With "Hoppers," Pixar looks for a boost to its original animated films

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In 2020, “We Bare Bears” creator Daniel Chong came to Pixar leaders with an idea.He had seen documentaries in which robotic animals with eyeball cameras captured footage of natural habitats.But what if that technology was so good that no one could tell the difference? And to make it even more zany — what if someone went undercover in that animal body?That idea became the basis of Walt Disney Co.

and Pixar’s new animated movie, “Hoppers,” which debuts this week.The film is Pixar’s latest attempt to break through at the box office with an original story, something that has been a struggle for the storied animation studio since the pandemic.The pressure of Pixar’s legacy can be a little overwhelming and coming up with an original idea is difficult, said Chong, who directed “Hoppers” and also serves as a writer on the film.“For a Pixar movie, it’s very high stakes,” he said.

“But I just felt like I had a really funny idea, and I thought as long as we made it really funny and had characters you loved, to me that’s the key to every Pixar movie — really awesome characters that really connect emotionally with people.”Recent theatrical success for Pixar as well as other animation studios has come from sequels, such as 2024’s “Inside Out 2,” which grossed $1.7 billion globally.But the reputation of Emeryville-based Pixar is built on its string of blockbuster originals, including 1995’s “Toy Story,” 2001’s “Monsters, Inc.” and 2004’s “The Incredibles,” making new stories crucial to the studio’s future.People like coming back to familiar characters like Woody and Buzz from “Toy Story,” but the studio can do only so many sequels, said Pete Docter, Pixar’s chief creative officer.

And some films don’t lend themselves to new chapters, he said, noting the studio’s efforts to look at “Monsters, Inc.”“We’ve been tr...