In the city of Zootopia, animals live together in peace and harmony in bustling city or anyone can become anything. At least this is what Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), hopes for as she leaves her rural community to chase her dreams of becoming the first ever rabbit officer on the Zootopia please force. Despite her size disadvantage and opposition from other officers, Judy graduates from the top of her class and soon makes her way to the big city to start her career. Unfortunately the other officers are so thrilled about having a rabbit on the force; especially her Chief Bogo (Idris Elba), who assigns Judy to lowly parking duty in the hopes that she will simply just go away. When a missing person’s case accidentally lands in her lap, Judy makes an agreement with her cheap that she will crack the case or be forced to resign from the force. With the clock ticking, Judy crosses paths with a Fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), who despite his seemingly sketchy way of conducting himself, may have a crucial clue towards cracking the case.
Naturally things are not as cut and dry as they might at first seem, and the two reluctantly are forced to partner up in order to get to the bottom of the mystery that threatens to shake the very essence of Zootopia to the core.
Disney has once again crafted a film filled with bright colors, great characters, dazzling visuals, and above all a story that is extremely entertaining throughout and also contains very good messages without being preachy. The cast is first-rate and the jokes fly fast even though it is at its core a mystery. Bateman and Goodwin are fantastic as the leads, and the supporting cast is an exceptionally strong performance.
I would be hard-pressed to find anything to fault in the film although parents may want to exercise a bit of caution with extremely young viewers as there are a couple of intense moments one of which made my wife jumped in her seat. That being said Disney has got another classic on their hands and I hope that we see some future adventures from this crew in the future as I was captivated from beginning to end and with this charming and magical tale.
5 stars out of 5.
Second Review By Barnetty Kushner
In a day and age where the lines of prejudice and racism are somewhat blurred, Disney doesn’t beat around the bush and attacks segregation head-on in Zootopia. Making it the most political movie Disney has released. In the world of Zootopia, only animals exists and walk upright, wear clothes, and carry on life in a similar manner as humans do; there are no humans in this film. Somewhere along the timeline of existence, both predators and prey developed civil liberties and saw each other as “equals.”
The main part of the story follows Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), a meek, cuddly, and fragile bunny that dreams of leaving her family’s carrot farm in the country and venture to the big city of Zootopia to become the very first bunny police officer. To everyone’s dismay, Judy graduates police academy and is immediately offered a position at the most prestigious Zootopia Police Department. Not being taken very seriously, she is immediately assigned parking enforcement where she is duped by a sly fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) into charity. It doesn’t take long for Judy to realize kindness and naivety will not get her far in her line of work and surviving Zootopia. She tricks her boss into assigning her a missing animal case for a loving and well respected otter. She then blackmails the wily fox Nick, since he is more familiar and street savvy with Zootopia, to help her in her search. Along the way, they realize their simple case turns up clues that result in a grander scheme and conspiracy that affects their entire civilization and way of life.
Disney manages to provide the perfect amount of humor to keep the kiddos and parents laughing. You can’t have a movie about animals and not address the stereotypical nature of some animals in a human like environment. Ironically enough, Zootopia’s DMV employs sloths which gave me flashbacks to my own experiences at the DMV. You cannot help but laugh out loud at how spot-on and true to life that segment was in the movie.
In true Disney fashion, they always manage to tie a kid friendly message about being yourself and following your dreams. In Zootopia, “anyone can be anything!” Disney also addressed the effects of discrimination, judging others, and taps into the subject of police brutality. But, at the core, it’s how you treat people that matters the most regardless of their biological nature. Kid’s movies don’t usually dig this deep into such serious topics, however Disney managed to get the message across to the younger audience in a respectful manner. It definitely resonated with the 3 boys I took with me to see the movie. Which is what any parents wants for their child(ren), to understand and learn the importance of humanity and how our choices and prejudices affect others.
4 stars out 5
We also had 7 year old Vincent ask to do his review.
Zootopia
by Vincent Franklyn Watt
Zootopia is a place where everyone can be anything. Only animals live there. No humans. The story is about a bunny named Judy Hopps. Judy Hopps was the first bunny Cop. She got a case to find a missing otter.
There were some scary parts in the movie.
My favorite party was when Nick Wild the fox sold popsicles to hamsters. It was funny watching them eat.
I likde the movie a lot. Go see this movie!
5 stars
