Film-maker on lessons his S'porean parents taught him

In the upcoming Pixar adventure comedy Hoppers, a young scientist uses a new technology that lets her mind "hop" into the body of a lifelike robotic beaver.

- Alison de Souza

LOS ANGELES - In the upcoming Pixar adventure comedy Hoppers, a young scientist uses a new technology that lets her mind "hop" into the body of a lifelike robotic beaver.

Now able to communicate with real beavers and other animals, she discovers the surprising "pond rules", or rules of life, that creatures live by. The animated tale features the voices of American actors Piper Curda as animal-loving protagonist Mabel and Jon Hamm as the mayor trying to destroy the animals' habitat.

The film's writer-director Daniel Chong, whose parents migrated from Singapore to the United States before he was born, says the "pond rules" taught to him by his parents shaped his childhood in the US.

Due to open in Singapore cinemas on March 5, 2026, Hoppers is the big-screen feature debut of Chong, a Chinese-American animator known for creating the beloved Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears (2015 to 2019) and its spin-off, We Bare Bears: The Movie (2020).

Chong, 46, was born in North Dakota and grew up in southern California, where he still lives today.

Speaking to The Straits Times over Zoom, he says his immigrant parents' Singaporean values "almost certainly" rubbed off on him as a child.