I’m a few days late on my Zootopia review, but after attending a screening last week I was just unsure where to begin. In case the rest of this gets long or poorly written, I’ll say this:
[spp-tweet tweet=”See #Zootopia. ASAP.”]
As I predicted in this post, the characters were all wonderfully entertaining. The movie is incredibly well-rounded, with everything you want from Walt Disney Animation: laugh-out-loud moments, a great storyline, and as I’ve come to expect lately, a poignant lesson or five.
The story centers around Zootopia’s first bunny officer, Judy Hopps, and her unlikely partnership with sly scam-artist Nick Wilde, a fox. The film is obviously far from the first “talking animal movie” from Disney, but it’s the first in which animals are given human characteristics and placed in a world strikingly similar to ours – but designed just for them. Judy and Nick are given 48 hours to solve a missing animal case that is deeper than anyone expected. Much of the movie is an action-packed detective flick; truthfully, I was a tad worried about that, but you don’t have to be a fan of the genre at all to absolutely adore the implementation in this movie.
From start to finish, our party of five – two adults and three kids, ages 7, 7, and almost-4, out to see a movie past their bedtime – were completely engaged. It was fascinating, fast, and funny. The obvious message that “anyone can be anything” was clear to the youngest viewers, but that was not the extent of the thought put into the film. Judy leaves her home, her parents, and her 225 brothers and sisters in Bunnyburrow to chase her dream. Thought-provoking conversations about race relations, bullying, self-examination, following your calling while remaining aware of your unique strengths and weaknesses, and the danger of stereotype, are bound to follow if you watch with adults or older children. Younger children will be wholly entertained, and may just talk about it nonstop for the next week, to anyone that will listen. Sorry, Target cafe worker… and everyone else we’ve seen this week.
The details are remarkable, which of course isn’t surprising. As Judy passes through various parts of Zootopia we see modes of transportation, town amenities, housing, and jobs perfectly created for the inhabitants of that part of town. Be on the lookout for countless visual easter eggs too, the most obvious in a scene that blatantly references other Disney animated classics, even paying homage to “movies that haven’t even been made yet”.
While somewhat less original than Inside Out (which totally should have won best original screen play in the Oscars…), Zootopia is no less thoughtful or intentional. It’s wildly entertaining (no pun intended), and one we’ll be back to see at least one more time before it leaves theaters.
PIN THIS, gather up your friends, then go see the movie! 🙂
Bonus – check out “Try Everything“, a new song from Shakira (as “Gazelle” in the movie) that has been on repeat whenever my kids are home. It’s fun, uplifting, and quite catchy!
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