Saw Disney's "Zootopia" last week.
Interesting story. It presents itself as kind of a police noir tale, but it pretty quickly reveals that it's actually about socially embedded racial prejudice, racial fear-mongering by politicians and media, unintentional prejudice, off-handed prejudice. It's about what the US ought to be--but isn't. In some ways, it's almost too heavy-handed for adults, but probably not for kids.
Here is a concise description of what this story would be if it wasn't Disney:
"Zootopia is a detective story in which a simple criminal investigation brings to light political corruption, cover-ups, and conspiracy at the highest levels in a city racked with racial tension while exploring the hateful and savage impulses that underlie the veneer of civilized life."
I'm also wondering if it isn't making a deliberate implication about the government's hand in the urban drug plague and the subsequent laws that followed. It seems to have nailed the FBI COINTELPRO program.
It might seem at first that the character groups in the movie were intended to align as precise analogs to real life groups, but they don't really. No one group in Zootopia specifically or uniformly represents any particular group in reality. That seems to have confused some reviewers.
They did get some illustrations of bigotry very well done, especially exposing the prejudices even lead character held that she didn't realize she had.
I'm further wondering what the Jewish and Italian focus groups thought of what might have been unintended slurs by the writers, though. I can't imagine it wasn't run by them, so I guess it was okay. "Shrewish Princess," indeed.
If Pixar's best work is a 10, I'd give this one an 8 (my wife gives it 10). A couple of works by Pixar really grabbed me by the gut and twisted hard: The Incredibles and Inside Out. Those movies were 10s for me. This movie did not grab me by the gut in that way, but I'd rate it with Wall-E or Toy Story 1 and 2.
In terms of comedy, the most excruciatingly funny scenes to me were the sloths staffing the DMV. And the funniest moment was the sloth so very, very slowly getting a joke.
Interesting story. It presents itself as kind of a police noir tale, but it pretty quickly reveals that it's actually about socially embedded racial prejudice, racial fear-mongering by politicians and media, unintentional prejudice, off-handed prejudice. It's about what the US ought to be--but isn't. In some ways, it's almost too heavy-handed for adults, but probably not for kids.
Here is a concise description of what this story would be if it wasn't Disney:
"Zootopia is a detective story in which a simple criminal investigation brings to light political corruption, cover-ups, and conspiracy at the highest levels in a city racked with racial tension while exploring the hateful and savage impulses that underlie the veneer of civilized life."
I'm also wondering if it isn't making a deliberate implication about the government's hand in the urban drug plague and the subsequent laws that followed. It seems to have nailed the FBI COINTELPRO program.
It might seem at first that the character groups in the movie were intended to align as precise analogs to real life groups, but they don't really. No one group in Zootopia specifically or uniformly represents any particular group in reality. That seems to have confused some reviewers.
They did get some illustrations of bigotry very well done, especially exposing the prejudices even lead character held that she didn't realize she had.
I'm further wondering what the Jewish and Italian focus groups thought of what might have been unintended slurs by the writers, though. I can't imagine it wasn't run by them, so I guess it was okay. "Shrewish Princess," indeed.
If Pixar's best work is a 10, I'd give this one an 8 (my wife gives it 10). A couple of works by Pixar really grabbed me by the gut and twisted hard: The Incredibles and Inside Out. Those movies were 10s for me. This movie did not grab me by the gut in that way, but I'd rate it with Wall-E or Toy Story 1 and 2.
In terms of comedy, the most excruciatingly funny scenes to me were the sloths staffing the DMV. And the funniest moment was the sloth so very, very slowly getting a joke.
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