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Zootopia Thoughts (spoilers maybe?)
9 years ago
After five viewings, I just have to get some of my thoughts out on paper about Zootopia...
Now that the movie is out in the UK, I feel like I can make this post, but just in case I'll try my best to keep the spoilers to the minimum.
I had no idea that this movie was going to be so amazing. I had no idea that this movie was going to be so relevant to the state of our society at this moment in time. I had no idea that Disney would ever- or could ever make an animated film about prejudice, racism, meth labs, affirmative action, the war on drugs, pragmatic police, privilege, xenophobia, sexism, the glass ceiling and government conspiracy. Like… if you had told me nine months ago that that was what this movie was going to be about, I'd never have believed you.
I've seen this movie FIVE times! I'm such a responsible adult, but I have a car and a paycheck. Being an adult doesn't mean you can have ice cream for dinner, it means that you can have ice cream for dinner and no one is going to stop you. To this day, I've never seen any other movie in a theater five times. If I had been old enough to drive myself to a theater back in 1994 (and had a car), I'd probably had done the same thing with The Lion King, but I wasn't even in high school yet, so I only saw TLK once in it's original theatrical run. Honestly, I've not been so "in" to a movie since TLK, but Zootopia has definitely upset that.
This movie, tho. each time I've seen it I've caught something new. I love the personality of the characters. I love that each character is presented in such a way that you can understand them and why they are convicted to act the way they do. The plot is so deep and layered and just… Wow. I always get a kick out of sitting in the back of the theater and watching half the audience jump out of their seats at the two big jump scares. And the twist is just so unexpected. If this movie isn't nominated for all kinds of awards, I'm going to be shocked. I'm already so jazzed that it's beaten Frozen's opening records.
Last June, when I was sitting in a theater with some local friends to see Inside Out, the last thing I expected to see was the teaser trailer that played for Zootopia. Yes, I knew Disney was making this movie, but I had no idea what the final character designs were going to look like, I'd only see a few pieces of concept art. When I saw that trailer, I was like "Did Disney _really_ use the term anthropomorphic in a trailer?" "Did they really make that awful be-fur pun at the end?" Of course this has been seen be-fur, I can name at least a dozen animated movies, (and even a few stop-motion and puppeteered movies) that are strictly an anthro animal cast. The inclusion of both of these things in a trailer was nothing more than a send-up to the furry fandom that they were making a movie we'd probably be interested in it. That was painfully obvious.
I know, I know! Anthropomorphic isn't _our_ word specifically, it's been used for centuries, it's freaking' Latin for crying out loud, but how often do you hear that word used outside the fandom? This was Disney marketing using a buzzword specifically for one purpose. Anyway… I was excited that Disney was making an anthro movie, I dug the character designs, and I was excited, but at the same time cautiously optimistic. I'd made the assumption that if Disney's marketing was lowering themselves to enticing the furry fandom, it was probably not going to be their best movie. Later in the year I affirmed that suspicion when I found that Zootopia is Disney's B-Movie for 2016, with Moana being the A-movie. My hopes for a movie this good just weren't there so I was pleasantly surprised to see just a week before the US release date that it had a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100%.
Over the past decade Disney hasn't really done the A team B team movie production thing, they've mostly been sticking to one animated film a year. Funny enough, The Lion King was also a B-movie back in 1994, with Pocahontas being the A-movie. Back when they were still the right-coast, Orlando animation team and the left-coast Burbank team. We all know how much of an A-move Pocahontas turned out to be. It's not a bad film, but it's no TLK by any stretch. I have a funny suspicion that Zootopia is well poised to upset Moana big time.
Was anyone else as surprised as I am that Disney could make this movie, that this movie is as great as this one is, and that the timing of it is just SO ridiculously perfect? This is the movie the current generation needed, it really is. I hope that it becomes as universally loved ad universally appreciated the way The Lion King has now become 22 years later. Hopefully, 22 years from now Zootopia will have at least had enough of a lasting mark on society to affect some of the issues that it addresses.
