a smart, funny, deeper than you'd expect animated film for adults as much as for kids

Rating: 9/10 (5 March 2016)

Usually Disney means that it lacks a certain edge or quality that makes it 'safe' or palatable for all audiences. While Zootopia is certainly another big blockbuster for the studio, and especially for the filmmakers and animators who have been behind many of the smash successes of the past 10 years (starting with Meet the Robinsons up through now, when John Lasseter took over), it's not a movie with talking animals something that is dumbed down or has a message that gets obfuscated by too much (dumb) goofball comedy (I'm looking at you, Ice Age and Madagascar sequels). This is actually about something in the same way, not quite up to this level but in the same ballpark, as Watership Down or The Fox and the Hound - though the former is certainly darker than this and the latter a little sweeter and more grounded (much as it can be) in the real world, Zootopia is an excellent example of using animals to convey a message about where we are at today.
The film might eschew the current horrors of police brutality (hey, it is ultimately a movie that kids can enjoy, and that might be a lot to take in as far as an animated movie with animals), but it is really impactful about telling a good message about a complicated subject: how does the "melting pot" work? What happens when groups of people - or animals - converge in one city and have to interact with one another? What happens if the thing that separates the animals, acting without the human qualities (or like savage/aggressive beasts) is amplified to create tensions?
And what happens when someone who doesn't fit in has the veracity and intelligence and just will-power to rise to the top of something tries to be accepted in a society where he (or in this case also primarily she) doesn't fit in? What I liked in the movie, aside from it having a very clever police procedural plot (which gets in jokes at the expense of The Godfather, which is nothing new but is done with a very funny Don Corleone parody in a tiny rat, and hippie-"nude" yoga-ists), is that it is generally about addressing what it means to be the "other" in a society. It never comes outright and says "it's about racism" point-blank, but it shows it even in something like scale.
Some animated films may not pay or draw too much attention to how animals' size differences mark then, but here it's clear from almost the beginning that how small Judy the Bunny is sets her apart from everyone when she's in the city (and likewise how she is bigger than those in the Rodent district, which is a part of Zootopia built for little mice). So it's not hard to see why she is set apart, and yet the movie is more about if you really DO try to make a difference yourself and set yourself apart, you can change things. Maybe. Or you might be looked at as a sly fox your whole life, or a slow sloth. How are you perceived in the world?
Though it has a couple of story problems (a story turn two thirds of the way through, which is kind of crammed in to create conflict where it could be handled much better as far as something that separates the two main characters), it's probably my favorite of the recent run of Disney Animated Films productions. And as heavy as I'm making this movie sound it really isn't - it's bright and colorful and the filmmakers have a terrific sense of a whole world that has been built; they could've rested on just one part (the main metropolitan/granite part of the city), but there's so many parts to it that it works for so many possibilities (polar bears, panthers, wolves have their parts of the city) that are seized.
It's fresh, clever but also funny, with some excellent performances (Goodwin and Bateman sure, but Elba, Slade and Simmons are very welcome additions with their own personalities), plus it's a cop procedural, and a very good one at that (with a few predictable parts, but it's this kind of movie so I can let it pass).