professional help and did her best to fight depression, sadly that demon inside of her took the better of her."

They added that this year marked the 30th anniversary of Lee's career, and that they would now focus on looking after their elderly mother.

The Instagram post did not mention Lee's husband, Bruce Rockowitz, with whom she tied the knot in 2011 in a mega star-studded wedding celebration at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong. There were rumours in 2019 that the marriage was on the rocks, and that she had tried to get pregnant through in vitro fertilisation but was unsuccessful.

Last October she had moved out of their home and into a serviced apartment in the Four Seasons Hong Kong. But on June 30 she was hospitalised briefly, then moved into her sister's home on the Peak, where she attempted suicide.

Lee was best known for singing A Love Before Time, from Ang Lee's 2000 movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She was the first Chinese singer to perform the song at the Academy Awards the following year.

Throughout her three-decade career, Lee released 15 albums, and her single Do You Want My Love climbed to number four on the US Billboard charts in December 1999.

She also voiced the character Mulan in Disney's animated film in 1998 and sang the theme song, Reflection.

The last single she released in February was called Tragic. In her social media post at the end of 2022, Lee acknowledged she had an "incredibly difficult year", but encouraged her fans to spread positivity and "be an influential figure to inspire people."

It's devastating to discover how much pain she was in, and how she felt she had to keep it from people. But as her sisters say, she is now free from pain and depression, though she leaves behind a heartbroken family and legions of fans who admired her for years.