Zootopia - movie review
Zootopia
Plot: In a city of anthropomorphic animals, a rookie bunny cop and a cynical con artist fox must work together to uncover a conspiracy.
Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba
Directors: Byron Howard and Rich Moore
Rating: PG
Runtime: 1hr 48 mins
Release Date: Friday 25th March 2016
Zootopia (or Zootropolis in the UK for some unknown reason) is the 55th animated feature by Disney and they have drifted back into their animal dominant routes in this venture. With two talented directors at the helm and recognisable voices as our main characters, the expectations for Disney are pretty high especially after the phenomenal successes of Big Hero 6 and Frozen. After watching Zootopia I think Disney are going to be just fine and their track record will stay intact but I can't exactly say that it is a great film. Just good.
Voicing our main protagonist of Judy Hopps, an aspiring bunny cop, is Ginnifer Goodwin. Having never seen her in 'Once Upon A Time', I could sense that Goodwin's personality emanated through the character of Judy making for a pleasant experience whenever she is onscreen. There are moments where her character may have become clichéd and forgettable but because of Goodwin's warmth and friendly humour, Judy Hopps is likely to become a memorable Disney character that children will love for some time. Accompanying Hopps in her escapade is Nick Wilde, a sly fox voiced by Jason Bateman. Bateman steals this film from everyone like candy from a baby. The character of Nick alone is immediately intriguing and fascinating but with Bateman providing the voice, it allows for an extra layer of likeability to be added. He is funny, endearing, crafty and everything you would expect Bateman to provide an animated character with. But they don't stop there with Nick's character. He could have simply been the fox who changes his way supplying the humour but the writers give him a heartfelt back story that immediately reveals his motivations allowing for the audience to form a deeper connection with Nick. Judy Hopps may be the more favourable character by children but I wouldn't be surprised if Nick Wilde was to become the most significant part of Zootopia when looking back at it a few years later.
That may cover the leads of Zootopia but providing some key appearances as supporting roles include Idris Elba and Shakira. I am a tremendous fan of Idris Elba and have loved his work from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Heimdall but also as Detective John Luther. In Zootopia, Elba voices Chief Bogo, a high ranking police officer who repeatedly undermines Judy Hopps and her chances of progress. I thought that the character was fine and I didn't have any major problems with him apart from the fact that I have seen this archetype of a character before in many other films. But that wasn't my main gripe with Chief Bogo. Instead, I was underwhelmed with Elba's voice performance as the police chief. It may have been a creative decision to provide some irony towards his role as Luther, but all I heard whenever Chief Bogo spoke was Idris Elba and I didn't feel that he fully invested in the fun and joyfulness of Disney. Some actors just aren't suited for voice acting but I think Elba just needs to let go and have fun a little more. I thought his performance as Bogo was constrained and I am hoping that this dramatically changes for his portrayal as Shere Khan in the upcoming Jungle Book film. And finally, as a incredibly minor supporting roles as Giselle the Gazelle, is Shakira. Yeah, remember her? She really doesn't do much apart from provide a song that is likely to get stuck in your head when leaving. She doesn't progress the story in any way and instead, it feels like her agent teamed up with the production team to bring Shakira back into the spotlight but by only giving her one song, the average movie goer probably won't even recognise her in the movie.
It may seem like I'm mostly praising this film which may lead to you asking yourself why I only found Zootopia to be good rather than the masterpiece that some are saying? The short answer is the overarching story. There is one aspect of the story that I adored but I'll cover that shortly. The main crux of Zootopia follows Judy and Nick attempting to solve a missing persons case. In a positive light, this is something that Disney hasn't really attempted before. Zootopia, for the most part, is a buddy cop film and this is pretty much uncharted territory for Disney. The downside of this however, is that the buddy cop territory has been invaded, colonised and destroyed by many other studios. This means that Disney doesn't really do that much original with the genre. Yes it is animated. Yes it is set in a world full of animals. Apart from those specificities, Zootopia becomes another generic cop mystery with twists and turns that aren't that inventive. What Disney usually succeeds in doing with their films is taking a genre that could be overdone and reinvent it to become popular again. I think that apart from one specific theme, Zootopia plays it safe by presenting a bright and colourful setting resulting in some overlooking the formulaic story. So for about an hour of Zootopia's runtime, I was unfortunately bored, a feeling that I never want during a Disney film. But then something changes and the film becomes completely different. Now, some may consider this following segment to be a spoiler but I think that it is key to understand this before you watch the film in the hope of enriching your enjoyment of Zootopia. The movie suddenly and ingeniously begins to provide deep and meaningful social commentaries on the world today by presenting it in the world of Zootopia. They discuss themes such as racism and sexism in such a thought provoking manner that it blends very well into the humour that we also get. These themes and Nick Wilde are easily the best parts of Zootopia but my only issue with the social prevalence presented here is that young children are likely to miss this completely whilst adults will discover these mature themes and be surprised. But then is Zootopia aimed more for adults that it actually is for children? This issue was raised during the release of Inside Out but I think it is more relevant in this film. I understand that children will enjoy the fun animation and the humour but if the main aim of the film is to bring to light the themes of racism and sexism, then in my opinion, Zootopia is more geared towards adults than it is for children and I don't think this the best path for Disney to follow. I'm all for bringing these mature themes to light but this shouldn't be at the sacrifice of a fresh story that balances the enjoyment for children and the sensibility for adults.
As all Disney films are, the animation is beautiful. The 3D realisation of each animal is detailed to near perfection making it as realistic as a cartoon can be. I am also a huge fan of the world created in Zootopia and how it isn't just a big city for all animals to coexist together. They create smaller worlds within the larger world for similar animals to live such as an area for small rodents and another area for the larger giraffes. It proved to me that a lot of ideas and imaginative decisions were implemented to the creation of Zootopia so much so, that the writers even comment on social culture and reference other films. When a film can clearly pay homage to The Godfather and it be really funny then I can't fault Zootopia for it's humour. That is simply because Zootopia is very funny and consistent with its jokes. It knows when to slow the humour for more dramatic moments to take centre stage but also incorporate quite a few risque adult jokes that will fly over kids heads. The funniest scene in the entire film involves Sloths running the DMV. Parts of it have been shown in the trailer but it is even funnier in the context of the movie.
I know I said it in my introduction but this is a very good film. The voice cast is great with Bateman being the clear stand out. It deals with complex themes that I didn't expect at all but it works fantastically well and the animation is beautiful as usual. But what stops Zootopia from being great in my eyes is that the imagination seemed to be spent on the creation of the world that not enough was left to craft a story that hooked me for the runtime. All I can say is that I think Zootopia is slightly overrated but I had a good time nonetheless.
My Verdict: 6.5/10
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