In Disney and Pixar’s Hoppers, Piper Curda voices Mabel, a passionate animal lover who ferociously follows her heart. She cares deeply for creatures both big and small, though her patience for humankind occasionally wears thin. For Curda, the key was figuring out what kept Mabel consistent, even when the story’s chaos kept escalating.
And she had some help whether that was from within Pixar, personal experiences, or just a playlist which includes a song from Rage Against the Machine she made for the character she voiced. She breaks it all down in our exclusive interview, which includes a fun game where she communicates only with emjois.
Pixar’s Hoppers takes the classic “talk to animals” fantasy and cranks it into overdrive. Mabel is an animal lover who gets access to new technology that lets her “hop” her consciousness into a lifelike robotic beaver — which means she can finally communicate with animals directly. But the deeper she goes into that world, the stranger (and bigger) it gets. She bonds with the charismatic beaver King George (Bobby Moynihan) and finds herself racing to unite the animal kingdom against a very human problem: a smooth-talking local mayor, Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm), with a looming threat on the horizon.
It’s the kind of premise that can look unhinged on paper. It’s pure chaos, but one that has an underlinging message that resonates with the audience. And Hoppers only works because it’s anchored by a clear point of view. For Curda, that anchor was director Daniel Chong.
“I feel like I can pretty confidently say this would be anybody’s answer in the cast that you ask — Daniel, Daniel Chong, throughout the entire process, truly, was the North Star,” Curda said. “I mean, he just knows this movie, this script, every single one of these characters inside and out and backwards and forwards.”
Curda says the whole experience had a follow-the-leader energy, and she was happy to let Chong set the pace. “It was like a game of follow the leader — and he was the leader. I just followed him blindly,” Curda said. “I’d never done anything like this, and I already felt so new, maybe not even well-equipped. He kind of took me by the hand and dragged me along. If I didn’t feel grounded or safe, I’d just look to Daniel and go, ‘Okay, you’re here, I’m here — and what we’re making is really beautiful. So let’s do it.’”
While the film uses activism as a comedic device, it never loses sight of what Mabel is actually fighting for, which is what keeps the chaos tethered to something real. And when it came to striking that delicate balance between humor and heart, Curda says she leaned on her own life experience.
“My life experience definitely lent itself to that,” Curda said. “In some of the hardest moments of my life, the little bits of light that came through were humor, lightness, and fun. I had a friend pass away suddenly at the end of my freshman year of college, and it felt heavy and dark for a while. Then one day at lunch, my friends and I started joking about something, and we were laughing, and it was the first time it felt like everything was going to be okay. That feels true to life, and true to this movie. Even in the darkest moments, sometimes the one thing that can pull you out is a laugh or a joke.”
While Pixar isn’t known for needle drops, the film makes use of them as a means to profile the important characters. For Mabel, it was Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl.” Its a fitting song appropriate for her firecracker personality and staunch activism. But to get into Mabel’s headspace, Curda didn’t just rely on the script. She made a playlist.
“I made a playlist for Mabel that I still listen to sometimes, and ‘Rebel Girl’ is definitely on it,” Curda said. “My personal fun fact for her, not necessarily canon, is that her favorite song is ‘Know Your Enemy’ by Rage Against the Machine. So if I had to pick a different walk-up song for Mabel, it would be that one, for sure.”
Hoppers is loud, fast, and occasionally unhinged, but it is never random. It is guided. It is character-driven. It is the kind of movie where a punk anthem can double as an emotional thesis statement. In our full interview, Curda also walks through what the recording process was really like, shares who she would have loved to do full sessions with, and plays a quick emoji-only game inspired by the film’s animal-to-human communication.
Hoppers opens in theaters on March 6, 2026.