Road to Zootopia

Rating: Null/10 (22 January 2017)

Set in an alternate universe without humans in which all mammals live harmoniously in cities, the world's first rabbit police officer forms an uneasy alliance with a fox to solve a mystery in this Disney animated feature film. The movie does a surprisingly good job mixing and a balancing various genres: it is part comedy, part adventure, part mystery, part fantasy, and in amongst all that it has some nifty messages to offer with the species prejudices on display coming quite close to racism in human society today. None of this is particularly subtle with the dialogue frequently spelling out the film's racial agenda, but it is thought-provoking nonetheless and the way the rabbit objects to be called cute even offers a poke at workplace sexism. Solid as the film's messages may be, the film's best achievement is how genuinely funny it is, full of audience-winking quips ("life isn't some cartoon") and eccentric supporting characters, especially a yak voiced by Tommy Chong. The rabbit's neighbours (only heard; never seen) have some particularly amusing things to say; "it might be worse!" comments one of them through the wall after hearing our heroine philosophise about tomorrow like Scarlett O'Hara. And on the subject of movie references, the film features one of the best 'Godfather' spoofs of recent years too. Not all the jokes hit home (especially the final one before the end credits) and the resolution and ending feel a little rushed, but generally speaking, 'Zootopia' is entertaining from start to finish with the deeper things it has to say being merely icing on the cake.