Hoppers

In the city of Beaverton, Mabel Tanaka spends her childhood with her grandmother in a nearby forest glade filled with wild animals. Inspired by her grandmother, Mabel develops a deep appreciation for nature and continues watching over the glade after her estranged parents leave town and her grandmother dies. When Beaverton's mayor, Jerry Generazzo, announces plans to replace the glade with a freeway—claiming the animals have already left—Mabel campaigns against the project but gains no support. Her activism causes her to neglect her college studies, drawing criticism from her biology professor, Dr. Sam Fairfax.

While trying to lure the animals back to the glade, Mabel discovers that Sam and her colleagues, Nisha and Conner, have secretly developed the "Hoppers" program, a technology that allows a human consciousness to "hop" into a robotic animal and experience life as that species. Despite Sam's warning that interfering with wildlife could have disastrous consequences, Mabel sees an opportunity to save the glade, hops into a robotic beaver, and escapes the lab.

Mistaken for a real beaver, Mabel is brought before Mammal King George, a beaver monarch sheltering the glade's displaced animals in an overcrowded dam. She discovers an artificial tree emitting sound waves audible only to animals, secretly installed by Jerry to drive them away. Ignoring Conner's attempts to return her to the lab, Mabel destroys the device, prompting many animals to return to the glade. As she grows closer to George, who asks her to become his advisor, she prepares to reveal her true identity. Before she can, Jerry destroys the glade with explosives, installs more sound-emitting trees, and resumes construction.

Mabel and George convene a meeting of the Animal Council, attended by monarchs representing the Insect, Amphibian, Fish, Reptile, and Bird classes. Initially indifferent, the Council is persuaded to act after Mabel presents the destroyed sound tree and warns that Jerry will eventually target all their habitats. However, her speech instead inspires the Council to assassinate Jerry. When Mabel attempts to stop them, she accidentally kills the Insect Queen, making herself their next target. She and George flee while the animals destroy the robotic bodies Nisha and Conner had hopped into to help them escape, exposing the deception. The Insect Prince, Titus, crowns himself king and takes control of the Council.

Although upset that Mabel undermined his authority, George agrees to help protect Jerry after she confesses to feeling powerless and isolated. Joined by three animals Mabel befriended, they locate Jerry and force him to drive to the glade using text-to-speech software, hoping to stop the freeway project. Seagulls working for the Council pursue them and attempt to kill Jerry by dropping a shark named Diane onto his car. Though they escape, Jerry refuses to abandon the project, believing the ordeal is an elaborate attempt by Mabel to intimidate him. Frustrated, Mabel accidentally reveals their location to both the Council and the scientists. The scientists arrive and untether Mabel from the robotic beaver, causing her to faint and leaving George confused.

Mabel awakens tied up in Sam's lab beside Jerry, where the Council has taken everyone hostage and forced the scientists to build a robotic clone of Jerry for Titus to inhabit. Titus plans to impersonate the mayor and use the sound trees' frequencies to massacre the humans attending a political rally at the glade. Realizing her anger has clouded her judgment, Mabel reconciles with Jerry, who reluctantly hops into the robotic beaver to help them escape.

At the rally, Mabel tries to reason with Titus, but he refuses to abandon his plan. Jerry, the animals, and the scientists attempt to unhop him, but the effort fails and destroys the robotic beaver. During the struggle, Mabel knocks Jerry's phone onto a sound tree and climbs it to retrieve it. She tears off Titus's robotic face, preventing him from using facial recognition to unlock the phone and activate the attack. Enraged, Titus tears down the tree and reveals his intention to have the insects exterminate every other species, horrifying the Council. The collapsing tree destroys the robotic body and sparks a wildfire that spreads across the glade toward the city. After Titus is eaten by the Amphibian King, the Council joins Mabel, George, and the other animals in dismantling the dam, flooding the glade and extinguishing the fire before it reaches the city.

Mabel and Jerry reach a compromise: the freeway is rerouted, and the glade becomes a protected wildlife preserve. Mabel graduates from college, and although the Hoppers program is discontinued because of her actions, Sam hires her as an assistant. Though they can no longer communicate verbally, Mabel and George remain friends, with George using text-to-speech software to communicate with her.