Sweet, engaging and wonderfully original with a great message

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2016)

Judy Hopps is a young rabbit with dreams of one day becoming a police officer. No rabbit has ever been a police officer, but Judy perseveres and succeeds. Now she is off to Zootopia, a multi-animal society where all animals, predator and prey, live in harmony. Her euphoria and idealism is short-lived, however, as she discovers that prejudice between species still exists, and she even starts to doubt her anti-stereotyping stance. What's more, she's assigned to parking meter duty...
Wonderfully original. The idea of animals harmoniously coexisting in one world, and essentially representing characters that humans would usually take, on has been done (Jungle Book, Robin Hood) but not to this extent. Some great little in-jokes and use of the different characteristics of the different animals.
Nice story too, with some very engaging plots and characters. Some clever pop-cultural references too (eg The Godfather, Breaking Bad).
Behind it all is a great anti-prejudice, anti-racism message which is conveyed very effectively. Maybe a little too effectively in that it is laid on a bit thick and comes across as preachy. A bit more subtlety was in order, though, for kids, the target demographic of the movie, the level was probably about right.
Voice casting is spot on, with a host of stars contributing: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Tommy Chong (as a stoner, of course!), JK Simmons, Octavia Spencer, Alan Tudyk, Shakira, Bonnie Hunt.