User blog:RRabbit42/Review: Zootopia

I originally wrote this for another site, but I am going to share it here. Hopefully, we'll get more people reviewing the movies they've seen.

This week, we've got Zootopia, the latest computer animated movie from Disney, or if you're in the UK, it's called Zootropolis because I guess it's too similar in title to Zooropa by U2. The premiere date there is March 25th, so we'll have to wait to see if anything else was changed since the main city is named Zootopia and there's a "Welcome to Zootopia" sign in the movie.

It's the story of the Earth without humans but the animals have developed equivalent technology and cultures: pop music, electricity, cameras, cars, trains, parking meters, smart phone and apps, clothing, you name it. And that city of Zootopia has different areas where the habitat and landscape matches what different animals need, such as arctic, jungle and arid conditions.

Judy Hops is a young rabbit that wants to grow up to be a police officer, and what better place to help people as one than Zootopia, where "Anyone can be anything"? In keeping with that motto, she's the first bunny graduate of a new equal opporturnity program put together by Zootopia's mayor. But as she learns on her second day on the job, the city isn't the idealistic place she thought it would be and she has to prove herself to everyone. Her determination helps her in investigating a case that the rest of the police aren't making any headway on, and it goes a lot further than she was expecting with help from Nick, a small-time hustler who stays just on this side of the law that she tricks into helping her.

The artwork of the movie is very beautiful and a lot of effort went into making the city believable and recognizable, where the different sizes of the animals are taken into account when designing things like public transportation. It's also interesting in that it's both obvious and subtle in how issues of stereotypes, preconceived notions and bullying are addressed. Even when it's something like Nick reciting what he's pieced together of Judy's background, or the desk sergent talking about he's a stereotype, it doesn't come off as a fourth wall break or being preachy. It's just people having a conversation.

My experience in watching this movie was completely different than all other movies I go see in a theater. First, this is the first one I can remember where I went to see it on opening weekend. I prefer to wait a few weeks so the crowds thin out and I have a better choice of seats. But because I did this, I got to listen to some of the audience around me reacting to the movie. Suprisingly, I don't think I heard any kids laughing at the jokes, but the adults definitely did because they could relate more directly to what was going on, such as the scene where Judy and Nick go to the DMV, or when Judy's parents do a "wonderful" job of giving her advice on what to do in life.

The reason why I could spare some attention for what was going on around me was due to the second reason why this was a different experience. I purchased the Zootopia Junior Novel about a month ago, so I knew about 80-90% of what would happen in the movie, just not how it would look when it happened. Junior novels are, after all, written for younger readers and have to summarize some of the events.

I did this to prove a point and to verify something. I do a lot of work on wikis and on a couple of them, the people have gotten in the habit of taking small pieces of info from movie trailers, articles, etc., and blowing them up out of proportion to where they're completely convinced that they know everything about what a character is, what their motivations are and what they will do. "The character's on screen for five seconds in this trailer, so that must mean they're the main antagonist and they've got this huge, complicated plan to rule the galaxy and I know exactly how they're going to do it and exactly where that character ranks in relation to all other characters." And that's before the movie has even premiered.

In the case of Zootopia, this was happening with the mayor, twisting him into this horrible monster that orders the murder of the assistant mayor. Thanks to the fact that the Junior Novel and a few other related books came out quite a bit ahead of time, I was able to find out the truth and confirm it by watching the movie.

Did it ruin my enjoyment by reading the story ahead of time? No. I had the time to take in details that would have required a second or third viewing of the movie to catch, such as seeing Judy's nose twitching, just like bunnies in our world do. The small details that show the film crew and artists are paying attention and really care about the movie they're making. Being able to think "that sounds like Tim Conway". (It wasn't.) Or wondering if when Maurice LaMarche was doing his impression of The Godfather, was he doing it based off of Marlon Brando or Dom DeLuise's Don Giovanni from Robin Hood: Men in Tights? And hearing the audience around me identify the pop culture references strewn in the movie, such as the guy selling bootleg DVDs of "Wrangled" or a certain TV show that played on AMC. The movie parodies are all Disney movies, but Disney came up with some other "Zootopia-fied" posters of recent movies like "Bridge of Sloths" and "Mad Yax: Furry Road" that you can see over on the Fandango website.

This is a movie I can recommend that just about anyone can watch, though there's a couple of scenes that would be very scary for really young kids around about 4 or 5. I think I even reacted a little bit to how menacing and scary those were, which shows how effective the filmmakers were in those scenes.