Determined to prove herself, Officer Judy Hopps, the first bunny on Zootopia's police force, jumps at the chance to crack her first case - even if it means partnering with scam-artist fox Nick Wild...
Disney's Zootopia is one of their best films for years and the animated film to see in 2016. A film that is appropriate for both children and adults it is one that is sure to bear fruit in terms of sequels and spin-offs.
Zootopia features another strong female lead from Disney, with the likes of Elsa from Frozen and more recently Moana. I for one love this new direction. Given how impressionable children are, what they perceive in television can be important to how they view the world and how to act, with technology being such a forefront in modern times, it becomes essential to provide an ethical and forward thinking message, a fine line between life education and entertainment. Judy Hopps is a rabbit that like everyone has a dream, this dream is to become a police officer. Now traditionally police officers in Zootopia are larger, powerful, intimidating animals but she is determined to break the mould and succeed. Rather than trying to change herself, she uses her strengths to achieve her goals and shows the meek can indeed be useful.
In a time when the world is becoming smaller and more multicultural, racial tensions and prejudices still inhabit our society, Zootopia shows us a mirror image of our world. We have many characters proclaiming that Judy cannot become a police officer because she is a rabbit and that she is a female. Zootopia shows us a portion of societies misdirected preconceptions of her ability. The world the writers have created is a wonderful concept. Predators and 'Prey' have evolved to live side by side in this anthropomorphic world and the name Zootopia gives us ideas of a Utopian society by linguistically combining the two, but as in the real world, Zootopia is far from perfect. Prejudices are everywhere and stereotypes are fulfilled. The Lion (King of the jungle) as mayor, the Bull (strong and hot-headed) as the police captain, the sloths at the DMV (DVLA in the UK, notoriously slow and painful procedure) Judy quickly learns Zootopia isn't all she expected it to be. She excels in her menial task but we also learn Judy Hopps is far from perfect, she has her flaws. Her preconceived path in life was to become a carrot farmer (very cliche for a rabbit) and her parents have instilled a stereotypical view of foxes which is carried over to Judy's psyche. In that prejudice she allows herself to be ruled by her misguided nurture.
As the film twists and turns, we follow Judy and her sidekick in detective mode, with plenty of humour along the way. Plot wise the film was incredibly entertaining and will engross you for the duration, with some terrific movie references and nods to our parallel world. As the film unravels and draws to a close, it smashes down the prejudices instilled before and gives a powerful message of unity and friendship in a diverse society, looking past the differences and realising that there isn't much difference after all.
Zootopia is more than just a children's animated film, it speaks to people of all ages. A deep film with an animated gloss, it is intelligent and not without motive. Though being set in a world that is inhabited by animals, it is perhaps one of the most human films Disney have ever produced. It has a great re-watch value that makes it no doubt in my mind a Disney 'classic'.
