Zootopia: The cutest way to learn about prejudice, racism and cultural diversity
This is the first animated movie I’ve seen for 2016. And I must say that Zootopia has really set the bar high in terms of overall quality. As of this writing it still has a 99% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
There is a lot of animated movies this year that circles around animals like Kung Fu Panda, Finding Dory, ICE AGE 5, Norm of the North and Angry Birds but I think no animated film is grabbing adult themes, like racism and cultural prejudice, by the horns like Zootopia.
Zootopia sets itself apart is by attacking prejudice head-on. Rather than preaching or putting on kid gloves, Zootopia attempts to examine the “why” of prejudice rather than the surface elements. Through it’s clever, endearing characters, hilarious jokes, and honest sentiment, Zootopia comes away as a film that’s not only a joy to watch, but also one with a message that couldn’t feel more relevant right now. — Matt Goldberg Managing Editor of Collider.com
Zootopia sets up a world where animals evolved to a civilisation where predators and prey have learned to co-exist and create a thriving society.
The movie is a buddy cop film where the two main characters, Officer Judy Hopps (the first rabbit to become a cop) and Nick Wilde (a sly street hustler)have to solve the mystery of 14 missing animals. Through their mystery adventure they meet a lot of different characters and learn things about each other and about themselves.
Just some interesting points of observation:
- I personally found how they created the world of Zootopia amazing. I think that our local city planners could learn a thing or two about creating an inclusive city by watching this film.
- Voice Casting of the movie was great. I especially liked Idris Elba doing the voice of Chief Bogo and Shakira as Gazelle
- The movie is highly accurate to reflect the current times like how a politician is using fear to pit most of the mammals against Zootopia’s minority population of predators.
- In an interview with Jason Bateman, the original lead protagonist was the fox Nick Wilde but Disney eventually made the changed and showed the story through the eyes of Bunny Officer Judy Hopps.
Check how the story changed through the video below:
Overall Zootopia was light, funny, has a nice message about working to achieve your dreams and has a catchy pop song to go with it. But the magic is how they tied in cultural diversity and our need to recognise our own prejudices and correct it. In this day and age there should already be less hate and hopefully both children and adults learn this lesson.
5 Stars out of 5
