One Of Hoppers' Best Scenes Isn't In The Movie

One of the most visually stunning scenes we've gotten from Hoppers can't be found within the movie itself, providing an exciting spot of bonus content that can be seen outside of the film's theatrical release. Hoppers' early success has boded decidedly well for the movie, with its charm and visual appeal having netted it a promising $88 million worldwide in its first few days in cinemas.

Given this $88 million also means Hoppers has broken a box office record for Pixar by being one of its strongest performing movies since 2017's Coco, things seem to be in a promising place for the film, especially given the positive reviews the release has obtained thus far, which commonly cite the effort that went into its animation as a major positive. Interestingly, though, one of the most stunning scenes made for the movie isn't in the film itself.

Hoppers' Unused 2D Animation Test Makes You Almost Wish The Entire Movie Looked Like It

In a post celebrating the opening weekend of Hoppers, movie director Daniel Chong shared a celebration post, complete with a look at a 2D animation test made by Lorenzo Fresta back in 2020. The scene features what appears to be prototype versions of Mabel - in the "hopper" beaver robot body - and King George swimming side by side, in what may have been a different trial version of a similar sequence that happens in 3D in the first half of the final film.

While the 3D style of Hoppers manages to convey the personality and energy of the film well, this stylish look at what could have been for Hoppers is convincing in its own right, having a beautiful Studio Ghibli-esque quality to it that showcases the magic of the film's story and its focus on the wonders of nature, and that depicts the animal characters Hoppers revolves around in a truly engrossing and endearing overall manner.

Indeed, many of the comments reflect the potency of this short sequence, with more than one person expressing how much they wish they could see the movie rendered in this format. Unfortunately, it's also this exact divide between the animation test and the final result that means we didn't get to see this exact scene in the actual finished film, even if the end result for Hoppers is still a decidedly enjoyable experience on a visual and story-based level all the same.

Hoppers Being In 3D Makes It Impossible To Use The 2D Animation Test

Though Hoppers does play with its art style throughout the movie - like having two separate looks for the animal characters to differentiate between the interactions the animals have with each other and the humans in hopper form, and when the humans are unable to understand the animal characters - it doesn't delve into stylistic variations to the degree of having things like 2D sequences.

As such, having the 2D animation test in the actual finished movie would have been perhaps somewhat jarring, short of having it in the end credits sequence - and even then, this would have had its own challenges, given Hoppers has a post-credits scene and has a 3D animated end credits sequence that the animation test would have had to slot into.

Overall, while the moment being absent from Hoppers itself does make sense, it does also mean one of the best and most striking bits of the art around the movie isn't actually in the film itself - though this does at least hopefully reward those who delve further into learning about the release before or after their own viewing experience.