Can picture books spoil a movie?

Spoiler alert: yeah, kinda, so be cautious reading on.

By now, we’ve all seen trailers for the upcoming Disney-Pixar animated feature Hoppers, about a technology where people can essentially transplant their brain into ultra-realistic animal robots.

The Pond Crew starts off as a simple introduction to all the various characters in the film and their personalities. But halfway, it refocuses on the actual plot of the film. Unlike the fleet footed but effective summary of Step into Reading’s take on The Force Awakens, called Star Wars: This is Rey, the events are quarantined into such a small section of the books that we don’t really have cause and effect, just effect. Is the plot focused around climate change, human carelessness, or a comic incident with tragic results? It’s not really clear.The bigger question, though: how is the insect queen a butterfly or moth, yet her prince is only a caterpillar? Is the implication that their lifecycle is so fleeting, that this isn’t a major age gap? (Despite the difference, he does have a thick mustache.)

Regardless, the book would have been justified focusing solely on the animals, as opposed to becoming distracted with Mabel, Mayor Jerry, and plot. There’s surely some sort of comedic interaction between the various Royals that could have been used to fill the pages and give us a deeper understanding of what makes them tick.