Mommy-daughter double-date night was a complete bust with the exception of the popcorn, M&M’s, and good company! My friend Kelly and I took our daughters to see Disney’s new movie Zootopia, thinking it would be a fun treat, especially since we went on a school night! My eight year old daughter Addison and Kelly’s six year old daughter Emily both agreed that the movie wasn’t what they expected, and Kelly and I concurred!
The movie was about a place called Zootopia, a place where all animals, both predators and prey, live in peace and harmony together. Sounds harmless enough, right? Wrong!
Lt. Judy Hopps, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, the latest recruit to the Zootopia police force, is the first rabbit to wear the uniform. Hopps, who’s cute as cute could be with her adorable bunny ears and purple eyes, is a real go-getter, someone who isn’t going to allow her size or people’s perception of rabbits as being carrot-eaters to get in her way. Even Hopps’ own parents, voiced by Don Lake and Bonnie Hunt, are more worried about her safety rather than focusing on being proud of her accomplishment.
Lt. Hopps’ first day on the force finds her facing discrimination as cape buffalo Chief Bogo, voiced by Idris Elba, assigns her to parking patrol, giving her the job of writing parking tickets all day long rather than chasing down the bad guys and helping save the world.
Without spoiling the plot, Lt. Hopps finds herself working alongside a fugitive named Nick Wilde, who is a sly fox. Literally. He’s a fox voiced by Jason Bateman.
As Lt. Hopps and Wilde try frantically to solve an important case involving a missing “person” they encounter numerous obstacles along the way. These obstacles proved to be “super scary” according to Addison.
The movie employs a flashback scene which left Addison teary because there was a bullying situation that felt too raw for younger audiences. She said, “I don’t think this would be a good movie for kids under eight,” as she recalled the scene.
The movie was advertised as a comedy, but it turned out to be more on the violent/scary side than the funny side. Poor Emily sat with the hood of her jacket literally covering her entire face throughout most of the movie while Addison’s face was covered with her hands the majority of the time, with just hints of her eyes visible.
From the perspective of a Mom, I can tell you that I didn’t like it nearly as much as I anticipated. I felt that it wasn’t just Lt. Hopps’ size as a rabbit that made animals not believe in her, but rather the fact that she was female. She kept trying to prove her strength and determination, but at one point breaks down into full tears when she’s feeling frustrated. Seriously? As a Mom I try to teach my daughter to have a stiff upper lip when things aren’t going her way, not cry. I felt like there was a lot of sexism in the movie, and if we had been watching it together in the comfort of our living room rather than in the movie theater, then I would have paused it for a good old-fashioned “girls can do anything that boys can do” conversation. Where did the Disney movement of empowering female characters like Anna and Elsa, Merida, Tiana, and Mulan go? In my opinion, this is a step backwards for Disney, even if Lt. Hopps got it together again.
As a Mom I also didn’t appreciate that the movie featured the F-word and the D-word. (Fart and dumb, of course.) I did, however, find it humorous that in the Zootopia metropolis animals used “Zoogle” to research, watched “ZNN” for their news, and that Lt. Hopps’ iPhone had a bunny ear on it rather than the iconic Apple. The references to human cultural icons were subtle, but amusing nevertheless.
The movie tried to appeal to adults with Godfather movie references as well as Breaking Bad parallels, which felt out of place and flatout wrong. While no violence is “good” violence, the violence in this movie felt more intense because it wasn’t personal. Victims were chosen based on their embedded-DNA carnivorous tendencies, and violence was exhibited in the forms of punching, shooting, false imprisonment, clawing, and explosions.
I was expecting to go to the movies thinking that I would be writing about animals and how it would be nice if we lived in Zootopia too. I suppose in a way that was the underlying message when all was said and done, but everything in between felt un-Disneylike except for the animation, which was stunning, especially the scenery and facial expressions of the various animals. If I wasn’t there specifically to write a movie review, I would have considered leaving before the movie was over. I’m pretty sure it was the affable and funny character Clawhauser, voiced by Nate Torrence, that kept me in my seat.
I’m glad I didn’t leave though because at least I got to hear Shakira’s new song at the end of the movie. Shakira, who voices pop-singer Gazelle, sings the catchy title “Try Everything,” which may be one of the few things in the movie that I really did enjoy because it has a good message. “I won’t give up, no I won’t give in ’til I reach the end, and then I’ll start again.”
I don’t want to give away the ending, but I will say that despite our disappointment with the violence throughout the movie, Addison and Emily smiled at times as did Kelly and I. When asked her opinion of the movie, Addison shared, “I thought it was pretty cool because it was exciting and kind of scary, but it was too violent.” Emily offered, “I didn’t like it because there was too much death.” (Interestingly enough there was no actual death, but to a six year old shooting equals death.) Kelly said, “I thought it was interesting, but I don’t think I enjoyed it that much. It had a good message to keep trying though.”
See movie times for Zootopia at Village Theatre Coronado.
Rated: PG
Genre: Cartoon/Kids
Running Time: 1 hour, 48 minutes
Directors: Byron Howard and Rich Moore
Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Bonnie Hunt, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Tommy Chong, Shakira, and more.
Trailer:
