Movie Review: Zootopia
Updated: May 28, 2019
Zootopia is a new animated adventure from Disney, and it’s a really good one. The story centers around Judy Hopps, (voiced by Gennifer Goodwin) a bunny who lives on a carrot farm with her parents, but dreams of being a big-city police officer.
She gets her chance when she graduates from the police academy and moves to Zootopia- the big city, where dreams come true and people live rich, fulfilling lives. At least, that’s what Judy thinks until she actually moves there.
She finds that animals in the city can be mean, cruel and uncaring. She lives in a run-down apartment, and her job turns to be that of a meter-maid, someone who assigns parking tickets to illegally parked cars, hardly the job she wanted.
She also has to contend with prejudice- bunnies can’t be cops, she’s told to go back to the farm.and her perceptions of Zootopia gets shattered.
Then one day, Emmett The Otter goes missing, and no one wants to find him except for Judy. She decides that taking the case will be a way to prove herself, and reluctantly has to ask for help from Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) , a sly fox who makes money by scamming people.
Zootopia is a fun movie with a lot of colorful animation and characters. Aside from being a comedy with many pop culture references, it delivers a good message about accepting others, overcoming prejudice, and not giving up on your dreams, no matter how tough things might get.
The highlight of the film is the relationship between Judy and Nick. They start off as enemies on opposite sides, but learn to trust each other and work together as a team. Gennifer Godwin makes Judy a fun, and lovable character, who plays off the cynical, yet good-hearted Nick.
Zootopia’s biggest selling point is that the movie is set in an animal world where the animals act and live like humans. This isn’t the first Disney movie to use this trope (Disney practically invented this genre when Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck first appeared generations ago) but Zootopia does it in such a fresh way, that the world we see feels vibrant and original. It’s a fun movie for both kids and adults. Highly recommended.