With a quality kids’ animated movie, a heart-warming true tale and an insightful political drama, there’s something for everyone on the big screen this week

HOPPERS (PG)

Director: Daniel Chong (feature debut)

Starring: the voices of Piper Curda, Jon Hamm, Dave Franco.

****

When the only way to save the animals is to become an animal

If you go out in the woods today … you better not be an animal seeking refuge in any kind of natural habitat.

Those pesky human beings are hellbent on turning all the open country they can find into closed residential developments.

So begins Hoppers, a lively, loveable and very entertaining animated adventure that ranks as the best original storytelling Pixar Studios have released in a long, long time.

With the bulldozers, steamrollers and tree-loppers already heading towards a beloved patch of forest greenery just near the sleepy town of Beaverton, the only form of resistance left resides with a feisty young student named Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda).

Beaverton’s absurdly ambitious Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) thinks the coast is clear for progress and profit to win the day, but he hasn’t counted on the serious solo threat to be posed by Mabel.

This is the point in the tale where Hoppers takes an unexpected and rather exciting leaf out of the Avatar playbook.

A local biology professor is experimenting with technology that allows humans to infiltrate the communities of all species by having their minds transferred into lifelike animal robots.

Fearless to a reckless degree, Mabel uses the professor’s gizmo to become a beaver. Her choice of disguise in important: if Mabel can persuade a single real beaver to take up residence in the Beaverton woods, all work on Mayor Jerry’s project will have to be abandoned due to strict environmental laws.

Hoppers really bursts to life as a movie experience once Mabel is embedded within the animal world, where she discovers a time-honoured set of rules and regulations that allow all species to live in harmony (even when the food chain dictates it is OK to eat each other!).

While there is indeed a lot going on throughout Hoppers, the movie is paced and scripted in such an accessible way that even the youngest viewers won’t get left behind during Mabel’s undercover crusade.

Being a Pixar production, the animation designs on display remain dazzlingly immersive and pleasing to the eye throughout.

In the voice-talent ranks, Curda and Hamm are both wonderful in their roles, particularly once a surprise twist kicks in during the final act where the pair must go from being adversaries to allies for reasons that cannot be revealed here.

With the Easter school holidays looming on the near horizon, this has to be the clear first choice for those seeking top-notch family-friendly fare.

Hoppers is now showing in general release.

I SWEAR (M)

****

General release.

A strong, yet stridently compassionate and deceptively heartwarming biopic of Tourette syndrome advocate John Davidson, a longtime sufferer of the much-misunderstood condition. The complex suite of symptoms associated with Tourette’s – which are not simply confined to involuntary outbursts of swearing – did not become apparent for Davidson until the age of 10. Growing up in Scotland during the 1980s was both the wrong place and time for the plucky and headstrong youngster to find the help he needed. In fact, with a mother unable to show any empathy for his condition and a world around him refusing to show any understanding whatsoever, it was impossible for Davidson (convincingly played by rising star Robert Aromayo) to find any help at all. That is until he finally finds his ‘people’: a no-nonsense ex-nurse (Maxine Peake) and a kindly local council worker (Peter Mullan). Do not for one moment assume this wonderful movie will be an ordeal to endure. The raw authenticity of Aromayo’s performance and an open-heartedly sincere and funny screenplay are gifts that keep giving right through to the end. Highly recommended.

LA GRAZIA (M)

***1/2

Selected cinemas.

A beautifully filmed and insightfully written portrait of a career coming to an end, and a life coming to a crucial crossroads. Toni Servillo stars as Mariano De Santis, a respected and accomplished President of Italy entering his final months in power. Nicknamed ‘Reinforced Concrete’ by friend and foe alike, Mariano has three important decisions to make before his exit is complete. A controversial euthanasia bill awaits his yea or nay – the powers-that-be in the Vatican are watching intently – as do appeals for clemency from two people jailed in circumstances where justice may well have failed them. If Mariano seems a lonely, almost desolate figure, it is all to do with the absence of his late wife, and the unresolved issues her passing has left behind. This is a classy, deeply engrossing offering, perhaps best appreciated by those fascinated by what the ethical deployment of political power has come to mean in the present day. Yet another fine work from Italian writer-director Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty, Loro, Youth).