A heavy-handed allegorical story about racism that isn't for young kids.

Rating: 6/10 (21 March 2016)

I had high expectations for this movie and it did rather well in a few areas: I liked the animation, I liked the world-building (Zootopia is a cool place to visit), I liked the main characters (Judy Hopps, the first bunny police officer, and Nick Wilde, a fox who earns his living by hustling others although they don't explain why he can't easily pay for his elephant-sized popsicles when clearly he makes a good profit daily), and the action sequences were fun to watch.
But the heavy-handed allegory about racism is just too contrived and I don't think it works that well here. I don't think any kids under age 8 will understand the message and their are a few scenes that are probably too frightening for small children. There is a scene that is reminiscent of the "Silence Of The Lambs" insane asylum that will probably give little kids nightmares. The message of racism seems to be more directed at the parents who bring their kids to this movie. I think racism is better approached by using human characters as the anthropomorphic animals added a layer of confusion especially for kids. There is one scene where another animal species calls the bunny "cute" and the bunny quickly says that that is not OK for other species to call it "cute" unless you're another bunny. This is obviously a direct reference to the N-word but it fails to convey a good message in two ways: 1. it doesn't make sense for "cute" to be an insulting word in the context, and 2. the use of the N-word in any culture should be criticized and not just people who are not black. The other message of try and do not give up also does not seem to be balanced as the message of you can be anything you want to be does not seem to be tempered by a realistic self-awareness. Even though it does try hard to make serious light of some issues it actually supports stereotypes. The "sneaky" fox, the "evil" weasel, and the "bullys" who manifest in larger animals. There are many jokes that just fall flat like the "nudist" club, the sloths at the DMV, etc... It really didn't make me laugh at all except for maybe a few smile-worthy sight gags.
The movie had a good flow to it and if you're a person that loves animation and has to see all of Disney's stuff then go for it otherwise I cannot recommend it.