Zootopia

                Hello everyone out there!  You know me best as TheCinemaChick and I talk about movies a lot.  And I mean A LOT!  I know, I know, I haven’t been active much as of late but you know, things happen and I need to lay low for a bit.  Since that sounds shady, let me explain.  I’ve just been busy and when I wasn’t busy, I was dealing with my bipolar disorder, which has been al out of whack lately.  And, some really great things have happened but I’m not ready to announce that to the general public yet.  No hints either.  It’s something myself and only about…3 other people know and for the time being, that’s the way I’d like to keep it.

So, I have seen some films this year.  I saw “The Fifth Wave” for my birthday, which was absolutely atrocious.  I laughed inappropriately the whole time because well…I guess I’ll just have to write about it to explain it.  Seriously, one of the worst of 2016.

I did see Deadpool and I’m on the fence about whether I should review it or not.  I mean, it was such a popular movie that I don’t feel I need to touch on it.  If you want me to talk about it, let me know!  You know where the comment section is!

So, let’s move on to the movie of this blog.  I’m talking about the newly released Disney animated film called “Zootopia”.  I’m not sure how I feel about this film as of yet.  The thing is, I loved the voice acting.  They had a really good cast, including Ginnifer Goodwin as the main character, Judy Hopp.  As per usual, the animation was astounding, but I’ve come to expect high quality animation from them so it’s really hard for them to screw up the visuals.

Let me step back here for a moment.  I did in fact see “The Good Dinosaur”, which I DO NOT recommend.  It’s aimed at children but it should not be.  There are some topics in there that children just aren’t ready to deal with.  I mean, you see the main character lose a parent in the beginning and there is a scene later where he has to explain death to a little human boy.  I found that part extremely sad and I don’t think a little kid would want to hear about it.  Also, yes, there is a drug trip.  The dinosaur and his human pet eat some berries that have either gone bad or fermented and they hallucinate.  I was uncomfortable watching it as an adult.  Again, not for children!

See, I brought that up because I see this trend continuing.  While “Zootopia” on the surface is a cute movie about a bunny joining the police force and becoming friends with a fox, I don’t think it’s for the little ones.  I admit, it’s full of bright colors and snappy dialogue but honestly, today’s children are smarter than that.  I think they are going to catch little bits of what’s meant to be a moral lesson.  Plus, Disney is really relying on this whole “girl power, women can do anything” trend.  The last few major movies that have come out, especially the animated ones have all dealt with independent young girls who can overcome anything.

I’m all for female empowerment, but we get it Disney.  We learned this from Mulan, Frozen, Brave, Inside Out…the list goes on and on.

And the thing is, Judy is kind of bland and one dimensional.  She only has one mode, eternal optimist.  She doesn’t really grow or change over the course of the story.  All throughout, she’s just the first bunny cop, something they repeatedly nail into your head.  We get it!  She made history!  We don’t need to be reminded of it every fifteen minutes!  And like I said, she’s just always cheerful and upbeat and optimistic, which in itself isn’t bad.  But she doesn’t learn anything.  The lesson I got from the movie is that I should learn how to “hustle” and bend the laws a little bit.  And trust me, she bends the law to her advantage several times, then gets on the fox’s case for the slightest infraction of it!

To me, the most interesting character was the secondary lead, Nick Fox, voiced by Jason Bateman.  He actually had growth and change as a character and he was much better than Judy.  Yeah, ok, she starts off all shady but by the end of the film, I was rooting for him.  His backstory was far more interesting than hers so he became more sympathetic.  I could relate to Nick more than I could a determined bunny.  Sorry guys, I’m just saying, the anti-hero (if that’s what we’re calling him) is far more interesting than the hero.

While the overall tone of the film is light for the most part, they cover some incredibly heavy topics.  To start, Judy’s parents aren’t encouraging and supportive.  She wants to be a cop, they tell her no, stay home and be a carrot farmer.  Then there’s a joke about how many brothers and sisters she has, so yeah they had to include a joke about rabbit reproduction.  They actually show some violence, which is new to me.  Most of the time it’s implied or shown off screen.  In this case, no if someone gets hurt, you see it.  And oh my goodness, they really hammer home a message about racism.  Judy is called “cute” at one point and she says it’s offensive because only bunnies can call other bunnies cute.

Dude, it’s the Oscars all over again!  I watched the Academy Awards to see if Leonardo DiCaprio finally won the gold statue and I left feeling so horrible about myself!  Seriously, almost everyone had some sort of social injustice to preach about.  I had to hear about sexual assault and bullying and climate change…ugh!  Celebrities…you can preach how we should change all these things all you want, I don’t see you making any real efforts to stop them.  Just addressing the issue and raising awareness isn’t going to do anything if that’s all you do!

*sighs*

I’m okay.

Overall, “Zootopia” was pretty good.  I liked most of the characters and the plot was good.  There was a twist I didn’t see coming, but in retrospect, I should have.  The ending was bland and predictable, which is true of a lot of films these days.  I just went into it really wanting to like it but afterwards…I just couldn’t.  I wasn’t as impressed as I had hoped.  Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see a movie that explores this world deeper and focuses on other animals, but I don’t want to see anymore of Judy Hopps.

Would I recommend this movie?  Yeah, if you can swing a matinee for it.  Take the kids as well, they’ll love the witty script and action scenes.  There might be a few things you have to explain to him after the film because I honestly think a lot of more adult themes were slipped in.

Also. I know that Shakira was cast in the movie as Gazelle.  Don’t get your hopes up.  She’s not in the movie until the final ten minutes.  She’s mentioned a lot and you get to hear her speak I think three times in the entire run time.  Why promote her casting if you’re not going to use her?  She was just shoved into the background.

One tiny spoiler.  There is a huge Breaking Bad easter egg that had me laughing.  You’ll know what it is when you get there.  I was laughing pretty hard at that.  I can’t spoil why it was so funny but trust me, it’s a good one!

Also, Alan Tudyk voices a minor character named Duke Weaslton…sound familiar?  Since he played the Duke of Wesselton (always mispronounced as Weaselton) in “Frozen”?  I see what you did there, Disney.  Two thumbs up to that!

Again, overall, I don’t care for “Zootopia”.  It lays on the social issues too much and relies on a bland, uninteresting character to tell the story.  I’m also a little uncomfortable that they have a naturalist club in the film.  Kids, if you don’t know what that is…ask your parents.  I ain’t touching this one.  It’s in the movie…where Tommy Chong is.  Don’t know Tommy Chong?  Again, ask your parents.

I’m TheCinemaChick and if I were in Zootopia, I’d like to think I’d be a ferret.