"Hoppers'" Viral Lizard was Initially Rejected by Disney
We could have been introduced to Hoppers' viral lizard earlier than we were.
We live in a franchise-focused movie world where it seems like original movies are constantly struggling. This makes Pixar's recent film Hoppers a strange anomaly that, while it didn't completely own the box office, made some solid money and, perhaps more importantly, became a cultural moment, however briefly. The film has a tiny lizard to thank for at least some of its success, a lizard which Disney apparently initially rejected.
What's Happening:
- While Pixar's Hoppers is a movie that has beavers as its main characters, arguably the most popular character in the film was a lizard named Tom. This was largely due to a clip of Tom playing with a mobile phone and constantly slamming the lizard emoji, which was tacked on to the end credits of Elio as a way to promote Hoppers' upcoming release.
- In a recent appearance at the View Conference in Torino, Italy (via Cartoon Brew), Hoppers director Daniel Chong discussed what he called the "little stupid video" that became a meme.
- The team making Hoppers created the clip with the hopes of using it as the official announcement of the film, which took place at the D23 event in 2024
- According to Chong, Disney declined to use the clip, though he said he understood the decision, as the clip wasn't particularly representative of the project.
- Clearly, Disney didn't dislike the video entirely, as it was added to Elio, and after somebody recorded it and posted it, the clip went viral.
- Tom would become a significant portion of the early promotion of Hoppers, with the lizard even getting a Fortnite skin.
- Hoppers producer Nicole Paradis Grindle said, "In a world of known IP and franchises, we found a little hack to help Hoppers, our original film, boost its profile with audiences before it came out"
- Hoppers would go on to have the best box office opening for an original animated film since Coco. So clearly it worked.
More Pixar News:
- Pixar animators will be appearing in November at the Walt Disney Family Museum.
- Pixar was recently awarded a significant California tax credit for film production.
- Check out this look at how one of Toy Story 5's scenes was put together.