Year: 2016
Director: Byron Howard, Rich Moore, and Jared Bush
Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, J.K. Simmons, and Jenny Slate
Tagline: Welcome to the urban jungle
Synopsis: Judy Hopps is the ZPD's first bunny officer. In order to prove she's no token bunny, and no meter maid, she teams up with a con-artist fox to crack the city's biggest case.
Tagline: Welcome to the urban jungle
Synopsis: Judy Hopps is the ZPD's first bunny officer. In order to prove she's no token bunny, and no meter maid, she teams up with a con-artist fox to crack the city's biggest case.
Review
I've been excited for Zootopia since the first teaser trailer came out. I was not disappointed. Zootopia is terrific, another great film from Disney Animation Studios' latest revival era.
Visually, the film is outstanding. The fur on all the animals is so realistic (you know, for animation). There is also so much going on in every scene. It's too much to take in in one viewing. There are so many visual gags and so many interesting things going on in this richly imagined world. It's beautiful.
Zootopia has a two very strong messages. The first is the standard follow your dreams and your heart. But the second is a message against prejudice and stereotyping, a message that could easily become preachy or overbearing. Putting those themes in a world of animals works really well and divests them from their real-world baggage. The themes spring naturally from the story's premise of predator and prey living (mostly) in harmony. We humans can then fill in our own blanks about the real world applications. The themes also work because they grow out of the story and from the characters' weaknesses and strengths. The film sets up all the stereotypes we expect from the various animals, then proceeds to break them down as characters are fleshed out and understood.
If Zootopia had just been a social commentary, it likely would have fallen flat. Fortunately, it is also a well-crafted crime drama / buddy cop film. It unfolds as a clever mystery that takes us through various parts of Zootopia, including Tundratown, a rainforest, and a sector for small rodents. The unfolding mystery keeps everything hopping along at a good pace.
Anthropomorphic animals are certainly nothing new to the "House of Mouse." But what was so fun about Zootopia is that animals are proportional. Rather than having a mouse, a duck, and a dog that are all roughly the same size, the animals in Zootopia are true to their real-life counterparts. One of the joys of the film is seeing the clever ways the film-makers came up with to accommodate and poke fun at the differences. There's something so amusing about seeing a huge polar bear gently turning round the chair of a tiny arctic shrew or seeing a mouse's car blow away because of a parking ticket on the windshield.
Which brings me to my last point. Zootopia is funny ... so, so funny. I laughed aloud throughout the film. There's something for everyone, but especially for the adults it seemed like. There were a lot of references to The Godfather (references I got even without having seen the film). There were clever puns. The DMV sloth scene had the whole audience laughing. And there were so many other inside jokes and fun characters that I basically had a grin on my face the entire movie.
I heartily recommend seeing Zootopia. It was the most fun I've had at a movie this year and the best animated movie I've seen since Inside Out. It's fun, clever, and carries a worthwhile message. Do yourself a favor and go see it on the big screen.
*** Spoiler Section ***
Judy Hopps is a good, likable character. She exudes optimism and gumption. She's endearing from her very first scene. That's why having Judy be the one who truly sticks her rabbit foot in her mouth works so well. She has the best of intentions ... and she totally botches it at the press conference. She's a good character who makes a very regrettable choice. I like the believability of that. Everybody makes mistakes. And to her credit, Judy sees the folly of her actions and later does all she can to fix the problem, starting with her own narrow-mindedness.
One question though: where are all the birds, reptiles, and other non-mammals?
Visually, the film is outstanding. The fur on all the animals is so realistic (you know, for animation). There is also so much going on in every scene. It's too much to take in in one viewing. There are so many visual gags and so many interesting things going on in this richly imagined world. It's beautiful.
Zootopia has a two very strong messages. The first is the standard follow your dreams and your heart. But the second is a message against prejudice and stereotyping, a message that could easily become preachy or overbearing. Putting those themes in a world of animals works really well and divests them from their real-world baggage. The themes spring naturally from the story's premise of predator and prey living (mostly) in harmony. We humans can then fill in our own blanks about the real world applications. The themes also work because they grow out of the story and from the characters' weaknesses and strengths. The film sets up all the stereotypes we expect from the various animals, then proceeds to break them down as characters are fleshed out and understood.
If Zootopia had just been a social commentary, it likely would have fallen flat. Fortunately, it is also a well-crafted crime drama / buddy cop film. It unfolds as a clever mystery that takes us through various parts of Zootopia, including Tundratown, a rainforest, and a sector for small rodents. The unfolding mystery keeps everything hopping along at a good pace.
Anthropomorphic animals are certainly nothing new to the "House of Mouse." But what was so fun about Zootopia is that animals are proportional. Rather than having a mouse, a duck, and a dog that are all roughly the same size, the animals in Zootopia are true to their real-life counterparts. One of the joys of the film is seeing the clever ways the film-makers came up with to accommodate and poke fun at the differences. There's something so amusing about seeing a huge polar bear gently turning round the chair of a tiny arctic shrew or seeing a mouse's car blow away because of a parking ticket on the windshield.
Which brings me to my last point. Zootopia is funny ... so, so funny. I laughed aloud throughout the film. There's something for everyone, but especially for the adults it seemed like. There were a lot of references to The Godfather (references I got even without having seen the film). There were clever puns. The DMV sloth scene had the whole audience laughing. And there were so many other inside jokes and fun characters that I basically had a grin on my face the entire movie.
I heartily recommend seeing Zootopia. It was the most fun I've had at a movie this year and the best animated movie I've seen since Inside Out. It's fun, clever, and carries a worthwhile message. Do yourself a favor and go see it on the big screen.
*** Spoiler Section ***
Judy Hopps is a good, likable character. She exudes optimism and gumption. She's endearing from her very first scene. That's why having Judy be the one who truly sticks her rabbit foot in her mouth works so well. She has the best of intentions ... and she totally botches it at the press conference. She's a good character who makes a very regrettable choice. I like the believability of that. Everybody makes mistakes. And to her credit, Judy sees the folly of her actions and later does all she can to fix the problem, starting with her own narrow-mindedness.
One question though: where are all the birds, reptiles, and other non-mammals?
Quotable Quotes
- "Never let them see that they get to you." -- Nick Wilde
- "I came here to make the world a better place, but I think I broke it." "The world has always been a broken place. That's why we need good cops." -- Judy Hopps and Chief Bogo
- "Life isn't some cartoon musical where you sing a little song and all your insipid dreams magically come true. So let it go." -- Chief Bogo
- "It's called a hustle, sweetheart." -- Nick Wilde
- "Complimentary delousing each month." -- Judy's landlady
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