A Fun and Charming Family Film

Rating: 8/10 (11 September 2016)

Zootopia is a new gem from Disney, which takes place in a world where human-like animals have put their prey-predator relationship aside to live in harmony, centred around a city called Zootopia. The main character of the movie is Officer Judy Hopps, the first bunny-rabbit police officer in the Zootopia Police Department. Hopps believes very strongly in the idea of animal equality, but quickly realizes that intolerance exists in Zootopia after she is hustled by sly-fox Nick Wilde. She also experiences marginalization at work due to her size and species.
Hopps, relegated to traffic duty by her intolerant Chief of Police, stumbles upon a case-in-progress where 14 predators have gone missing. She is given a time-stamp by her boss to crack the case, or she will be fired. Queue Nick Wilde, the street-smart hustler who happened to be in the same place as one of the missing mammals. Hopps and Wilde team up to discover what is going on, as the veneer of tolerance in Zootopia begins to crumble due to increasing attacks by predators going savage. A conspiracy is at hand, and Hopps and Wilde need to tackle danger and prejudice to try and solve the case and prove themselves to a society that has type-caste them.
So from the above description, you can probably guess this film has a theme related to overcoming prejudice - both racial and gender related. I will get to that. First, most people would probably like to know if this is a good family film for their kids to watch which the parent might be able to enjoy. Short answer: yes. This movie is charming, humorous and well animated (synonymous with most Disney films of late)and is highly enjoyable, for the young and old alike. The movie is funny enough and exciting enough to keep the kids glued to the screen, but also has a hard-bitten detective story feel and some interesting and humorous commentary for the older generations. This is a funny and charming romp around a fantastical city inhabited by anthropomorphic mammals. What's not to like? Commentary wise, this film does feature a theme tackling prejudice and bias. The animals are characterizations of stereotypes in some cases, like Hopps who is called cute and marginalized, symbolizing gender bias (all the police officers are also large, manly animals who grunt and so forth, walking stereotypes). The animals are also marginalized by their traits - the fox is considered sly and a trickster, so people are leery around him, the lion is the mayor for his grand visage, the sheep is marginalized for her timidness etc. Predators represent minority communities, overtly stated as a minority, who sometimes perform violent attacks (think US race-relations or terrorist issues in Europe) The message is a good one for kids to experience, and a spot on cultural message due to current events and debates around gender rights and racial equality happening the world over. It shows that all people can do terrible things, but to avoid stereotyping because of this. It is easy to blame a person for being bad due to their traits, but more difficult to realize that all people have the ability to do harm. Society (in this case Zootopia) needs to get beyond characteristics and look at the individual.
It feels to me like Disney has their formula down for family films. Slightly controversial in some respects, to entice adults, while offering good whole-some humour and exciting action for the kids. Other Disney films feature similar themes as well, just look at Wreck-it-Ralph, The Princess and the Frog etc. Zootopia's theme has never felt (to me anyway) more like a calculated money making formula. Don't get me wrong, the theme is a noble one, but this should not detract from the discussion. In other films, these themes are relegated to the background of the world, which more subtly but in my opinion more solidly hammers home the message. Zootopia's is overt and feels forced in some respects. Characters are artificially intolerant to a degree probably designed to get the message across to young children. It just feels a bit forced in some areas of the film.
That lengthy criticism aside, Zootopia is still a fantastic film for the kids and fun for the whole family. The animation is very much like most Disney films - high quality, interesting visuals. The soundtrack is pop-music (which I felt a tad annoying) but the kids might get a kick out of it. The voice acting was top notch, as per usual with Disney. The story was an interesting detective plot, with an important (if ham-fisted) message for the viewer. Their was good chunks of humour to be had - especially the banter between Hopps and Wilde, and some of the funnier situational animal stuff the film has (think tiny town - with tiny hamsters living in their own special ward where everyone is super small etc.). All in all, a very enjoyable film with a good message, good humour and what is quickly becoming the Disney stamp of quality. This is absolutely a film to check out for a good laugh that both adults and kids can thoroughly enjoy.