"Zootopia" is an excellent family movie with a message.

Rating: 8/10 (6 March 2016)

Prejudice is very difficult to root out. (Yeah, this is a review about an animated Disney movie, but why can't a family film also have a more mature message?) Unlike discrimination, which refers to overt acts that society can deal with (mostly) through properly-enforced laws and well-designed public policy, prejudice is an attitude and cannot be legislated away. The word prejudice developed from the medieval legal term "prejudgment" and today refers to a wide variety of prejudgments that people make every day, based on someone else's association with a certain group. These are prejudices people often hold for their entire lives – sometimes without even realizing it. Does being a Muslim mean supporting terrorism or being atheist mean lacking morals? Is being short a sign of weakness or being fat an indication of gluttony? Are most black people criminals or most whites racist? Most (if not all) of us would answer "no" to all these questions if asked by another person, and would probably feel we were answering honestly. But do our actions or choice of words at other times betray some deep-seated prejudices we may not be aware that we have? Along with being an excellent movie which most people will find entertaining regardless of their age, the animated feature "Zootopia" (PG, 1:48) subtly asks these questions to the more mature members of the audience, while carrying important messages to all.
Zootopia is a big city in a land where humans don't exist and anthropomorphic animals have formed their own orderly society. Having evolved beyond their primal roles of predator and prey, they all live together in relative peace and harmony, except when jealousy, greed or prejudices raise their ugly heads. (Hey, animals are people too.) One of those walking talking animals is Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), a young female bunny who fulfills her much-derided childhood dream of becoming the first rabbit to join the Zootopia Police Department. As Judy leaves behind her parents (Bonnie Hunt and Don Lake), and her 275 siblings, to take the train from rural Bunnyburrow into the colorful big city with its tall buildings and varied habitat neighborhoods, you can easily imagine Taylor Swift's "Mean" playing in the background. But the meanness doesn't stop when Judy starts her new hard-won job.
When Judy takes her place among the wolves, lions, tigers, rhinos and elephants that she now calls colleagues, they all overlook her (literally and figuratively). Chief Bogo (Idris Elba), a cape buffalo, assigns her parking meter duty, at which she immediately excels, but she wants more out of her job than being a meter maid. She becomes aware of the mysterious disappearance of over a dozen animals from different predatory species around the city and she promises one worried wife (Octavia Spencer) that she will help. Judy develops a lead which takes her to a con-man fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) whom she promptly cons into helping her pursue that lead. The trail of evidence they follow takes them to a naturist club run by a free-spirited Yak (Tommy Chong), to a DMV office run by sloths (a clever joke supported by the voices of Raymond S. Persi and Kristen Bell), to the feared crime boss Mr. Big (Maurice LeMarche), to City Hall to get the help of Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwhether (Jenny Slate) and to a secret medical facility controlled by Mayor Lionheart (JK Simmons). As Judy and Nick figure out what's really going on, they learn some surprising and important things about each other – and themselves.
"Zootopia" really does have something for everyone. The littlest audience members will enjoy the colorful scenery, the variety of animals and the action sequences, and are likely to identify with the undersized main character with oversized dreams. Teens and adults will appreciate the sly references to "Breaking Bad" and "The Godfather", the presence of Shakira as a singing gazelle known as "Gazelle" and the important lessons about fighting to be taken seriously and the damaging effects of prejudice. As well-written, well-animated and well-voiced as this film is, its main strength and importance lie in its messages. Prejudice is shown as self-perpetuating and, when allowed to exist unchallenged, actually able to reverse society's progress in the areas of equality and tolerance. Unfortunately, those lessons, as important as they are, sometimes come off a bit oversimplified – and so central to the story, that it's not quite as much fun as I'd expect an animated film to be. Still, "Zootopia" is an excellent family film. "A-"