Movie: Zootopia
My Rating: 3 stars
I had no idea what this movie was about when I rented it. All I knew was that a lot of people were saying it was great—better than most of the other animated films on the market. And, since I have no prejudice against animated films, I decided to give it a shot. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. This is a movie about an anthropomorphized animal society. Life has been running pretty smoothly with various animals filling different civic roles according to the relative strengths and weaknesses associated with their species. Of course, not everyone is satisfied with their predetermined lot in life. And, that’s where this little story about diversity and tolerance begins.
The movie starts off with a darling little bunny rabbit setting off for the big city to begin her new job as a police officer. She’s the diversity hire, since everyone knows that rabbits are only good at farming. Only big predator species are appropriate for law enforcement roles. But, in an attempt to offer a political olive branch to the underrepresented herbivores, the police force is willing to make an exception. Although, our little rabbit is going to have to be content with parking ticket duty. No way are they going to trust her with any “important” cases. When I first started watching this movie, I thought that this was all I was going to get—a painfully unsubtle allegory about prejudice and diversity. But as the story began to unfold, I was relieved to find that a few more story elements came into play, adding elements of political corruption, industry influence, and the way that prejudice detrimentally affects one’s goals and life aspirations. The movie never manages any kind of true subtlety, but I was happy to discover that it did become a bit more multifaceted. Some of the comedy is good. And, the characters are pretty charismatic too.
This is a cute movie. It’s definitely one of those moralizing tales, designed to teach kids a valuable lesson about being productive global citizens (or at least to make parents feel good about their entertainment choices). I had been influenced to see this movie by rave reviews, and I don’t think was quite as good as they had led me to believe. But, I don’t regret spending my time with it. It’s a nice crowd-pleaser, and it’s good for a mixed audience—good for those tricky holiday get-togethers.