“An animated film that as of writing is 99% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, but it’s not Pixar? Color me interested.
Indeed, Zootopia is that rare kiddie film that balances kid stuff and grownup stuff. Cute animals and silly slapstick for the kids. Pop culture references and a meaningful and timely story for the adults (a message that hopefully hits the kids as well).
We’ve got an anthropomorphic world (or possibly post post apocalyptic if you so choose to believe) where everything is run by animals. And a chipper little bunny wants to be a police officer, but that job is typically left to the bigger and badder animals. She’s stuck with a dead end case as her only hopes of proving herself, with the reluctant help of a sly con-man of a fox.
Okay it’s not as cutesy cheesy as it sounds. Maybe it is, but trust me, it works, and not just for the little ones. It quickly becomes an allegory for racial tensions as the predatory animals are being looked at with prejudice by the prey that fear them. Ginnifer Goodwin, who voices our star bunny, has said that she hopes the message of the movie will have a positive impact on the elections later this year, and I agree that would be a wonderful effect of the movie. But I’ll pause there before I start going into less happy real world topics.
As is usually the case, what most sold it for me really was the grown up jokes. There’s a major Breaking Bad reference that seems to be taking the internet by storm, but my favorite was actually their Godfather-esque Mr Big: a little rodent that is equally cute and intimidating, with a spot on impersonation. Seriously, could we have a Mr Big spin off? I’d be all over that.
So yeah, it’s nice to have a kids movie with substance, especially one that the adults can enjoy too. I approve of this film.
Zootopia – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n”