Zootopia (March 4, 2016)

I enjoyed watching this film in theaters, enough to buy the film on DVD, but after reading reviews, I felt it was severely overhyped and thus my opinion of it quickly soured. I hoped that watching this film again removed from the flood of contemporary positive reviews my opinion would change. Taking place in the titular city where anthropomorphic mammals coexist, this movie tells a story of an unlikely partnership between a rabbit police officer and a red fox con artist, as they uncover a criminal conspiracy involving the disappearance of predators. Firstly, the animation is incredible. The world that was created, with its separate biomes all intermingled in fragile harmony, beautiful. Zootopia really did look like a place where anyone could be anything and it is definitely a place I would visit if given the chance! The designers and animators really though of everything and all that hard work shows in the end product. Moving on to the characters, Judy Hopps, a young female rabbit cop with big dreams of being seen as equal to the bigger and stronger carnivores on the force is very relatable and likable, save for a few cringey lines, and you cannot help but be swept away by her bushy tailed and wide eyed attitude about the world. She realizes that life is not all “rainbows and unicorns” but she is willing to face the harsh reality head on to achieve her aspirations. She faces adversity from societies expectations and, briefly, fails prey to those same biases and perpetuates them. Nick Wilde, on the other hand, is a street wise, crafty, and hardened small-time con artist fox who also bears the weight of society’s stereotypes. Foxes are not to be trusted; they are undesirables left with scraping an existence any way they can. The two make an unlikely but great pair, balancing each other out ending up stronger as a result of their friendship. The other characters are good enough (I loved Mr. Big and her daughter, a hilarious Godfather reference) though Officer Clawhauser was a walking stereotype even as he protested against it, which works against everything the movie had established. The plot is inspired with the great mystery of a mysterious drug turning animals “feral” causing them to revert to their base, animalistic instincts and attack those around them. However, I believe the racial analogies are heavy handed and could be scaled back. They hinder my enjoyment as I wish for an escape not a lecture when watching these Disney films. Overall, I do think Zootopia is a great, well-made film, with an interesting premise, great world building, and a good message on social discourse- perhaps more poignant today than it was back in 2016. However, I still hold a grudge against it for robbing Kubo and the Two Strings from the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar (a film I hope to review one day!)

Final Rating: 8.5/10