Zootopia Review
Whooooaaaaa….. Dang.
You know, I’m not gonna lie, Disney’s been a little lazy lately. Not that any of their recent films have been bad, and not to say Disney of all companies can’t technically AFFORD to be lazy, but with the exception of Inside Out I don’t think I could name a recent movie of theirs that I’d consider to be on the same culturally important, “Required Viewing,” level as say something like Beauty and The Beast or Finding Nemo or The Toy Story movies. Again, I like Frozen, I like Big Hero 6, I like Wreck-it Ralph, I just don’t think they’ve been anything world-changing. Zootopia might just fix that.
Zootopia is set against the backdrop of a world where predators and prey have somehow evolved to the point where they can now co-exist in peace and have now progressed to the point where they’re using modern technology. How? I dunno, and to be honest I don’t care. (though this does bring up the suspiciously dark question of what happened too humans…) I use the words “co-exist in peace,” but just like society today, it’s far from perfect. It’s established pretty quickly that there’s still some level of tension between predators and prey. Judy Hopps is a young rabbit who has just become the first of her kind to join the Zootopia police force, but sadly gets stuck working basic street cop duty. Determined to prove her worth, she quickly becomes involved in a missing animal’s investigation and teams-up with Fox-conartist Nick Wild to solve the case.
Now I won’t act like Zootopia is a perfect movie; it’s got a somewhat aggressively distracting cameo by Shakira as a singer named Gazelle (no not the one from Enchanted), the writing is more than a bit on the nose in most places, (I’d argue for good reason but it is what it is) and like most kids movies now-a-days the pacing is always moving at a break-neck pace. But to the movies credit, it actually manages to use that to its advantage. Zootopia covers an astounding amount of really culturally relevant topics, including but not limited too; bullying, gender-stereotypes, racial profiling, and police profiling. And dang, if they don’t hit bullseye almost every single time! They’re not just addressing these topics, they’re expertly weaving them into the narrative and actually proposing solutions to them too.
More so than any other movie that’s come out in recent memory, and we’ve had a lot of really great culturally relevant movies in the past 2 years or so, Zootopia might just be the one that’s crying out the loudest for a serious change in society, and it’s sending its message to the most important audience, children. Seriously, take kids to see this movie (assuming they are your children, please don’t steal children) and make sure they pay attention.
On top of that, this is easily the best written Disney movie…. possibly ever? I’m serious, the jokes come so fast and are so many it’s kinda staggering. I’m suspecting this is mainly due to Rich Moore of the early Simpsons era really working in some killer adult humor in. At one point I was dangerously close to shouting with laughter after Idris Elba’s character delivers a hilarious take-down of Frozen so perfectly written that I won’t dare spoil it.
Speaking of the voice-cast, I know Disney always does manage to find good one’s, but they really kill it here. And yea it’s also worth noting that the animation is amaaaaazing. You know how Disney always has those montoges that show off the location? This is probably the first time I can remember where I was genuinely awestruck. I don’t even think it was because the city of Zootopia itself is as imaginative as it could’ve been, it was honestly probably just because, hey, Disney movies nowadays look really good! (especially in 3D)
Bottom line, Zootopia is my favorite movie of the year so far, and one you really have to check out as soon as possible.
The Media Fire gives this movie 9/10
