Daniel Chong, director of Pixar's Hoppers, just gave us something rare: proof that the studio still takes creative risks.
To celebrate the film's box office success—it debuted at number one last weekend—Chong released an early 2D animation test from 2020 that was used as visual inspiration for the final film. And it's fascinating, both for what it shows about the creative process and what it reveals about Pixar's current identity crisis.
The test is loose, sketchy, and full of the kind of visual experimentation that Pixar used to be known for. It's a reminder that before they became the Sequel Factory, they were the Animation Innovation Lab. Toy Story pioneered computer animation. Finding Nemo cracked underwater physics. The Incredibles figured out how to make superheroes work in CG. WALL-E told a story with almost no dialogue.
Then they made Cars 2, Monsters University, Finding Dory, Cars 3, Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4, and Lightyear. They became victims of their own success, endlessly mining their back catalog because original IP is risky and sequels are reliable.
Hoppers represents a return to original storytelling—a risky, weird premise about body-swapping between humans and animals that could have easily been a disaster. The fact that it worked, both creatively and commercially, is significant.
The 2D animation test Chong shared shows a willingness to experiment with style and form during development. It's not the final look of the film—Hoppers is standard Pixar CG—but it demonstrates a creative process that starts with "what if we tried this?" rather than "here's the formula that worked before."
This matters because 's identity is at stake. They've always positioned themselves as the prestige animation studio, the place where artistry and commerce coexist. But when you're churning out sequels and prequels, that brand erodes. Audiences start seeing you as Animation with better lighting.
