Monday, March 7, 2016

Review: Zootopia

by Adam Riske
Mmmm! Damn, Disney! This is some serious gourmet shit!

Madagascar was the first thing that went into my brain when I saw the trailer (I think it was a teaser) for Zootopia. I was not interested in seeing this movie. But then there was that funny trailer with the sloths at the DMV. And then the reviews started coming out and the consensus seemed to be that the movie was not just good, but actually kind of great. Well, let me add my voice to that critical chorus…Zootopia is awesome. It’s funny, entertaining, beautifully animated (it has gorgeous cityscape compositions) and stuffed with important messages for kids and adults alike. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised by this movie!

Zootopia digs deep. This is ostensibly a children’s movie that actually deals with issues like bullying, gender and racial stereotyping, drugs and police profiling and it does so in a way that is mature and empathetic instead of preachy and sanctimonious. If that wasn’t impressive enough, the movie also works as a buddy cop adventure with an intriguing mystery and likable characters with great chemistry. A few minor quibbles aside, Zootopia does just about everything right. This is a movie not just for kids and families but also for serious moviegoers as well. It’s not frivolous by any stretch and it’s just as essential a piece of animation as Disney-Pixar’s marvelous Inside Out from last year.
The plot in brief: Zootopia is a metropolis where various species of animals live and work. Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) moves to Zootopia with the dream of becoming the first rabbit police officer. After an initial tough -- go getting accepted and appreciated by the public and her fellow officers -- Judy is thrust into a big case and recruits a local con-“man” (who’s actually a fox) named Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman) to help uncover the conspiracy.

The writing and directing team behind the film (of which there are several individuals) does an impressive job of easing the viewer into the world of Zootopia. It’s great, fully realized world-building where we smoothly understand as a viewer all of the different dynamics and species (as well as their metaphors and signifiers) that take on a greater poignancy because they connect to what is going on at this moment in our culture, specifically in the United States. Some sequences in this movie are infuriating and sad, so much so that I was reminded of a movie like Selma at times. I was very emotionally invested. This is all the more impressive because some scenes are as simple as an elephant denying the sale of ice cream to a fox simply because he’s a fox.

I adore this movie from a thematic standpoint. It has so much to say about fear, individuals trying to find the strength to reassert their goodness, politics, class and moving forward as a society. I’m so glad the filmmakers took a chance with Zootopia when it could have easily just been something mindless or diverting. This movie has the power to change the way future generations think, feel and behave. It’s courageous in a way that most mainstream entertainment is not.
That’s not to say the movie is all serious business, though. It’s a great amount of fun and very energetic. Maybe even more impressive, it’s a great and surprising mystery at its center. This isn’t one of those movies that are all about the subtext with a flimsy central story holding it together. The case that Judy and Nick are trying to solve is complex and intriguing, even more so than in adult entertainment I’ve seen recently in a movie like Triple 9 (which was not that good) for example. I didn’t love everything about Zootopia, but in the scheme of things these nitpicks are minor. There’s a few comedic beats (specifically one involving a Don Corleone-esque possum(?) that feels tired and outdated, the movie feels a bit long at 108 minutes and there’s a frequent call back to a Rihanna-like singer named Gazelle (voiced by singer Shakira) that is a bit of a nuisance. Those aspects just didn’t do much for me, but they’re not major issues with the movie as a whole. This is a movie trying to do something new and with something important to say.

Zootopia is an edgy and important film with strong voice work from its cast and creativity to spare. The fact that the animals are animated so darn cute doesn’t hurt either. Go see this one, even if you were on the fence before. If there’s a movie that trumps Zootopia to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars next year then we’re in for a treat because it’s hard to imagine something much better from the genre. This movie is like the Grand Canyon of animated features. I admire it so much. It’s a dense, great movie that I think will even improve with familiarity and one I can’t wait to see again.

13 comments:

  1. Thanks for this Patrick. My kids want to see this, and it's a relief to know that it's not the Madagascar retread it seemed to be at first glance

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    1. Adam Riske wrote this great review!

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. Oops, thought it said you posted it..sorry Adam!

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    4. No worries Tim. Thanks for commenting!

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  2. What a delightful review. I saw this three weeks ago because it came out early in Europe (yay!) and I loved it so much! Disney has been on an amazing streak since 2009. Are they stealing Pixar's power?

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  3. Enjoyable read. The headline is one of my favorite things ever on this site. You a funny man Mr. Riske.

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  4. First and foremost, this is a great review, and Zootopia itself is seriously great! A Buddy cop mystery action movie that also deals with a variety of social issues?! Yes, please! Everyone should definitely give this movie a chance!

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  5. Okay, first off, I really liked ZOOTOPIA. I thought it was super enjoyable, much deeper than most of its counterparts, and has every right to be heralded. I personally have some problems with the main metaphor of the film, that being predators and prey being somewhat equated with white and minorities. I don't want to go into great detail with why I think this metaphor is severely flawed for fear of revealing too much within the plot, but my problem essentially boils down to equating minorities with actual predators sends a confused and, frankly, bad message, particularly when the film itself reinforces some of what it is trying to argue against. This metaphor is what makes up much of the films subtext for me, and for me to see it as fundamentally flawed weakens the film for me. I am certainly happy that any metaphor was even attempted, and that the storytelling was deep and effective while still being appropriate and accessible for children, and that much of the messaging could probably be picked up on by the film's target audience. I do struggle saying that I really loved the movie when I think that a central part of the storytelling is just poorly constructed on a very deep level, and while everything around it is really quite good, I sort of feel like I can't get past that main problem with the central metaphor no matter how well made the rest of the film around it is. Maybe I'm wrong about this, and on a second viewing my issue on this front may not be as stark, but I can only go so far as to say I think ZOOTOPIA is a really good, ambitious, funny movie that is still fatally flawed for me.

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  6. Actually Mr. Big is a shrew. (And the cozy relationship of the cops and the mob is one problem I have with the movie.)

    It took me awhile to remember Emmet Otter's Jug Band.

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  7. What do you think, for Zootopia 2 they have a crossover with... Howard the Duck? (Both are Disney now.) At first Howard feels at home until he notices -- no other anthro birds. Even here he can't get away from "Y-you're a duck!"

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  8. Haven't seen the movie. This is just a quick shout-out to that trailer with the sloths you mentioned. The first time I saw that trailer was before Star Wars, and I'm not sure I've ever heard a better crowd reaction to a trailer. The crowd was mostly adults, and we were all dying. I'm excited to see it after all this buzz.

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  9. I actually fairly enjoyed the Godfather-esque scene, though I do agree it's certainly well treaded territory by now. As far as an Oscar win goes, I says it's going to win hands down. I enjoyed The Boy and the Beast far more than Zootopia but a foreign animated film winning that category has little to no chance unless it's named Spirited Away.

    I usually chastise the animated category because Disney wins no matter what (I'm looking at you Big Hero 6 and you somehow beating Song of the Sea, HTTYD2 and Princess Kaguya), but Zootopia certainly deserves recognition because it's a great film.

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