Lovable and flawed

Rating: 7/10 (24 April 2016)

There are things I love about Zootopia, as this movie is really good about hitting the right marks. Idris Elba voice-work? Check. Relevant and funny social commentary on race and contemporary race relations? Check. AN EXTENDED GODFATHER JOKE?!? Super check! Heck even the size differences between the products and appliances the animals use and the way they are integrated together is pretty genius. And ohhhhhh the little details in the animals like the way the wolves cock their heads ti the side when confused is great!! So where does this movie mess up? For one thing it does the common kid movie trope of having irrelevant emotionally manipulative scenes complete with sad music for no reason other than to try to make the audience feel upset. There are some pretty big plot holes, like how did they not hear the wolves howling in the panther scene? How did they cut in front of the entire DMV? Also towards the end the movie seems to give up and just give away all the remaining mysteries as easily as it can in the narratively weakest way possible. But overall this movie is funny, decently animated, and a lot better than your average kids movie. I give it a 7.5 out of 10 and recommend people to definitely check it out.