Better than Frozen. Yep. I said it.

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2016)

Disney has had a slew of animated hits when it came to their CGI productions that were not made by Pixar. With the exception of both of the Planes movies which were...well...crap, you've got movies like Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013), which hearkens back to the Disney Renaissance days of animated musicals, a la The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991). Then you've got modern takes on pop culture like the video game-inspired Wreck-it-Ralph (2012) and Big Hero 6 (2014) focusing on superheroes. 2016, however, saw the release of what I think is their best, and most original CGI-animated film to date, and it goes by the name of Zootopia (a.k.a. Zootropolis internationally).
The film focuses on a small rabbit named Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) who becomes a rookie police officer in the city of Zootopia, believing that anyone could be anything. However, this is sadly not the case, as she soon finds out with her first day on the job...as a meter maid. However, a female otter stops by the station and explains that her husband is one of 14 animal citizens that went missing, and Judy, determining to prove that she can be a valuable asset, takes on the case, with the only eyewitness to the otter's whereabouts being a fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a known con-artist and all around smart ass that makes Officer Hopps' job more difficult than it already is.
At heart, taking away the fact that it's an animated film with an all- animal cast of characters, this is a buddy cop movie in the vein of Rush Hour (1998) and Beverly Hills Cop (1984), just more family friendly. However, there's more to it than being just that alone. The movie is riddled with social commentary about tolerance and acceptance. The beginning of the film where we see Hopps as a child performing a school play about how Zootopia was formed by predators and non-predators leaving their more animal instincts behind and living together to make the world a better place puts this into motion immediately. However, the difference between this and other movies that have similar messages on the aforementioned topics is that this one does it so well that it doesn't sound like it's preaching it in your face and forcing it down your throat, and that's what makes the movie work altogether. It's well- written, and the relationship between Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde becomes more and more believable as the picture goes on.
The animation is some of the best I've ever seen from the studio, as if the best aspects of their past animated productions were all present here, proving that when it comes to animated films made in the United States, Disney is still #1 in that department. In all honesty, with all of the lack of imagination coming from the motion picture industry (i.e. pointless remakes), I would love to see more movies like this coming from the big studios like Disney. Out of all the animated CGI productions from Disney this decade, this one is by far my favorite of them all, no question about it. I liked it more than Big Hero 6, Wreck- it-Ralph (which takes second place), and even Frozen. A must see for everyone of all ages.