One of the most thrilling race experiences of the year is coming up fast, and you won't want to miss it. MotoGP Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas is the only North American round of the world's premier motorcycle racing championship, and it's speeding into Circuit of The Americas on April 8-10, 2022.
On deck for the three-day event is a lineup of MotoGP, MotoAmerica, Moto2, and Moto3 racing, along with the North American Talent Cup, which will be there for the first time.
Two fan zones will be packed with the FMX Motorcycle Stunt Show, Red Bull athletes, motorcycle vendors, and amusement rides, while the newly expanded Lonestar Land will have mouthwatering Texas barbecue, music, and amazing photo opps.
Fans can even take a parade lap on the track with fellow motorcycle enthusiasts in front of thousands of cheering fans with a Geico Cycle Coral package.
The insurance company is also providing free motorcycle parking, or you can roll up in an RV and set up camp mere steps from all the action.
The coolest part? You could win a pair of premium grandstand seats located at Turn 15. Simply head to CultureMap’s Instagram and like this post, follow both @culturemapsa and @cota_official, and tag your race-day buddy for the chance to win. We'll select and notify the winner on Wednesday, March 30.
Of course, if you don't want to take any chances, you can purchase an array of ticket options, ranging from $42 general admission grandstand seats to the Ducati package, which includes a "taste of Italy" food sampling and the chance to take your Ducati for a lap around the world-famous COTA track.
Mabel (Piper Kurda) and King George (Bobby Moynihan) in Hoppers.
For the first 15 years of its history, animation studio Pixar delivered one classic film after another, an astonishing streak that included their first 11 movies. Things got bumpy starting with Cars 2 in 2011, and even though the majority of their output has been good-to-great ever since, their releases are no longer considered slam dunks like they once were.
They’re back with an original film, Hoppers, trying to return to form by going back to the animal world. The film centers on Mabel (Piper Kurda), a 19-year-old environmentalist who’s trying to stop a new highway being built by Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) in the fictional city of Beaverton. Her activism has as much to do with helping displaced local animals as it does with being nostalgic for her youth, in which she spent years observing nature with her Grandma Tanaka (Karen Huie).
She finds an unlikely possible solution when she discovers that her college professors have created a system that allows them to transfer - or hop - their consciousness into animal-like robots. Hijacking a beaver robot, Mabel joins up with the local wildlife, including beaver King George (Bobby Moynihan), to try to convince them to help her execute her plan. But with the highway almost complete and Mayor Jerry willing to do anything to make it happen, Mabel might be too late.
Directed by Daniel Chong and written by Jesse Andrews from a story by Chong, the film cycles through a variety of genres in its 105-minute running time, including comedy, drama, thriller, and even a touch of Pixar-style horror. When Pixar has been at its best, it seamlessly goes back and forth between genres, trusting that audiences will go along with it for the ride, and Hoppers feels like a return to form in that respect.
Humor rules the day as Mabel adjusts to being part of the animal world while her professors desperately try to get her and their robot back. Mabel encounters not only wildly confusing things like “pond rules” (if a predator catches you, you don’t fight it), but also the existence of a hierarchy within the world that involves kings or queens from various animal classes like reptiles, birds, amphibians, fish, and insects. Her one-track mind and the way of the world she is invading clash in a variety of funny ways.
As the film goes along, Chong, Andrews, and the rest of the filmmaking team also find a way to burrow into the audience’s heart. There are many elements that threaten to tip into eye-rolling territory, but the filmmakers consistently pull back before that happens. The number of fun characters on both the human and animal side helps in that regard, as does the simple yet profound message they’re trying to convey.
Pixar has assembled one of the best voice casts in recent memory for this film, including such big names as Meryl Streep, Dave Franco, Melissa Villaseñor, Vanessa Bayer, and the late Isiah Whitlock, Jr. However, due to the sheer number of characters, only Kurda, Moynihan, and Hamm truly stand out. Still, they all fit together well and give the always-stellar animation even more life.
Since the pandemic, Pixar has only released one truly great film (Inside Out 2), but with Hoppers and the seemingly bulletproof Toy Story 5 coming within a few months of each other, they might go back-to-back on that front. Like the classic films from the studio, it has goofy, heartfelt, and exciting parts, mixing together for an enthralling time at the theater.
