Zootopia

Zootopia – In a land with no humans, animals have evolved beyond pure instinct and now dominate, building towns and cities. The greatest city of all is Zootropolis, where (supposedly) all animals, predators and prey alike, live together in peace. Country bunny, Hopps, becomes the first rabbit to join the Zootropolis Police Department but when all her colleagues expect her to fail she finds herself teamed up with confidence trickster fox, Nick Wilde. Neither of them could know that a simple missing persons case investigation might bring Zootropolis to its knees…

Zootopia – (2016) – Director: Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48786765

Rating: PG

Running Length: 108 mins

Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba

Genre: Animation, Comedy

REVIEW: ‘ZOOTOPIA’

Since the front of house pairing of Disney and Pixar there has a been a clear influence of Pixar’s way of thinking on the Disney animation machine. More recent Disney efforts have either refined the previous formula to modern tastes (see the princess tropes turned on their head in the astronomically successful ‘Frozen‘). Zootopia takes the bread and butter Pixar approach of ‘anthropomorphic X in the setting of Y’, by having all manner of animals, predator and prey, supposedly move beyond their differences and go about city life as humans would. It’s a simple set up but ultimately one which Disney have ploughed much more thought and depth into than a less-motivated-to-up-it’s-game studio might have done.

Hopps is the idealistic young go getter ‘in’ for the audience. Full of wide-eyed wonder and determined to do well, she is quickly brought down to earth by realising that most will judge her on first sight for her species. Indeed, despite being sold the dream that at Zootropolis anyone can be anything, she quickly learns that snap judgements are bubbling in the undercurrents and prejudice is rife. None more so then when predators, and only predators are apparently going ‘savage’ and reverting to feral ways. Clearly the parallels between the animal prejudices and human racism is not far from the fore. But although ‘Zootopia’ does enough to ensure such serious undertones are give all due pathos, the comedy comes in as a perfect counterbalance in the form of the tried and tested ‘buddy cop’ formula.

And yes, despite being hurt by a bully fox as a child and her parents warning her of dangerous foxes, Hopps (Goodwin) finds herself teamed up with the wily fox Wilde (Bateman). Her initial overcompensation to try to show she has no prejudice towards him comically rings true with the cringeworthy-level of ‘hey, we cool?’ efforts that many will have experienced in reality. But with the comedy chops of Bateman and positive sincerity of Goodwin the dialogue and relationship between them sparkle, acting as a strong pin in the plot around which everything else revolves. So when we have mice mafia, political conspiracy, inter-species animosity, and positive discrimination (as well as the resentment that comes from that), it is all told through the lens of two engaging characters.

The jokes are funny (Sloths at the DMV anyone?), the subtext respectful, the animation gorgeous, and the performances on key. ‘Zootopia’ is worthy of the praise it received on release. Enjoy!

CONTENT: IS ‘ZOOTOPIA’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

The movie opens with a voice over describing animals hunting. There is a brief shot of an animal stalking another before it becomes clear that this is a child’s play. The voice over states that predators wanted ‘mate, maul, or death’. When the shot pans out to reveal the stage and a child in costume ‘attacks’ another child as ‘prey’, she screams overly dramatically, “Blood! Blood! Blood!” while squirting ketchup.

Two parent rabbits talk to their daughter and advise her to do as they did, which is ‘give up on dreams and settle’.

A bully fox demands that smaller, weaker animals give him their tickets. One character tries to help but it shoved to the ground. There is a close up of the fox’s claws before he scratches her face leaving noticeable gouges. Although she is scared, when the fox leaves she stands up and says with confidence that she won’t quit.

During a training sequence the trainer constantly yells ‘you’re dead!’ whenever a trainee fails at a task, meaning that in real life they would have been killed. Later a character mutters that ‘the bunny is gonna get eaten alive’.

There is shown to be prejudice against foxes. One child says ‘my mommy says she wishes you were dead!’ One fox is refused service at an elephant ice cream store. The fox (later named as ‘Wilde’) is apparently accompanied by their son who has an elephant mask on and trumpets sadly. This is not a sad scene however, and there is clearly something else afoot….

One character says ‘Bunnies, we are very good at multiplying’. This joke will likely not be understood by younger viewers though. Later, a character is offered ‘bunny skunk cookies’.

All the animal characters wear clothes. At one point we go to a ‘hippie commune’ type place where rabbit cop ‘Hopps’ is aghast to see that the residents are ‘naked’. The nakedness is only animated as normal animals but they are doing overly exaggerated bending, stretching, and jogging which would otherwise be rude. The shocked character keeps trying to avert her eyes, which is difficult when an elephant is doing yoga with legs spread!

Hopps and Wilde sneak into a place they shouldn’t be and investigate a stretch limo. It’s ominously misty inside and they notice with horror that the walls and seats are covered in scratch marks.

Hopps and Wilde are threatened by a ‘mob boss’ type character who says he will ‘ice’ them. A large trapdoor opens and they are held over it briefly causing them to panic. This is over quickly. There is then a flash back to an otter gone ‘rabid’, showing it snarling and growling in the back of a car. The driver is scared by this animal behaviour. The otter lunges directly at camera before the shot cuts to outside the car, which screeches to a halt. The driver staggers out clutching their eye. This flashback is followed by a scary and tense scene where a large animal also goes ‘wild’ and ‘feral’ chasing after two other characters. They are terrified and flee. They shortly regain their composure and work together to escape the threat.

As public opinion turns against predators due to fear, a child fox is made to wear a muzzle. The child sobs ‘what did I do?’

Hopps and Wilde find a secret jail. All the previously listed ‘missing’ characters are here but they have also gone ‘wild’. These animal pace in their cages and snarl.

Hopps tearfully tries to apologise to Wilde. She is very upset and sobs during what she is saying.

Hopps and Wilde investigate a subway train. They are later attacked by aggressive rams who bash themselves through windows and shout at them.

One main sympathetic character appears to go wild and growls at another. They lunge and clamp their jaws around the other character’s neck. She screams and the camera cuts away. This may upset young children invested in these characters. However, it quickly becomes apparent that not all is as it seemed.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT; IS ‘ZOOTOPIA’ FOR KIDS?

It is worth noting the unusual PG rating (for Disney) which is due to the fact that some scenes involving the predator species going ‘savage’ may be too scary for some children (albeit only one of these scenes goes on for any significant length). The serious subtext will be too subtle for younger minds beyond the fundamental lessons of ‘don’t judge by notions, only actions’ but regardless it is a credit to Zootopia’s respect for its audience that it makes the effort to go beyond simply cute talking animals. We would recommend this movie as suitable for ages 5 and above but advise caution over the ‘savage’ scenes on first viewing.

• Violence: 2/5 (animals all walk and talk like humans, so when they go ‘wild’ and revert to biting / scratching this shocks other characters. The bully scene (cutting a face) may upset children sensitive to this)
• Emotional Distress: 2/5
• Fear Factor: 3/5 (the predator chase scene, as closely following the scene with the rabid otter in a car, is intense in places and may scare)
• Sexual Content: 1/5 (mild dialogue references that are unlikely to be understood by children)
• Bad Language: 0/5
• Dialogue: 1/5 (mild threats)
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of prejudice, racism, rising above low expectations, self-fulfilling prophecy, corporate cover up, fighting for those who can’t fight for themselves, missing persons, and revenge.

Words by Michael Record

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