Zootopia (2016) Review

This is turning out to be a good year in cinema by far. In January, we got Kung Fu Panda 3; in February, we got Deadpool; and March gave us Zootopia. The first three months of the year, considered as dump months, gave us exceptional films, which does not happen all that often.

I did not have much to expect from latest entry in the Disney Animated Canon. Since The Princess and the Frog, we've gotten consistently good films, with Frozen being the biggest hit. I was quite optimistic and looking forward to what we see next. I was quite sold with the sloth trailer, but what we got in the final product was one huge surprise.

The film centers on Judy Hopps, who becomes the first bunny police officer, since that role is often reserved for the much bigger animals. There, she moves to Zootopia, a huge city where predators and prey live together in harmony. She teams up with a sly fox named Nick Wilde to solve a missing persons case, which leads into a huge conspiracy.

The pairing between the bunny and fox is excellent. It actually kind of reminds me of Sly Cooper and Carmelita Fox from the Sly Cooper video game series. I see Judy like Carmelita, being a determined cop willing to complete her case. In contrast, Nick is like Sly, being a sly (get it?) con artist trying to get himself out of the situation, while also just messing with her. Also, the idea of a predator and prey working together complements them very well together, which ties up the movie's overall theme, which I'll get to. In addition, there is no romance between them (and that's a good thing since there is no need), something that we rarely see when it comes to male and female pairings.

The city of Zootopia is a very interesting one. The last film that Disney made in which the entire cast of characters were anthropomorphic animals was Chicken Little over ten years ago. The previous one was Robin Hood, which came out over 40 years ago. Although here, the concept is taken advantage of all the way.

We see the way that the citizens get around or the typical places they live in. The animals are all nicely designed, coming in different shapes and sizes. The two protagonists were just the appropriate height to contrast with the bigger and smaller animals all thanks to the low and high angle shots provided. There is also a sense of awe when Judy first enters the city, giving the audience a chance to first witness the various sections of Zootopia that come into play later.

There are some really good chase scenes added in to take advantage of the locations. One memorable scene is when Judy is chasing a weasel in a city full of mice. Both characters are taller than the citizens and even some of the buildings in said city, so there is a lot at stake when the mice are in danger and Judy has to stop what she is doing to protect them.

One thing that I was worried about coming into this movie was the humor. I thought that the marketing gave away their best joke in one of the trailers: the DMV scene in which the employees are all sloths. If anyone has studied animals, I think people will know that sloths are the slowest animals in existence. I will admit, that scene had me stitches. Just last month, I got my driver's licence and waiting to finally have it printed felt like an eternity, so that scene was a great metaphor. Luckily, there were plenty of other funny scenes that had me laughing.

I was also glad that it did not rely heavily on puns. Sure, there might have been one or two, like this world's version of Target being called "Targoat," but I'm glad that there wasn't a whole lot (I'm looking at you, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2!). There were also some slight in-jokes and pop cultural references that were hit or miss (like this crime boss giving his best Vito Corleone impression), but they don't overstay their welcome, so I was fine with it.

Thankfully, humor is not the only thing that the movie was going for. Much like Big Hero 6 respectfully handled the topic of losing a loved one, Zootopia deals with themes of prejudice, stereotyping, and drugs. I'm not kidding about the last one, but Disney handled that one very well while still making the film accessible to the younger audiences. The message, while it's been done a million times before, is still well-done. It's nice to see something that teaches children (and adults, believe me) to not be prejudiced by how someone looks, what they are, or where they are from. It just happens to be in a film starring anthropomorphic animals.

I'm glad to see that Disney had the guts to tackle mature themes like this more than other Western animation studio (besides Pixar) who decide to play it safe and pander to five-year-old children. The best kind of family films are the ones that are smart and treats their audience with respect, which Zootopia definitely qualifies under.

Zootopia is easily one of the best films of the year. With a great cast of characters, beautiful animation, and interesting social commentary, it makes for one of Disney's strongest films. It is...

SOMETHING WONDERFUL