Now that the movie is out in the UK, I feel like I can make this post, but just in case I'll try my best to keep the spoilers to the minimum.
I had no idea that this movie was going to be so amazing. I had no idea that this movie was going to be so relevant to the state of our society at this moment in time. I had no idea that Disney would ever- or could ever make an animated film about prejudice, racism, meth labs, affirmative action, the war on drugs, pragmatic police, privilege, xenophobia, sexism, the glass ceiling and government conspiracy. Like… if you had told me nine months ago that that was what this movie was going to be about, I'd never have believed you.
I've seen this movie FIVE times! I'm such a responsible adult, but I have a car and a paycheck. Being an adult doesn't mean you can have ice cream for dinner, it means that you can have ice cream for dinner and no one is going to stop you. To this day, I've never seen any other movie in a theater five times. If I had been old enough to drive myself to a theater back in 1994 (and had a car), I'd probably had done the same thing with The Lion King, but I wasn't even in high school yet, so I only saw TLK once in it's original theatrical run. Honestly, I've not been so "in" to a movie since TLK, but Zootopia has definitely upset that.
This movie, tho. each time I've seen it I've caught something new. I love the personality of the characters. I love that each character is presented in such a way that you can understand them and why they are convicted to act the way they do. The plot is so deep and layered and just… Wow. I always get a kick out of sitting in the back of the theater and watching half the audience jump out of their seats at the two big jump scares. And the twist is just so unexpected. If this movie isn't nominated for all kinds of awards, I'm going to be shocked. I'm already so jazzed that it's beaten Frozen's opening records.
Last June, when I was sitting in a theater with some local friends to see Inside Out, the last thing I expected to see was the teaser trailer that played for Zootopia. Yes, I knew Disney was making this movie, but I had no idea what the final character designs were going to look like, I'd only see a few pieces of concept art. When I saw that trailer, I was like "Did Disney _really_ use the term anthropomorphic in a trailer?" "Did they really make that awful be-fur pun at the end?" Of course this has been seen be-fur, I can name at least a dozen animated movies, (and even a few stop-motion and puppeteered movies) that are strictly an anthro animal cast. The inclusion of both of these things in a trailer was nothing more than a send-up to the furry fandom that they were making a movie we'd probably be interested in it. That was painfully obvious.
I know, I know! Anthropomorphic isn't _our_ word specifically, it's been used for centuries, it's freaking' Latin for crying out loud, but how often do you hear that word used outside the fandom? This was Disney marketing using a buzzword specifically for one purpose. Anyway… I was excited that Disney was making an anthro movie, I dug the character designs, and I was excited, but at the same time cautiously optimistic. I'd made the assumption that if Disney's marketing was lowering themselves to enticing the furry fandom, it was probably not going to be their best movie. Later in the year I affirmed that suspicion when I found that Zootopia is Disney's B-Movie for 2016, with Moana being the A-movie. My hopes for a movie this good just weren't there so I was pleasantly surprised to see just a week before the US release date that it had a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100%.
Over the past decade Disney hasn't really done the A team B team movie production thing, they've mostly been sticking to one animated film a year. Funny enough, The Lion King was also a B-movie back in 1994, with Pocahontas being the A-movie. Back when they were still the right-coast, Orlando animation team and the left-coast Burbank team. We all know how much of an A-move Pocahontas turned out to be. It's not a bad film, but it's no TLK by any stretch. I have a funny suspicion that Zootopia is well poised to upset Moana big time.
Was anyone else as surprised as I am that Disney could make this movie, that this movie is as great as this one is, and that the timing of it is just SO ridiculously perfect? This is the movie the current generation needed, it really is. I hope that it becomes as universally loved ad universally appreciated the way The Lion King has now become 22 years later. Hopefully, 22 years from now Zootopia will have at least had enough of a lasting mark on society to affect some of the issues that it addresses.
But it was very inspiring and definitely played the heart strings.
Especially with the bunny cop. She's super cute! If I were a bunny, I I'd wriggle my nose on hers for sure!
