She believes that they are being held against their will inside the classroom
She has attempted multiple times to free them (seriously, is there no adult to guide her)
Her mom seems to be the workaholic, no-time-for-her-kid (which seems so outdated and backward tbh)
So she was often left at her grandma’s
Her grandma is very cool and likes nature and (as we learn that Mabel kinda has anger issues) teaches her to ground through nature and the glade
So eventually grandma died (there should have been a trigger warning for this)
We see 19 y/o who’s now a student who’s also a full-time animal rights activist
Mabel often fights with the mayor and does not mind literally breaking a few bones while protesting
So the glade is now empty and the mayor is planning to build a highway over it which will reduce driving time to drum roll 4 minutes (ridiculous)
She tried to go around her neighborhood to get petitions but no one cares
Mabel’s professor then mentions how beavers are a keystone species that could bring the animals back to the glade
And so Mabel set up a food trap to catch a beaver
She inadvertently sees a beaver who turns out to be the professor herself
Basically, they have made animal avatars
Mabel stole the beaver avatar but got stolen by a bird (was that an eagle?) and got dropped somewhere the scientists haven’t explored before
She finally saw a beaver! But he’s almost eaten by a bear
breaking “pond rules” by saving the beaver, Mabel is taken to the mammal king who’s a beaver called George
George’s philosophy is basically we’re all in this together; but also, nature is nature so you gotta do what you need to do to survive (I like this message)
Mabel notes how contradictory it is
Eventually, Mabel learns that the animals left the glade because of a piercing sound only they can hear
She discovers a fake tree emitting this sound and brings it down
The beavers made a new dam and the glade pond was renewed
George names Mabel his paw (I know there are Game of Thrones references here I just can’t prove it)
The next morning, the mayor bombs the new dam and sets up more sound-emitting fake trees
Mabel urges George to call the council, which consists of kings from other animal classes
Mabel makes the council plan to squish the mayor, before accidentally squishing the insect king himself
The next day, Mabel tries to save the mayor from attacks from birds, fish, amphibians, and insects
ultimately, the scientists manage to catch her and bring her back to her body
George realizes Mabel’s beaver body was fake, seeing the wires inside her broken arm
All the other animals managed to seize the mayor, the scientists, and Mabel
Mabel wakes up tied to a chair, finding out that the animals forced the scientists to basically make a reverse human avatar (the mayor) controlled by the new insect king
Mabel convinces the mayor to control the beaver avatar (which for some reason now has its arm fixed) and free them
They hatch a plan during the mayor’s (actually the insect king, titan) event to get him back to his true body
The mayor becomes really really weird publicly and everyone was so chill about it
The mishap ends up spreading fire in the glade and into the city
In order to stop the fire, they break the pond’s dam to let water flow into the city
They make an ant the new insect king btw
The mayor finally gets the point and the next day, starts clearing up the glade
Oh, before all this, there was an exchange between Mabel and the mayor that went like “[The mayor] will still try to build the highway” and “[Mabel] will still try to stop him, but right now [they’re] on the same side.”
Mabel graduates and works under the professor whose research was shut down
She can no longer talk to George, but the film ends with him sitting beside her on a rock where she used to sit with her grandma