Zootopia (2016, PG)

Okay, yes, the sloth scene from the trailer is a delight – even having seen most of it more than once in ads, it’s still wonderfully funny – but that alone wouldn’t have brought me to the theater.  I opted not to wait for the DVD for three reasons.  1) I found out that Ginnifer Goodwin voices the lead character, and no matter how hard the the Once Upon a Timewriters often try, they can’t make me hate Snow.  2)  I read that said lead character is a terrifically rootable heroine.  And 3) I heard that the movie was all about stereotypes and prejudice.  The last one was what really intrigued me; the fun, clever “animal city” jokes in the trailer never hinted at that!

In a world where animals have evolved such that predators and prey cohabit peacefully, Judy Hopps – bunny, country bumpkin, and cock-eyed optimist – thinks she’s on the verge of making her dreams come true.  Despite being told all her life that she’s destined to be a carrot farmer like her parents, she’s moved to the city and worked to become the first bunny in the Zootopia police department.  The city, however, isn’t the borderless utopia she’d hoped for, and outdated stereotypes about predators and prey persist, meaning no one thinks she’s up to the task.  But when a major Missing Mammals case hits the docket, Judy shirks her parking enforcement duties to investigate the disappearances and prove her worth.  Along the way, she teams up with Nick Wilde, a smooth-talking fox/grifter, and each attempts to reconcile what they’ve heard about one another’s species with the animal standing in front of them.

I feel like that summary is somehow simultaneously convoluted and oversimplified, neither of which is a good fit for the movie.  To be sure, there is a lot going on plot-wise, but I think the story moves along at a fine pace and hangs together pretty nicely.  Similarly, while the movie makes no pretense about its social allegory, its message is surprisingly sophisticated and gets at a lot of the myriad factors involved in prejudice; I’m going to have to talk about this more another day, because there’s so much to look at here.  On top of being a well-told story with a clear message, it also has engaging characters, clever world-building touches (I love the ongoing attention paid to what infrastructure would look like in a city for animals of widely varying sizes,) and smart, adult-friendly humor (there’s a good reason the trailer shows so much of the DMV scene.)

The aforementioned Ginnifer Goodwin is perfect as Judy:  sunshiny and a bit naïve, but also tough and determined.  Jason Bateman’s Nick is an excellent foil for her – it’s a little hard to picture, since I still associate him so much with Michael Bluth, but he makes a great conman.  They’re especially fantastic as a duo, each playing so well off the other.  Idris Elba and JK Simmons give fine vocal performances as the police chief and mayor respectively (although it drove me crazy that I couldn’t place either one until the end credits,) and the film also features Octavia Spencer and Alan Tudyk in small roles.

Warnings

Thematic elements, scary moments for kids, and a little suggestive humor.