This is EXACTLY what I was talking about when i said that I was SO SURPRISED when I saw this movie.
You caught more than i did.
I couldn't find the words for it all, but I got:
racism, privilege, government conspiracy, and of course affirmative action.
I had NO CLUE that all of this stuff would be thrown at my face!
And so many people thought of the trailers as "spoilers".
Not enough though! NOT ENOUGH.
It's more than just the anthropomorphic animals. More than the character designs and great animation.
This movie deserves all the praise it gets.
I saw the poor guy standing near the corner crying with his hand on his face in the front room when we all walked out.
one thing that bugs me about anti-whatever media is that it often takes a really blunt aggressive method to convince the audience. in this case,I think the point is both very clearly stated but yet doesn't trample the other elements. it's hard to describe how well balanced that turned out to be this time.
animation wise it wasn't too shabby either. everything was believable in a way, the bright colors didn't drown out the shapes,and everything seemed to have a purpose. I was surprised to see even some small details that usually don't get much polishing weren't glossed over,things like textures on edges and stuff.
And from what I've seen people just go bonkers over the movie and whatever messages it's telling and whatnot.
I guess I'm just one of those "stop liking things I don't like" people.
Sorry.
It was unavoidable. "OMG the ending" "So sad, poor Asriel" yada yada.
I know so much about that game without even playing it, it's ridiculous.
I honestly was very surprised as well, I just went in thinking "might a cute movie to pass the afternoon" but after it ended I was totally blown away. Especially with the many adult themes it tackles.
*rolls eyes*
Just say it for the third time last night. Loved every minute of it. I can't wait to get it on bluray
Zootopia, though, kept animals as close to being animals as they could. Relative sizes were kept the same. References to their instincts were plenty ("You'll start a howl!") And the prejudices and fear of predator vs. prey were still obviously present. It was this presentation that sold the idea to John Lasseter who had laid down a rule that Disney would not make any "funny animal" movies. He did not see this as a funny-animal movie, but a movie where putting a human in place of the animal character would not be possible. Thus it was like nothing you've seen "be-fur."
I really can't agree more with everything you said, absolutely everything. Being older than you, I had the luck of being able to see TLK in theaters a stunning 25 times. Yes, all of my college student allowance went to it, although movies were way cheaper by then!
Have seen Zoot 6 times already, but there will be at least a 7th one (it's already scheduled) and I will try to see it some other time before it's totally out of cinemas here (in Spain it was released in Feb. 7th or so, so it's been in theather almost 2 months now, which is surprising enough!).
And yeah, TLK was the 'B' that turned into an 'A', and Zoot is gonna be the same. When will Disney learn that anthro animals movies are actually the most loved amongst everybody?? At least Dreamworks acknowledged that long ago.
There's a theory going around that a potential Zootopia sequel will most likely involve interspecies relationships (their version of interracial) which I think would be great as long as they have a strong and fantastic story/plot like this did for this movie. Maybe we will discover new districts or something in the sequel (if it happens).
http://www.slashfilm.com/zootopia-message/
It looks like they made the right call, but I think I'd like the original story as well.
I saw in 3D twice. Though it's there, the 3D depth wasn't quite strong as nothing came out of, or went beyond the screen to reach the audience (GotG and several other live-action or Dreamworks movies do this). Still, the 3D made the characters and scenes more lively like it's really there.
I managed, even as a 9-year-old, to drag my mother to see TLK five times in theaters. x3 It will always be my favorite film. But Zooopia was awesome and is certainly now in my top 10 Disney faves. I hope it becomes a classic as well. Also hoping Disney Parks does something Zootopia-themed this or next summer :D
I really didn't think Disney would make a movie this great. But they have matched and maybe surpassed Pixar's quality of animation and storytelling with smarts with Zootopia. Though I will go see "Finding Dory" Pixar has been doing way too many sequels lately. I just hope Zootopia's huge critical and financial success inspires other studios to try something as smart and inventive.
And since the film was such a huge success, it's pretty much a sure bet there will be a sequel.