Ginger the beaver was robbed of her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The geriatric rodent, who ironically harbored a tree allergy, died at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in 2022 at nearly 14 years of age, but not before serving as inspiration for Pixar’s animated sci-fi comedy “Hoppers.” In the film, college student Mabel uses technology to hop her consciousness into a lifelike robotic beaver and communicate with other animals.

But even though she never got her star, Ginger did get recognition with a credit in the film that thanked both her and the zoo. The movie was released in March.

“She was the best,” said Jenny Quinn, her former zookeeper. “She was a sweet old lady doing her own thing. She’d come out, eat snacks, and let guests touch her on the back. We’d go for walks around the zoo where she could wander up to a natural area near her enclosure, cut down a tree of her choosing, and bring it back to her den. She’d turn her nose up at my sticks.”

Somehow, Ginger caught Pixar’s attention during the pandemic, and they reached out to the zoo. Rachel Wright, the zoo’s communications and marketing director, suspects it was due to their heavy social media presence, where they featured their animals, including the beavers.

“We were doing Zen moments of ‘Chill out and watch this animal do cute things,'” Wright said. “She was featured in a lot of those moments. For 20 minutes, she was eating a sweet potato.”

Representatives from Pixar, Ginger and her keepers did a Zoom call in 2021, where Quinn showed off the beaver and talked about her tree allergy, a funny detail that didn’t make it into the movie.

When keepers noticed that Ginger seemed extra itchy and was scratching a lot, they did some testing and discovered she was allergic to all trees except cottonwood and elm. No more aspen or pine branches for her. And she also got allergy medicine every day to deal with the Colorado pollen. Quinn would hide it in a fruit beloved by many herbivores.

“I could cut a 2-inch chunk of banana and stick pills in it, and she would eat it right up, no hesitation,” she said. “She was the easiest animal to medicate.”

Five years post-Zoom, the zoo didn’t realize Ginger was a film influencer until “Hoppers” watchers reached out to tell them about the credit.

Quinn isn’t sure which, if any, character Ginger inspired, though if she had to guess, it would be Mabel the beaver, with her scruffy fur.

“Her hair is messed up, and it reminds me of Ginger’s bed head,” she said.

Pixar did a good job capturing beavers, particularly the way they sit on their tails, with them poking out between their legs.

“It made me so happy to see them get that right,” Quinn said. “And one of the characters teaches Mabel to kick with her back feet and not worry about her front feet. It was so cute because it’s so accurate and perfect.”

There was, however, one detail in the film that required a suspension of disbelief — when a bird picked up and carried a beaver.

“Beavers are big animals. Girls are 45 to 50 pounds,” Quinn said. “No owl would pick up a beaver. They’re the second-largest rodent in the world. But it’s OK, it’s a cartoon.”

The movie was spot on about the importance of beavers to the environment, Quinn says. One of the film’s major plot points was how they created a community for everyone around them. They build dams to stop up flowing water and create bodies of water where they build their lodges. Because the lodges are in the middle of the water, like a moat in front of a castle, and their entrance is usually underwater, the creatures living inside are protected from predators. More than 40 different species share a lodge with beavers, according to one documentary Quinn watched.

“They create a huge riparian area. Beavers poop a lot, so they’re creating nutrient-rich soil for trees and grasses,” she said. “And they’re cutting down trees, which helps clear space for new growth, and clearing out fallen logs to build their lodge, which is fire mitigation. You can see areas where beavers have been eradicated, and they reintroduce them, and 10 years later, it’s incredible how green and lush they can make it.”