Directors: Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush (co-director)
Writers: Byron Howard, Jared Bush, Rich Moore, Josie Trinidad, Jim Reardon, Phil Johnston, Jennifer Lee
Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, J. K. Simmons, Nate Torrence
2016
Zootopia is structured around its message. Without the message, it becomes yet another run-of-the-mill, albeit impeccably crafted, Disney movie about anthropomorphic animals who learn to be themselves. With the message, it's a refreshingly smart and political mystery that has a lot to teach a lot of people. Unfortunately, I'm not fully on board with how the movie handles the message. Thankfully, I'm mostly on board with it!
The story begins simply enough, with small town rabbit Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) setting out to prove herself at the Police Academy. No bunny has ever joined the police force, you see, on account of their diminutive stature. Judy proves that it can be done, even in the face of harsh adversity from the academy, and gentle adversity from her parents. She graduates and receives assignment in Zootopia, a bustling metropolis with lush biomes for every kind of mammal. Centuries ago predator and prey were locked in an eternal battle for survival, but Zootopia was where they first banded together and decided to become one healthy community.
Except, Judy finds, the community is not all that healthy. Predators may not eat prey anymore, but there is still plenty of discrimination and corruption at the heart of the city. After dealing with the condescending Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) and a friendly fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) who turns out to be a con artist, Officer Judy Hopps has just about reached rock bottom with her optimism. But when some predators start disappearing, and others begin to revert back to their rabid predatorial instinct, Judy needs the help of Nick to unravel the mystery at the heart of the city.
Zootopia is about discrimination, in all shapes and forms. Judy faces discrimination for being a small mammal in a law enforcement position. Nick has dealt with "sly fox" stereotypes his whole life, to the point that it was simply easier to play into them. The discrimination gets even worse when predators begins reverting to their primal form, and widespread racial panic overtakes the city.
I say racial panic, but as an allegory Zootopia's specifics are all over the place. The discrimination Judy faces reads as gender discrimination in the workplace, but this is made confusing by the fact that a male bunny would also have faced that discrimination. The movie sets up a sort of racial barrier between predator and prey, but this becomes allegorically troubling when you realize that means one group has historically dominated the other group through its uncivilized physical superiority. The movie makes moves to deconstruct that last bit, but the confusing racial messaging is still there as our characters run through a natural history museum that displays mice with spears rising up against a sabretooth tiger. The movie could have gone one step further and deconstructed the way history is cobbled together and presented to us, but it only ever presents the past as fact.
What I'm saying is, Zootopia uses the topic of discrimination haphazardly, plugging it in wherever it is convenient for the narrative while also doing its best to make the discussion meaningful. It leads to some odd messaging when you dig into it, but luckily on the surface level it gives its audience a great set of tools for dealing with discrimination when they see it on a daily basis. "Only other rabbits can call rabbits cute," Judy reprimands Nick, and she is horrified when he begins to play with a lamb's wool because it's so soft. Kids will run into these situations, and they'll have more of a language to deal with it thanks to this movie. Zootopia wrings laughs from awkward experiences we've had in the past, but never loses sight of the meaningful way people from all walks of life can come together. The central relationship between Judy and Nick alone has one of the most complex arcs I've seen in a movie primarily targeted at children, and it is immensely satisfying to see it develop.
The plot is quite good, too. There are a few contrivances and conveniences, but nothing that can't easily be ignored. Once Judy goes down the path of investigating the animal disappearances, the film kicks into a quasi-noir narrative of shady dealings and questionable allegiances with some well-constructed chase sequences peppered in. More surprisingly, there are multiple scene of straight-up horror. I saw the movie with a bunch of people, including my nephews, and I kept wanting to check in with them to see how they were doing. If I considered these parts unsettling, I can't even imagine how compounded that feeling must be for children. It's a bold choice in a movie that is admirably full of bold choices.
They could afford to make those bold choices because the groundwork is all there, and it all works. Story elements recur, becoming more meaningful with every iteration, and the two main characters are just so damned likable. I'm a little bit in love with Judy, and I could watch Nick's facial expressions all day. I can't offhand think of a movie that does a better job of grafting human gestural language onto anthropomorphic animals. The level of attention to detail across species is incredible, even in the smallest of moments. In general, Zootopia is an absolute feast for the eyes. In an early sequence, an elevated train zips through all of the city's different biomes, and I found myself hoping against hope that the film wouldn't be constrained to one or two of them because all of the areas were spectacular to look at. Luckily, the movie takes us to quite a few of these fully realized locations. I kept marveling at how thoughtful the worldbuilders were about what sorts of mechanisms would be required in a world where many different species of mammals inhabit the same space. Everything from doors to elevators to cell phones to desserts need to be personalized.
