Well…it was a slow week for new movies, so we decided to do something we hadn’t done for a while, like see an animated Disney movie. I was somewhat interested because it’s been sitting at 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.3 on IMDB….what’s going on here? I knew what to expect, having done the rounds with Disney movies when my kids were young and having visited Disneyworld a couple times. It would be an animated movie with wisecracking animals, bright colors, a basic plot line with non-threatening plot twists, a few teary moments, a couple songs with easy hooks, jokes easy enough for a young kid to understand and a bunch of covert topical references (including a sequence with an animal version of Walter White) so the adults who take the kids would feel like the writers knew they were part of the audience. Also, as long as I can remember, Disney has always found a way to rake in huge amounts of money by being as PC, inclusive, environmentally benign as they can be without messing up their profitability. It’s not surprising that a movie with a title like Zootopia will have some sort of message about being all we can be, accepting ourselves in spite of our differences, etc.
Zootopia didn’t violate the formula. We have a future animal-only utopian city, where all of the animals live in peace together in a diverse, but respecting city. Our hero, Judy (Jennifer Goodwyn) is a rabbit that wants to join the police force. My first thought was just why utopia needs police, but apparently, they do. Anyway, like most rabbits, she scares easy but is willing to overcome her fear, has pluck and energy. She encounters resistance, however, from the police chief (Idris Elba), an intimidating, gruff, but honest cop, who is also a water buffalo. Doubting her, he assigns her to be a “meter maid”, writing parking tickets. She also finds out that enforcing the law requires not just rigid adherence, but judgement as she meets a likable fox (Jason Bateman) who is also a con man. She learns not to judge “people” too quickly; he’s more than just a con and would actually like to join up with the police. Things crank up though, when we find out that a lot of animals have gone missing. In a fit of bravado, Judy tells her doubting boss that she will crack the case in 48 hours. The plot darkens when we find out that a high ranking politician is part of a plot to use a flower known as night howlers in a way that turns animals into fierce, hostile predators, not in line with any animal utopia. The lion won’t be lying down with the lamb as long as the night howlers are around. It’s up to Judy to crack this case, and it’s the scariest thing going on in Zootopia.
I went into this movie, feeling fairly sarcastic….yeah, I know that it’s a great, big beautiful tomorrow, that wishes are fulfilled and that everybody is our friend, just like in Disney World. Knowing that I had to do an attitude adjustment, I kept my Disney mouse ears on and let the movie roll. It was really pretty good. As always, whatever Disney does will be the best animation that money can buy. The voice actors were good (I’m not familiar with most of the names). The music was fun. In spite of the somewhat moralistic tone of the movie, it was light and easy for kids. The whole moral thing was interesting and not completely simplistic. Yeah, all the animals live in peace and harmony, but not all the time. There’s a lot of knee-jerk suspicion of predators and the citizens are finding it easy to believe that they are basically bad until it’s discovered that night howlers, the crack or meth of Zootopia, are really the problem. Zootopia also has political corruption, the howlers are a drug that makes ok characters do bad things and sometimes authorities get heavy handed. The drama is all played out with cute, Disney animal characters that don’t reference anybody in particular in the real world, so it’s a play on what you might think of as basic human weakness. Somehow, however, unlike the real world, by the end of the movie, all this will be fixed, Zootopia will go back to what it should be and things will all end up with a Shakira song.
I’m not sure what a director does in an animated movie, but this one had three, Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Jared Bush, none of them known to me. Most of the cast and crew seem to be Disney corporate people, imagineeers, company performers, etc. It had a PG rating. There was also one scene, in which the fox, who had been a cute wisecracker, temporarily turns evil and scary. That metamorphosis had some little kids crying. The moral in the tale is wound all around the story, isn’t too preachy, but is definitely in line with the Disney corporate attitude.
I liked the movie. I might have liked it even more if I had a kid or two with me, but, like much of what happens in Disney World, if you drop your cynicism for a while and just go on with the ride, you can enjoy it. I don’t know that I would place it in the top 1% of all movies like Rotten Tomatoes, but, if you’re OK with a movie that makes cute animals get up and dance, you will enjoy it.
