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Like most people in their early thirties, you could argue that Pixar is experiencing an identity crisis. Starting in 1995 with the first “Toy Story� movie, the animation studio has been lauded for many of its colorful feature films that communicate big ideas and well-earned sentimentality through imaginative premises. But for every modern classic like “Finding Nemo� or “Ratatouille,� there seems nowadays to be an “Elio� or “Elemental� that is too emotionally labored or glib in its metaphor. What you certainly can’t accuse Pixar’s latest effort, “Hoppers� of being is formulaic, even if this refreshing change of pace lurches a bit too often.

Admittedly, you have to endure a somewhat familiar setup before the film truly unleashes its inner weirdness. Mabel (Piper Curda) is a staunch young environmentalist who causes a raucous at school when she tries to free all the classroom pets from their cages. Sullen over the injustice, she finds solace in the tranquility of her grandmother’s backyard glade. Years later, after her grandmother has passed, a young adult Mabel is further galvanized to prevent Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) of Beaverton from replacing the site with a freeway. While the cheap emotional hook feels quickly discarded, the graceful imagery it produces is the movie’s true allure: the subtle interconnectivity of nature granting us a greater purpose.