I may have issues with the deep-seated thematic structure, but Zootopia does great work across the board. The dialogue is thoughtful and there are no shortage of entertaining moments. My brother has been telling me about the questions my five-year-old nephew keeps asking about the movie. They are questions that at their core have to do with wrongful imprisonment and the nature of our criminal rehabilitation system. I wouldn't consider Zootopia quite as essential as Inside Out, but as far as movies you and the children in your life ought to see, this certainly makes the list.
3 / 5 BLOBS
The story begins simply enough, with small town rabbit Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) setting out to prove herself at the Police Academy. No bunny has ever joined the police force, you see, on account of their diminutive stature. Judy proves that it can be done, even in the face of harsh adversity from the academy, and gentle adversity from her parents. She graduates and receives assignment in Zootopia, a bustling metropolis with lush biomes for every kind of mammal. Centuries ago predator and prey were locked in an eternal battle for survival, but Zootopia was where they first banded together and decided to become one healthy community.
Except, Judy finds, the community is not all that healthy. Predators may not eat prey anymore, but there is still plenty of discrimination and corruption at the heart of the city. After dealing with the condescending Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) and a friendly fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) who turns out to be a con artist, Officer Judy Hopps has just about reached rock bottom with her optimism. But when some predators start disappearing, and others begin to revert back to their rabid predatorial instinct, Judy needs the help of Nick to unravel the mystery at the heart of the city.
Zootopia is about discrimination, in all shapes and forms. Judy faces discrimination for being a small mammal in a law enforcement position. Nick has dealt with "sly fox" stereotypes his whole life, to the point that it was simply easier to play into them. The discrimination gets even worse when predators begins reverting to their primal form, and widespread racial panic overtakes the city.
I say racial panic, but as an allegory Zootopia's specifics are all over the place. The discrimination Judy faces reads as gender discrimination in the workplace, but this is made confusing by the fact that a male bunny would also have faced that discrimination. The movie sets up a sort of racial barrier between predator and prey, but this becomes allegorically troubling when you realize that means one group has historically dominated the other group through its uncivilized physical superiority. The movie makes moves to deconstruct that last bit, but the confusing racial messaging is still there as our characters run through a natural history museum that displays mice with spears rising up against a sabretooth tiger. The movie could have gone one step further and deconstructed the way history is cobbled together and presented to us, but it only ever presents the past as fact.
What I'm saying is, Zootopia uses the topic of discrimination haphazardly, plugging it in wherever it is convenient for the narrative while also doing its best to make the discussion meaningful. It leads to some odd messaging when you dig into it, but luckily on the surface level it gives its audience a great set of tools for dealing with discrimination when they see it on a daily basis. "Only other rabbits can call rabbits cute," Judy reprimands Nick, and she is horrified when he begins to play with a lamb's wool because it's so soft. Kids will run into these situations, and they'll have more of a language to deal with it thanks to this movie. Zootopia wrings laughs from awkward experiences we've had in the past, but never loses sight of the meaningful way people from all walks of life can come together. The central relationship between Judy and Nick alone has one of the most complex arcs I've seen in a movie primarily targeted at children, and it is immensely satisfying to see it develop.
The plot is quite good, too. There are a few contrivances and conveniences, but nothing that can't easily be ignored. Once Judy goes down the path of investigating the animal disappearances, the film kicks into a quasi-noir narrative of shady dealings and questionable allegiances with some well-constructed chase sequences peppered in. More surprisingly, there are multiple scene of straight-up horror. I saw the movie with a bunch of people, including my nephews, and I kept wanting to check in with them to see how they were doing. If I considered these parts unsettling, I can't even imagine how compounded that feeling must be for children. It's a bold choice in a movie that is admirably full of bold choices.
They could afford to make those bold choices because the groundwork is all there, and it all works. Story elements recur, becoming more meaningful with every iteration, and the two main characters are just so damned likable. I'm a little bit in love with Judy, and I could watch Nick's facial expressions all day. I can't offhand think of a movie that does a better job of grafting human gestural language onto anthropomorphic animals. The level of attention to detail across species is incredible, even in the smallest of moments. In general, Zootopia is an absolute feast for the eyes. In an early sequence, an elevated train zips through all of the city's different biomes, and I found myself hoping against hope that the film wouldn't be constrained to one or two of them because all of the areas were spectacular to look at. Luckily, the movie takes us to quite a few of these fully realized locations. I kept marveling at how thoughtful the worldbuilders were about what sorts of mechanisms would be required in a world where many different species of mammals inhabit the same space. Everything from doors to elevators to cell phones to desserts need to be personalized.
I may have issues with the deep-seated thematic structure, but Zootopia does great work across the board. The dialogue is thoughtful and there are no shortage of entertaining moments. My brother has been telling me about the questions my five-year-old nephew keeps asking about the movie. They are questions that at their core have to do with wrongful imprisonment and the nature of our criminal rehabilitation system. I wouldn't consider Zootopia quite as essential as Inside Out, but as far as movies you and the children in your life ought to see, this certainly makes the list.
3 / 5 BLOBS
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