By Jodi Bogert
Disney’s latest animated film, Zootopia, proves that a bunny can be a police officer, a fox can have feelings and the world is not simple. In our society filled with hate and violence, this is the film that we need to watch right now.
A plucky rabbit named Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) has always dreamed of being a cop despite the fact that there has never been a cop of her species.
After graduating from the police academy, she moves away to the big city, Zootopia, to join the police force.
Unfortunately, she must start at the bottom, so she is assigned parking ticket duty. Soon, she meets a con artist fox, Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman). The two do not like each other at all and their species seldom mix well together.
Judy learns about an otter named Emmet Otterson, who was reported missing along with 13 other mammals. Judy and Nick must work together and set aside their differences in order to save the victims.
Zootopia proves itself to be very worthy of attention and can be taken seriously.
First of all, Judy and Nick are really great together friends. Their friendship is just like a romance, but without true love’s kiss and galloping off into the sunset.
During the time that they solve the case, they begin to become intimate by revealing their weaknesses. Their relationship shows that close friends are just as important as lovers.
Separately, these characters are just as complex as people. One of the main factors that critics celebrate about Judy is that she is striving for her dream job, not a prince.
To me, she does not wave the strong, independent woman flag or dawn the doe-eyed princess persona. I get the notion that some female heroines of today show that the fact that they are single and independent from men makes them better. I do not think those are characters to believe in per se.
Judy is a hard worker who makes mistakes and is impatient. She also learns that she cannot do everything alone. Plus, she is very energetic and funny when she is feeling her best.
Meanwhile, Nick is downright mean, but that does not mean he is dangerous. Deep down, he is lonely and untrusting, which got him to a low point in life. Nick learns to redeem himself and see Judy as a companion and not just a “dumb bunny.”
The main part of Zootopia’s power are the real-life analogies to human rights. In Zootopia, there are numerous districts where types of animals live, but it boils down to two main groups: predators and prey.
At one point in the film, total segregation is considered fearing that all predators could return to savage
ways based on their nature. Disney knows that their movies are not just cartoons. The company is put on a pedestal for its achievements in story telling and artistic style.
When Frozen premiered in 2013, the public thought that a modern enlightenment on how to tell fairy tales was beginning. This is a slight fallacy because Disney always carefully planned their messages because they knew that children were listening.
Even the films in the era of Snow White taught that kindness and hope prevails during hard times. With Zootopia, modern cartoons show that art imitates life.