I went to an animated movie yesterday, with no children in tow. On purpose. And I enjoyed it.

I’d seen the trailer. Gotten good reviews from one son and grandson. Read a review from an environmental blogger about it. It was enough to push me to get up early on a Saturday and make my way to movie theater. With popcorn in hand (is it ever too early for popcorn?), we sat with 2 other movie goers and watched.

I was drawn to the movie because of its environmental plot. I love that the opening scene was a young student rescuing class pets from captivity, because she clearly and completely loved animals. And I love that the solution to the trouble she kept getting into at school was spending time in nature with her grandmother.

For some years now I’ve worked to make attention to the environment and cultivating students’ love and understanding of it “ordinary” in the classroom. I want students to make lifestyle choices with the environment in mind. Luckily I teach at a school with a wonderful garden (that includes 40 minutes of time with a garden teacher each week), a pretty strong recycling ethic, and a system for children to compost their food waste. My students also go to school across the street from the ocean, so access to the wonders of our planet is right in front of them.

Back to Hoppers. The story includes a short-sighted politician who uses some underhanded, certainly unethical, practices to convince the public to go along with his plans. And the local university has a teacher/scientist using “cutting edge” technology to better understand local wildlife.

If you’re interested in a positive environmental message in a cute movie, you’ll enjoy Hoppers. There’s a couple of scary parts if your children are very young…and honestly, you don’t need kids to enjoy the movie. I can feel a bit of influence from Wild Robot in this story–and love when animals and humans are able to communicate effectively.

If you get a chance to check it out, let me know what you think.