Zootopia

[Warning: May Contain Spoilers]
I had no idea what to expect from this movie. The commercials didn't indicate much about the plot, and the concept of an all-animal human-esque world seemed interesting, but it was hard to know what Disney was going to do with the idea. I began this movie with reasonable optimism. I figured it had to be decent since it was Disney, and because if all the hype being built up around it. But this was the first of their movies to have no human characters, and somehow that made me curious and perhaps a little hesitant about the potential storyline.

So for anyone who hasn't seen it, and who may have been just as unsure a I was about what to expect, let me tell you what this movie is about:

Judy Hopps has always had dreams of being a police officer, but everyone tries to discourage her because she is a rabbit. She is small and sweet, but when her friend is being bullied by a young fox, she takes him on.

Years later, she successfully becomes the first rabbit officer, and she is by far the smallest officer in her precinct. While very one else gets to do real police work, Just is consistently put on parking duty.

While working, she accidentally aids in and then witnesses the con of one Nick Wilde, a fox. The next day, she witnesses a robbery and catches the thief, but the chief scolds her for not sticking to her duties.

Judy wants to be more than a meter maid, so Chief Bogo compromises, giving her 48 hours to solve some dead-end cases of missing animals (all predators too). She runs into Nick again, and essentially blackmails him into helping her. They find a lead that connects a missing otter to Mr. Big, a mafia head, but it turns out to be unrelated. However, Mr. Big's limo driver starts to give them a clue, explaining that Mr. Otterton became savage. And then the same thing happens to him. It appears that the predators are devolving (if that's a word), becoming violent hunters once more, but Judy knows there is more to it.

I actually don't want to spoil this one, so I won't tell you what is really happening. But I will let you know that, predictably, Nick and Judy are able to remain best friends even though he is a technically predator and she is prey. It's Disney, so it all ends happily.

This movie did a really good job at looking at the relationship between the predators and the prey. There is a whole discussion about biology that doesn't just have to apply to animals. The excuse for the sudden savage attacks is that it is in their biology and there is nothing that can be done about it, which they find out is not the cause. It's about choosing to be something other than what you are expected to be. We see young Judy deciding that she wants to be a cop, and staying true to that dream. We also see how little Nick actually wanted to be a friend to non-predators, but was hurt by those he considered friends. Yet he is still able to befriend Judy in the end.

Nick's story and the case with the predators looks at how stigmas and prejudice can damage people's reputations and change how they see themselves. People believe that fixes should be wily and evil, so Nick chooses to become a con man and live up to society's expectations of him. Judy, on the other hand, fights back against that. 

We also see how predators seem to get treated like an elite or superior class of creatures. They are very exclusive to prey.

But there is also discrimination that goes the other way. The prey discriminate predators in turn. They also occasionally fear and distrust predators because of their biology.

When you think about it, this whole movie is a commentary on racism, and it is very well done.

I loved the characters in this movie. They may have been animals, but they were so human. Elements of their behaviours and lifestyles were animalistic or inspired/determined by their species (such as rabbits being farmers), but they live otherwise very human lives.

This movie is also full of little pop culture references, and I feel that I should watch it again to pay attention to those Easter eggs instead of the plot because I am sure that I still missed a bunch. What I did notice were several Frozen references, as well as scenes that reflect old mafia movies and Breaking Bad.

Another thing that was a selling-point for me was that the main characters are a male and a female, but they do not end up in a relationship (or as Disney movies usually do, in love). Or if they do, it is not explicitly stated. I know that there are Disney movies that don't have an overarching romance story, but it is not common, so I was glad that this one chose to avoid that cliché.

Disney's strength is writing movies that give you all the feels, and this one does not let you down in that aspect. But overall, it gave me such feelings of hope and happiness. I would call it a feel-good movie for sure. If you haven't yet, take the chance to chill and watch this movie before the end of your summer break. Have some family time.