Cartoon Corner- Zootopia

Originally posted at the DL March 2016

God, how is there anything BUT Zootopia porn left on the internet.  This is the second furriest thing I've ever seen.



Okay, so there's a big gap there because I am CONVINCED the other thing is like... actually intended as pornographic sometimes, this just has some weirdly male-gaze-y stuff on Ms. Hopps at times.

Otherwise, this is a Disney film and possesses all the many hallmarks of that legacy.  Details poured into aspects of production no regular viewer will ever notice, cohesive world design etc etc.

I mean, it's good.  So, so much better than that trailer because honestly I had decided to avoid it based on that thing, fortunately while that scene is in the movie, it's cut down a bit.  And they actually pay it off somewhat later.

The main thing about the film though is that is has... seemingly by accident, though perhaps they decided on the broad themes in response to events from a year or two ago and it's just gotten EVEN MORE relevant in the past few months, become extremely timely.  The main thrust here, if you're not familiar with any of the advertising or world setup, is basically "animals evolved into cartoon furries, but remain somewhat divided by traditional classifications of predator and prey".  There's a lot of mistrust there, and broad stereotypes about each group, as well as specific ones to particular species (rabbits are cute (don't call her that, it's okay between rabbits but not so much when other mammals say it...), foxes are sly bullies, weasels are shifty criminals, etc).

It does mostly work, and the way it informs the backstories and ongoing plot for the two main characters is great (hell, the rapport between the two of them is the best part of the film), but it can be reaaaaaallllyyyy on the nose at times, in a way that's distracting.  There's a bit of a mystery plot going on here, which sadly is pretty predictable about five minutes after they tip their hand on one even being there, but I guess that's probably just going to happen sometimes in your family films.

In a lot of ways I suspect this one will feel sorta dated in a few years, despite "racism is bad and hard to counter!" being a pretty eternal message, because the specifics of it just feels very rooted in the 2010s specifically, along with having technology directly mirroring modern featured pretty prominently.  They also have some direct shoutouts to the current Disney run at a few points that will have the same effect overall.  Still, it's certainly enjoyable enough and, as noted, it's nice to have something that will be getting a lot of eyeballs dropping the racism hammer right now.  But it's just not an all-time classic in the making.

Rating- 7/10