Zootopia [PG]

Judy Hopps is a small bunny with big dreams. Since she was little, she has wanted to become a police officer and make the world a better place by moving to the bustling metropolis of Zootopia where predators and prey live in harmony. But when her dreams come true, it isn’t how she imagined. Stuck in dead-end parking duty whilst the other officers solve missing animal cases, Judy inadvertently gets her shot to save the city when she stumbles onto a case much bigger than any elephant on the force. With the help of a conniving fox con artist, Judy determines to save Zootopia from a savage fate. 

Disney newest animal movie proves to be another story rich in poignant themes about diversity, harmony, and friendship, whilst at the same time adhering to that gorgeous little moral of always follow your dreams. It’s cute and funny and has a lot of heart. 

The personification of animals is nothing new with Disney, movies such as 101 Dalmatians, Bambi, and The Aristocats have delighted audiences with talking animals whilst Basil the Great Mouse Detective and The Rescuers brought us animals that could converse with people and wear clothes. 

However, Zootopia is I think the first of Disney’s animal movies to really reflect human society. Not only do the animals live in houses and wear clothes and have jobs, the society of Zootopia is a picture perfect representation of any multicultural human metropolis where there are a few prejudices, but mainly everyone more or less exits relatively harmoniously. 

There’s a humour, sophistication, and poignancy that comes through with this very human setting and it’s this personification of the animal kingdom that allows the themes of the film to be explored as beautifully as they are. Everything from overcoming adversity to unlikely friendships is represented in this film and, even though we have seen Disney do this stuff before, it still remains fresh, poignant, relevant, and enjoyable. 

The animation and art direction is absolutely gorgeous, particularly the setup of Zootopia. The metropolis is divided into districts representing natural climates for the variety of inhabitants: everything from rainforest to snow to desert is represented and it’s a really interesting idea that flourishes beautifully with the film’s crisp, Pixar-esque animation. 

Having said all the good stuff, there are one or two misses that feature in this film. Some of the humour can feel a bit forced or obvious in certain places: e.g. the ‘elephant never forgets’ scene and you can see a few major plot points happening before they are revealed so there is a bit of predictability going on however, that doesn’t really take all that much away from the fun of the movie. 

I found the character of Gazelle the popstar to be a gag that didn’t really come to fruition. You could recognise that this character is meant to be a joke or representation of some popstar, but all the attention and setups that they wrote for her ended up with no punch line and by the credits, you’re wondering what was the point of her? But that was probably the biggest problem that I could see with the film. 

Featuring the voice talents of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Tommy Chong, J. K. Simmons, Octavia Spencer, Alan Tudyk, Maurice LaMarche, and Shakira, Zootopia is a very sweet and fun family movie that has something for everyone. Filled with action, drama, comedy, and friendship, I thought it was really lovely and enjoyed it very much.