University of Minnesota expert helped make animated beavers in ‘Hoppers’ true to life

As an eco-hydrologist, Emily Fairfax spends most days splashing around in wetlands in muck boots, in a classroom or behind a computer.

Last week was a surreal experience for Fairfax: She was in Los Angeles, walking the red carpet at the premiere of a new Hollywood film, Disney-Pixar’s “Hoppers.”

"I think it's probably the only time I'll get a movie credit in my life,” she said in an interview last week. “It's not a usual part of my line of work."

Fairfax, 33, is an assistant geography professor at the University of Minnesota. She’s spent the past decade studying beavers and how they change landscapes by altering the flow of rivers and streams. 

Now, she gets to see some of that work reflected on the big screen.

"There's movie stars that are part of it, and there's audience members laughing and crying,” Fairfax said. “It's not all my research that's up there, but I can definitely see the echoes of it. And that it was just really cool."

In the movie, a teenaged animal lover named Mabel uses new technology to “hop” her consciousness into a robotic beaver, so she can communicate with real animals. Beavers are key characters in the movie, which also features a menagerie of other species.

Fairfax's role as a science expert for the movie began in 2021. After she gave a presentation about beavers in California, Pixar — the animation team behind such movies as “Inside Out” and “Toy Story” — reached out and asked if she would give a similar talk to some of its staff.  

"Over the next five years, it escalated into more and more talks,” Fairfax said. “I took the whole art team out into the field for a week and put them in waders and dragged them through the ponds." 

She watched early versions of the movie and offered feedback about how the beaver looked, behaved and interacted with other animals. Over time, Fairfax said, the movie's depiction of beavers became more scientifically accurate.

"I think what ultimately happened was the character of beavers became really genuine,” she said. “It wasn't just another cuddly animal. This was a unique character that was very true to real beaver biology."

Fairfax said she complained to the team about how beavers are often inaccurately portrayed in film and TV, and the Pixar team listened.

One example: Beavers are often pictured sitting with their flat tails stretched out behind them. But they can't do that, because their spine extends all the way to the tip of their tail, Fairfax said. So they actually tuck it underneath them.

"But no one ever shows them that way,” she said. 

In the movie, the beavers all sit correctly on their tails, Fairfax said — except Mabel, the robotic beaver. Her tail stretches out behind her, a telltale clue that she’s not real.

Not every bit of feedback Fairfax offered made it into the movie. She said she pointed out that beavers’ powerful teeth are orange, not pearly white, as they’re often portrayed. The orange color comes from a hard, iron-rich enamel, making their self-sharpening teeth excellent tools for chewing trees.

The Pixar team told her orange teeth just didn't look right with the animated beavers’ orangish fur, so they made them off-white instead — “a good compromise,” Fairfax said.

There’s even a character in the movie named for her — a biology professor named Dr. Sam, whose full name is Dr. Samantha Emily Fairfax. And a classroom scene features a whiteboard with her notes and equations in her actual handwriting.

“Honestly, it’s surreal,” she said. “Sometimes I’m sitting here and I’m like, ‘Well, none of that could have possibly been real. Back to my everyday life.’”

Beaver science

Fairfax said the movie does a good job portraying beavers as powerful engineers whose dam-building can dramatically change an ecosystem for the better and provide habitat for other wildlife. 

“When you lose that beaver, you also lose the homes for the other animals, and I think that's a message that not everybody really understands,” she said. “If you trap a beaver out, if you remove its dam, you will take away a lot more than just the beaver from that ecosystem, whether you meant to or not." 

Fairfax acknowledged that many people think of beavers as a nuisance or a pest. They're stubborn, and they don't notify humans of their plans before they build a dam or plug a culvert that floods a road. 

"They're second only to us in their ability to modify the physical Earth, so we get frustrated by them,” she said.

Fairfax’s research has shown how beavers can make the landscape more resilient to damage from flooding, drought and wildfires. 

When beavers build dams, they also dig little canals that help spread the water out onto the landscape. That allows it to seep slowly into the soil, filtering out nutrients and keeping plants lush and green. 

Fairfax said "Hoppers" departs from past movies that often portrayed wetlands as gross and scary places, rather than full of rich biodiversity.

"It's really showing how beautiful they are and how incredible they are,” she said. “Yes, they are muddy, and yes, they are messy … But they're really special places worth protecting."

Lasting impacts

Fairfax hopes "Hoppers’" impact will be similar to that of the 2003 Pixar movie "Finding Nemo,” which inspired public interest in ocean conservation. After all, she said, a movie can reach an audience of millions — far more than her research ever could.

The movie also depicts the tension between human needs and nature conservation. Fairfax said she hopes people also take away the lesson that both humans and animals are part of the ecosystem.

"Our best path forward is definitely to work together, instead of to constantly be butting heads with the animal world,” she said.

• Talking Volumes: Min Jin Lee on 'American Hagwon'
• Sam Zimmerman celebrates North Shore roots in ‘Walking My Ancestors’ Path’
• MN Shortlist Oct. 16-22: Twin Cities Film Fest, ‘Swingposium,’ Walker Design Triennial, scary books and more
• New film documents Minnesotans who stood up during ICE surge