Nowadays, the entertainment world seems like it is getting smaller. With Warner Bros and Paramount set to merge, following Netflix’s failure to score the former, more studio crossovers are taking place. In a surprise twist, one of Disney’s latest movies has a major reference to a Cartoon Network classic. What makes this twist that much more surprising is that it was a moment that many might have missed on their first viewing, but luckily, online fans were able to catch the crossover in action.
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Recently, Pixar’s latest animated movie, Hoppers, hit theaters, with the cinematic outing having some major ties to Cartoon Network. The CG-animated movie is directed by Daniel Chong, who has worked on quite a few Disney projects in the past. These titles include the likes of Cars 2, Ligthyear, Elio, Elemental, and Inside Out 2, with Hoppers being one of the most idiosyncratic entries to date. What you might not have known is that Chong was also the creator of Cartoon Network’s We Bare Bears, one of the most successful cartoons from the cable network. In a surprise twist, the Hoppers director managed to sneak in the three bears for a cameo that you can see for yourself below.
The Success of Hoppers
In its opening weekend, Hoppers took the top spot at the box office with around $48 million USD. This makes the biggest opener for an original Pixar movie since the release of Coco in 2017. On the critical front, both audiences and critics have seemingly fallen in love with the animated movie, as it sits over ninety percent in each category.
Recently, we here at ComicBook.com had the chance to talk with director Daniel Chong about Hoppers, and the animator was more than happy to discuss the film and its most popular character. “We kind of got an inkling that he was going to be a fan favorite even before he became a meme. We were doing an audience preview, and the movie was kind of not done yet. And they asked the audience, ‘Who’s your favorite character?’ And everyone raised their hand, said, ‘We love Tom!’ Kids were yelling it, adults were yelling it. They all loved Tom. And he had like, this much screen time. And we were just like, what’s going on? What happened? Because we had done other audience previews, and it was always King George, it was always Mabel, and they still loved those characters, but Tom was suddenly the rock star that popped out. And then, sure enough, a month later, he went viral.”
As for We Bare Bears, the Cartoon Network favorite doesn’t have any major news on the horizon. Following the spin-off series, We Baby Bears, the trio have not yet acknowledged that they will be making a comeback. With Chong moving onto feature-length films, the idea of a revival seems much less likely, though wilder things have transpired within the world of animation.
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Image courtesy of Tor Books/Macmillan -
Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme
