CinemaNerdz

Movie Review: Zootopia

Seth Paul

Disney appears to be getting more and more comfortable making films more like their Pixar counterparts. Zootopia, their most recent effort, is less Frozen-style musical flair and more Wreck-It Ralph, aimed at delivering humor and character with equal parts cynicism and heart. Does it work? For the most part, yes; visually stunning and funnier than you might think, the film is a joy to sit through for kids and adults. But some of its brightest spots (and the theme of the story) suffer from some interesting problems.

Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), unlike her family, is convinced that the way she was born is no reason not to follow her dreams. Of course, being a bunny in a world full of animals much, much bigger than she is, her dream of becoming a police officer looks bleak at best, and no one but her believes such a thing is possible. But upon proving her mettle and joining the academy, she is overjoyed to find she is assigned to the megalopolis Zootopia, where she hopes to make a difference. However, her boss, Chief Bogo (Idris Elba), sees her as little more than an annoyance. Assigned to traffic duty, Judy finds her grand dreams slowly dying until she sees a chance to take on the case of a missing otter. Her only lead is slippery con artist Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a fox who Judy ropes into helping her. As Judy and Nick learn to trust each other despite their backgrounds, they discover the missing otter is not quite the simple case that it seems.

If nothing else, Zootopia is once again a showcase for the animation Disney is famous for. Though a little disappointing that it isn’t rendered in classic two dimensions (a few early storyboards had a distinctive art style that would’ve been great to see on the big screen), the 3D animation is still fantastic, expressive, and vibrantly colored. The city of Zootopia (rendered into several neighborhoods consisting of entirely different biomes) allows for a huge variety of backdrop while keeping the story tightly knit and quick moving. One of the highlights involves a chase through a section of the city inhabited by the smaller rodents, in which even Judy’s small size leads to more than a few interesting visuals as she tries to avoid acting as a mini-Godzilla.

The story, in the meantime, is twisty and good fun, and loaded with humor…and it ought to be, with longtime Simpsons (and Wreck-It Ralph) alum Jim Reardon onboard to do some story work, and it shows in everything from facial expressions to visual gags to the cynical humor that loads up the bulk of the running time. Nary a fart joke is anywhere to be found (thankfully that’s a phase that appears to be passing), and even the pre-release “They’re animals, so everything is an animal pun!” posters appear to have been left by the wayside in actual release; the only time that old cliché comes up is late in the movie as Disney makes a few digs at itself. It works for what it is, and doesn’t wear out its welcome. No character is annoying to any degree, and all will find their place in the hearts of one viewer or another…except for perhaps Shakira’s Gazelle, who seems to be there just so that she can sing the pop song at the end of the film (though she does provide a few laughs via her character’s phone app, but the less said the better).

But where I found a lot of the humor in the movie amusing, it is also one of its biggest weaknesses: Zootopia, despite its message, lack of offensive material, and vibrant colors, is not really a movie aimed at children. While there’s certainly plenty for kids to enjoy, and the moral to be learned from it is good for anybody, much of the film’s funniest material lies in things that go way over the heads of kids. While the sloth scene repeated ad nauseam across the internet is likely to make anybody who has stood in line at the DMV laugh (and is funnier in the movie than it is on the trailers, if you can believe it), most kids are probably not going to “get it” as much as their parents. And a lot of the humor is incredibly cynical…if this wasn’t a Disney comedy about bunnies, foxes, and other animals of all sizes, Judy’s struggles would be practically soul-crushing. Much like how Up spent its first ten minutes brilliantly showcasing, without dialogue, the joys and heartbreak of an entire lifetime, so too does Zootopia capture the struggles of an idealist confronted with the realities of the world around them, which is a tough lesson for anyone to deal with, especially kids whose worst fear is getting their math homework done by the next day. To make things less subtle, Chief Bogo lectures Judy about how life isn’t all sweets and honey wrapped in happy musical numbers. That’s right, a Disney movie makes fun of how Disney movies are so happy all the time. If that isn’t cynicism, I don’t know what is.

Which also leads to the next point: the moral lesson. The movie makes it constantly and continually, but when it comes time for the character who learns it to understand it, it seems sort of misplaced. Of all the people in the movie, the character seems like the last person who needed to get it, and when it shows up, it feels a little shoehorned in. Again, it’s not that the lesson learned is a bad one, but it seems like there was a little bit on the cutting room floor that should’ve been left in to make it feel more natural.

In the end, though, these are minor quibbles. It could also be argued that these “problems” are things that will resonate with the kids that go to see this upon the near constant repeat viewings it is sure to have in every household. Underneath a cop/detective story is a theme of trust, understanding and hope; “not everybody is how they seem at first glance” is not only an important ideal throughout Zootopia, but for the rest of us as well, no matter who we are. Of course, it is a moral told to us by animals wearing pants, so take it with whatever grain of salt you need.

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."
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