Strong message against prejudice

Rating: Null/10 (22 August 2016)

It has been said, among a veritable plethora of other things, that this film contains the strongest statement Disney has ever made. And there is truth to that. Disney films always have a message, a moral, but quite often it is the simplest of things. Be brave, believe in yourself, dare to dream, wish upon a star. Okay, that last one not so much nowadays, but you get the idea. But this film steps upon a soapbox. Its message loud and clear: Prejudice is wrong. Racism is wrong. Hating without reason is wrong. And in the modern world that message will hopefully carry across the nations and cultures. Because, we live in a time of fusion, in a time where all the people are starting to unite under a single banner of humanity. But it's a rocky road ahead of us and it warms my heart to see an icon such as Disney taking a stance, declaring their allegiance.
And it's simply a fantastic film on its own, even if you took the message out of the equation. The characters are some of the best I've ever seen. Judy Hopps is going to be one of the great role models for the current generation of kids. The first bunny to ever serve as a police officer, she neatly straddles all the fences. All kinds of minorities and sufferers can see themselves in her. Women, people of colour, the poor, the ones from rough neighbourhoods or from the country. The film is very good in not locking its allegory into a neatly contained square. Judy struggles because she's a bunny, but what that means can be seen in vastly different lights, depending on your own point of view.
And then we have Nick Wilde, a hustler fox, who's conned into working with Judy to solve a missing mammals case. Nigh perfect voice acting from Jason Bateman - as well as from Ginnifer Goodwin, who plays Judy - and one of the best duos from Disney in living memory. These two work together so well and story-wise the mystery plot moves beautifully and contains a very good hustling undertone throughout.
If I had to nitpick, I'd say that I did find the villain just the slightest bit disappointing. Recent Disney films have tended to have a surprise villain, whose identity as an antagonist we learn only near the end of the film. All the reveals have been at the very least decent so far, but I do miss the so called honest bad guys, if I'm being completely honest. They simply had more charm, more menace behind them.
Still, Zootopia is a great film. One of the all-time classics. Kudos, Disney, kudos.