“Hoppers” is Pixar at its best, a story with warmth, humor, exciting action, endearing characters, and a reassuringly expansive notion of community. It has charm and a touch of magic, but it is grounded—literally. The conflict at the center of the story is between Mabel Tanaka (Lila Liu as a child, Piper Curda as a college student), who loves a stretch of pristine land populated by wildlife, and Jerry Generazzo, the town’s energetic and glad-handing mayor (Jon Hamm), who wants to build a Beaverton Beltway through the property.

There is an equally compelling conflict within Mabel. This is where Pixar’s signature compassion for our most human vulnerabilities really shines. Director Daniel Chong, who also created the story, and screenwriter Jesse Andrews understand that anger tries to fool us into thinking it comes from a place of strength and will help get us what we want. But more often, it comes from fear, and it doesn’t help at all. We first meet Mabel as a child who tries to “rescue” classroom pets. (One is a turtle named Crush, like the character in “Finding Nemo,” one of a few affectionate nods to the Pixar Cinematic Universe).

Mabel is furious about the animals being confined to tanks and cages, and even more furious about not being able to return them to their native habitats.  She is dropped off with her grandmother (Karen Huie), who brings her to the glade and tells her to “be very still and watch and listen.” Mabel begins to calm down. “I used to get angry,” Grandmother says quietly. As they look out at the trees and water, she adds, “It’s hard to be mad when you feel like you’re part of something big.” The glade and the grandmother will help Mabel develop a sense of home and inspire her as she grows up.

At age 19, Mabel is a college student. We know she’s a rebel and a badass because she rides a skateboard and has a cast on her wrist. She is still mourning the loss of her grandmother, and she is angry again, this time at Mayor Jerry and the planned destruction of the glade. He says he can proceed because it is no longer an animal habitat. All the animals are gone.

Mabel’s professor is Samantha Fairfax (voiced by Kathy Najimy, the character name a tribute to beaver scholar Dr. Emily Fairfax, who consulted on the film). Dr. Sam has been conducting experiments with transferring her consciousness to a 3D-printed robot beaver, the better to study animal behavior, especially the dam-building beavers, a “keystone species.” “Like ‘Avatar!’” Mabel says. “Not like ‘Avatar!’” Dr. Sam insists. It kind of is, so just go with it. Mabel grabs the equipment and takes over the beaver robot to figure out how to repopulate the glade and stop construction. When a movie scientist in a lab says, “This technology must not fall into the wrong hands,” you know it’s about to do just that and will likely be a lot of fun to see.

As a beaver, Mabel discovers that she can understand the language of all of the animals. She is befriended by George (Bobby Moynihan), the king of the mammals, who wears a tiny crown. She is frustrated by his cheerful, trusting outlook and his literally sanguine approach to what “The Lion King” more delicately refers to as “the circle of life.” The “Pond Rules” include understanding that predators will eat prey. That is handled with good humor, but parents should know that some bug characters and a worm do not make it to the end of the movie.

Initially impatient, Mabel becomes touched by George’s trust in her, and by the other Pond Rules: Don’t Be a Stranger (greet everyone by name) and We’re All in This Together. George convenes a meeting of all the kings and queens of the animal kingdom. And, given the complications of differing interspecies priorities and the political realities, things get out of hand.

Mabel’s conflicts with Jerry, her urgency over protecting the land and wildlife, the frantic efforts of Dr. Sam and her crew to get the beaver robot back, and return Mabel’s consciousness to her own head, along with Mabel’s internal struggles, are brought together with great skill, and the action sequences are exceptionally well-paced, inventive, and exciting. The voice talent includes Meryl Streep as the insect queen and Dave Franco as her conniving son who goes from caterpillar to butterfly to… um, no spoilers. “SNL” alums Vanessa Bayer and Melissa Villaseñor make small roles as a shark named Diane and a bear named Ellen vivid and meaningful.

The Pixar artists show us the beauty of the natural world through the eyes of Mabel and her grandmother, a place of peace and healing if we understand how profoundly it connects us to all living things. The visuals have a fabulously tactile sense of plant and water textures, and the dam built by the beavers is as meticulously engineered as in real life, like the one that saved a Czech town over a million dollars.

At its very big heart, the film is about empathy for others of all species, underscored by a welcome diversity of its characters. The film is sensitive in its handling of Mabel’s grief (watch what happens to her grandmother’s jacket), her falling back into anger when she is scared, and how that impairs her ability to find a solution. We get to rethink our original ideas about Jerry and his commitment to his community, too.

In a world that is often troublingly us vs them, it is good to see the Pond Rules (well, the last two anyway) explored with a deep understanding of Grandmother’s wisdom, letting us all see that more is accomplished when “we” means all of us are a part of something big.