Director Daniel Chong Confirms Pixar Fans Have Already Spotted "Major Easter Egg" in New "Hoppers" Trailer

Some very attentive Pixar fans have already noticed what Director Daniel Chong is calling a “Major Easter Egg” in the new trailer for Hoppers that was just released. 

What’s Happening: 

• Yesterday, we got the first full trailer for the upcoming film from Pixar Animation Studios, Hoppers. 
• While most were enticed by the new original story, set to follow Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda), an animal lover who seizes an opportunity to use a new technology to ‘hop’ her consciousness into a life-like robotic beaver and communicate directly with animals. Using the technology, Mabel uncovers mysteries within the animal world that are beyond anything she could have imagined. 
• However, other fans with some eagle (bird pun!) eyes may have noticed a blink and you’ll miss it moment in this trailer that featured some familiar looking birds. 

• Later, the director of the new film, Daniel Chong, confirmed that they are the birds from the Pixar short film, For The Birds. 
• Chong explained that the birds were remodeled (there have been numerous software announcements that have outmoded the decades-old original short film) as an homage to For the Birds director and famed Pixar production designer Ralph Eggleston. 
• Chong adds that Eggleston was loved by many on the team, and even did some early development paintings for Hoppers even while he was sick. Eggleston passed away at the age of 56 back in 2022 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

• The short features a group of small, snarky birds perched on a telephone wire. They’re squabbling among themselves when a large, awkward bird tries to join them. Annoyed, the little birds mock him and try to push him away, only for their mean-spirited behavior to backfire spectacularly. The payoff is a classic slapstick moment that’s become one of Pixar’s most memorable gags.
• For the Birds originally premiered at the Annecy Film Festival on June 5, 2000, but gained wider attention when it was released in theaters with Monsters, Inc. on November 2, 2001. It later won Best Animated Short Film at the 2001 Oscars. 
• Recently, fans might have seen it in theaters again when it and Luca were re-released together in 2024. 

• Hoppers is set to arrive in theaters on March 6, 2026.