From Story to Animation: "We Put This Into This" with the Team Behind Pixar’s Hoppers (2026)

“Hop” over to our theater for an in-depth look at how story and animation inform each other to create the world of Disney and Pixar’s latest feature film, Hoppers (2026) with Pixar’s Margaret Spencer, John Cody Kim, James W. Brown, and Cody Lyon. We can’t “hop” you into the body of a robotic animal like Mabel does in the film, but we can put you in the shoes of the animators and story team that brought this film to life.

Children under 12 years of age must be accompanied by an adult who shall be responsible for the child at all times.

Tickets for From Story to Animation: "We Put This Into This" with the Team Behind Pixar’s Hoppers (2026) will be available as follows:

• Walt’s Circle Donors: Purchase tickets beginning Tuesday, March 3 at noon PST by emailing membership@wdfmuseum.org.
• Supporter, Founding, and Friend-level members: Purchase tickets beginning Wednesday, March 4 at noon PST by emailing membership@wdfmuseum.org.
• All member levels: Purchase tickets beginning Thursday, March 5 at noon PST via the Member Portal.
• Public (non-members): Remaining tickets available beginning Friday, March 6 at noon PST online.

Join as a member or upgrade your current membership to receive priority access and discounts to programs like these. For more information, please visit our Membership page.

Margaret Spencer has been a story artist at Pixar Animation Studios since 2019. She studied animation and Italian at USC before she began at Pixar as a Story Intern. She has worked on projects such as Lightyear (2022), Turning Red (2022), Elio (2025), Win or Lose (2025), and, most recently, was a story Lead on Hoppers (2026). She loves movies, sailing, yoga, and the New Yorker (for more than just the cartoons, she swears).

John Cody Kim started at Pixar as a story artist in spring of 2021. He was on Hoppers (2026) the moment he was hired, and worked as a Story Lead and then Story Supervisor until the movie was finished in late 2025. Prior to Pixar, he studied Character Animation at California Institute of the Arts and began as a story artist at Blue Sky Animation, working on projects including Spies in Disguise (2019) and Nimona (2023). Outside of drawing and making movies, he loves snowboarding, camping, rock climbing—all the outdoorsy, nature stuff!  

James W. Brown has been an animator at Pixar Animation Studios since 2013. He’s worked on 16 pictures (short films and features) since joining the Studios, including Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Turning Red (2022). Brown was also the Animation Supervisor on the SparkShorts film Float (2019) and recently a Directing Animator on Hoppers (2026).  

Before joining Pixar, he worked as a VFX animator for 13 years. He also served as Animation Supervisor on several films at Tippett Studio.

Brown grew up in Livermore, California, and attended the University of California, Davis. He currently resides in the East Bay.

Cody Lyon is an animator from Silt, Colorado. He attended Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where he studied character animation and worked as a freelance illustrator.   

After college, he worked as a 3D artist at Niantic Labs on Pokémon Go. Cody started animating at Pixar in 2016 and has worked on films such as Coco (2017), Soul (2020), Luca (2021), Elemental (2023), and Hoppers (2026).  

He currently lives in Oakland, California and eats a donut any chance he gets.

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