So what now?

Rating: 5/10 (7 December 2016)

Zootopia is an allegorical narrative which describes current human tensions caused by racism and bigotry. In the film, the prey are obvious reflections of the white majority found in United states while the predators are reflections of the black minority. We learn from the short skit in the beginning of the film that in this new ideal (dare I say utopian?) world, predator and prey have evolved to the point where they can coexist in perfect unity. Everything goes well for Zootopia until predators begin to go missing. As it turns out, they are being turned back into their feral, irrational selves. Social barrier-breaking detective Jody Hopps, the first bunny on the large mammal-dominated police force, sets out with her predator partner Nick Wilde to solve the case. They discover that the evil villain is an unassuming, seemingly innocent white sheep named Bellwether who is bent on creating prey-supremacy. In the process of investigation, Hopps makes stereotypical remarks about Wilde's "natural" tendency to be, well, wild. Wilde is offended and abandons Hopps, who later realizes her mistake and reconciles their relationship by admitting her error and declaring her unconditional acceptance of Wilde for the fox that he is.
Now, let me point out a key assumption made in this film: perfect unity/coexistence is possible. The whole film is based on the fact that the animals have evolved to the point where (almost) everybody holds to a common ideal and it's those few who buck the system that cause all of the disorder. So what is this saying about humanity? Is it possible for us to achieve such a state of unified thought? If so, what would it take for us to get there? There are firm religious beliefs held by millions of Americans and countless social and political beliefs held by millions more. What would it take to create near perfect unity? In the many nations that tried (France, Russia, Germany, Cuba...), it almost always ended in the slaughter of millions of people who were seen as dangerous because they did not follow or believe in an established ideal.
To solve the problem caused by one rebellious and bigoted animal, her influence had to be eliminated. She and her mainly sheep followers (reminiscent of the KKK?) were arrested, and her facility destroyed. But I wonder, what happened to her afterwards? The movie just shows here being taken away. What would happen with a human in this situation? If you were of the oppressed race and someone of the dominant race attacked you simply because of who you naturally were, what would you want done with the bigot?
But Bellwether wasn't the only problem...Hopps was a part of the problem too. What did she do? She bought into stereotypes about the predators and alienated her partner. But not only that, she created fear and disunity in the hearts of all the prey. She was the one that ultimately created chaos. How? She was ignorant. So the truth that is being conveyed here is that ignorance is the cause of social unrest. Perhaps it was well intentioned, but intentions don't matter...what matters is the consequences. Perhaps what Hopps did was right in her own heart but the consequences proved that doesn't matter; she had offended other animals. Regardless of whether or not she was right, she offended people, which makes her wrong. Reconciliation could only happen by admitting her ignorance and bigotry and declaring her willingness to accept the predators for exactly who they are. SHE had to begin the conversation. Wilde was apparently justified when he cut off his relationship with Hopps, because he was offended. I wonder though, how long would it have taken Hopps to realize her error if Wilde had sucked it up and had a difficult conversation with Hopps about how she had hurt him? Could she have realized it right away and prevented massive amounts of damage? This movie shows us that a conversation needs to happen in order to reconcile race relations, but it's a one-sided conversation. In the real world, racism is real, but responsibility for race relations and tensions come from every side, not just one.
I encourage you to think critically about this movie. It contains many messages and provides solutions to troubling times, but are they the messages we need to hear and are they the solutions we need? Think about your role in these troubled times we are in...What can we do to help and not hurt? How can we help bring peace without destruction? What is it that really unites humanity? Is unity something we can create, or is it something greater than us that we all must follow? Zootopia should encourage us to think about these things.