Zootopia (2016)

[dashrendar44]

A Disney movie that wants to convey a positive message about fraternity overall but trips over itself tackling its themes through muddled metaphors and dubious anthromorphic analogies. It skirts the edge of falling into Dreamworks mediocrity several times by lame pop culture reference overkill. (Godfather heavy handed reference in 2017 is not genuinely funny since A Shark Tale's movie). The worldbuilding and production design are amazing though.

 

B-

[Ezen Baklattan]

Truth be told, this is starting to fall behind Moana for me. The film's racial allegory doesn't hold up super well upon even mild scrutiny, but it's still a fantastic bit of world building, character, and it definitely at least had its heart where it needed to be. 

[cannastop]

1 hour ago, Spaghetti by the Sea said:

Truth be told, this is starting to fall behind Moana for me. The film's racial allegory doesn't hold up super well upon even mild scrutiny, but it's still a fantastic bit of world building, character, and it definitely at least had its heart where it needed to be. 

TBH, the main reason I appreciate this movie is that I love the characters so much. That, and I think there are some genuinely great filmmaking moments in the movie. I just brush aside any flaws I notice.

Edited January 31, 2017 by cannastop

[filmlover]

Still a great movie.

[AniNate]

I don't read this as an analogy to the human world. It's just its own place with its own culture and own issues. Some of them are similar to what is experienced here, but it isn't intended to be a mirror (nor should it be).

[Alpha]

On 3/6/2016 at 10:14 AM, Alpha said:

Take me seriously when I say this; Zootopia is a deconstruction of the American Dream, and what we can do to repair it.

 

A

Yeah, I'm going to take this back.

 

It's probably the best film to come out of the recent WDAS string of successes, but it's still heavily rooted in that kind of Obama-era political commentary that focuses more on personal prejudice than systemic racism. It's still pretty funny, it's visually stunning, and the worldbuilding is fantastic (Disney should really think about creating a TV series exploring the world further with these characters, it'd be a hit), but overall the message feels kinda dated in our newfound political climate. 

 

As someone familiar with the "shock collar" concept that was abandoned late into the film's production, I actually would have LOVED to see that darker depiction of Zootopia. It probably would have been a mess tonally and been far less successful with critics and especially general audiences, but it would've been a FAR more interesting (and emotionally provocative) movie for the incoming Trump era and there would've been a lot more to dissect about race relations, class discrimination, police brutality, etc. than the safe, decent end product we got.

 

B-

[cannastop]

You know, I've sometimes thought of claims of similarities to the reviled Best Picture winner Crash and Zootopia. I myself was so mortified by the little bit of Crash I saw, I kind of refuse to see the whole movie. But I do think there are similarities there, based on what I know about Crash. Zootopia has some advantages though.

 

-Having plausible deniability as an "allegory".

 

-Actually likable characters

 

Yeah that's about it.
 

[dxmatrixdt]

Zootopia sucks!!!

 

Edited August 9, 2019 by 2010s Painkiller Race