I got around to watching Zootopia yesterday at my theater and let me tell you wow, I mean WOW, this film blew my expectations when I first heard it announced years ago and after watching the trailers, I thought it would be just a fun little kids flick, but my goodness, it was so much more then that. Let's begin before I lose myself in self reflecting.
Story: Were introduced to this bunny named Judy who dreams of becoming a police officer. after getting into a situation involving a bully to save a friend's ticket stubs, she is given the boost of confidence she needs to tackle her dreams. She goes through rigorous training and graduates from her academy to join the ranks of the Zootopia Police Department (ZPD) only to be assigned parking duty cause her chief doesn't believe she can do big things cause of her species. along the way, she meets up with con-man (er, fox) Nick Wilde and gets tangled up with him to investigate a missing persons case. What I think works so well in this story is it's pacing. nothing feels rushed or out of place. It flows along rather nicely for any age range to follow, all while being silly and emotional at the same time. the messages in this film are quite deeper then most Disney films and are handled in a very subtle way without being to derogative of the material they are portraying. This is one of the more smarter Disney films in a long time. This movies script was a collaborate efforts of many Disney talents like Byron Howard (Director of this movie and Bolt and Tangled) Rich Moore (Director of this film as well as Wreck-It Ralph) Co-director Jared Rush (Penn Zero: Part-time Hero) Phil Johnson (Screenplay of Wreck-it Ralph) Josie Trinidad (story artist for Princess and the Frog, Tangled) Jim Reardon (Bring me the head of Charlie Brown, and co-writer of WALL-E) and, of course, Jennifer Lee (Screenplay for Wreck-It Ralph and Director, story writer, and screenplay writer of, (don't act surprised) FROZEN) You'd think with all of these different story writers that this film would be over-saturated with story ideas that would keep the production from ever getting finished, but surprisingly, these writers all worked well together to create something truly mesmerizing, emotional, and thought provoking in an animated film in such a long time.
Characters: Wonder, wonderful cast of furry animal characters. We first have Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin Once upon a Time, Walk the Line) who dreams of nothing more than to be a police cop. she strives to greatness only to be shot down by her new chief who assigns her parking duty. Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman, Juno, Horrible Bosses) is a sneaking conman who takes advantages over nice people in order to make a quick buck, but finds himself involved in the missing otter case when he is a lead. Chief Bogo (Idris Elba,Heimdall in Thor, and Shere Kahn in the new Jungle Book movie) is the main officer of the ZPD 1st precinct who doubts Hopps capabilities cause of her species but has no other choice but to let her take the case when others have faith in Judy. Yax (Tommy Chong, Cheech and Chong) is a hippy-ish yak who believes in the natural order where animals should not wear clothes since it's not natural (nudist) and becomes a help in the case. More characters for you to discover when you watch the movie. What's great about the characters in this film is how most of them form friendships throughout despite having their differences about them that helps them grow ever closer. Judy has this stubbornness about her that helps Nick get put in place from time to time. Nick is another fantastic character that has that "He's a dick, but you love him" kind of way. Infact, I was hoping Surely from the Nut Job was more like him. with Surely, he was more of an ass and didn't give to shits about his partner in crime, but with Nick, sure, he had his moments where he would mess with Judy, but throughout the movie, he grows more fond of her as he lets out his trouble past as to why he became the conman he is and I find that admirable. Their friendship is put to the test later on in the movie, but I wont spoil just in case you want to see it.
Animation: One would describe the movie's animation as not just colorful, but also as very imaginative and inventive. The world of Zootopia is just brimming with creative design and location that makes it feel like a big city caught inbetween mother nature with its different districts of rainforest, Sahara, tunda, and even a rural city front, building have such unique layout in their architecture that these animators could be house builders themselves. But all that is not enough to give Zootopia life without the characters that litter then environment. What's great about this movie is how they anthropomorphized the animals. They are designed to a point that, yes, they do act and behave like humans, but they keep the same body structure and anatomy of the animal that they are, all down to the point of their behaviors like with Judy's ears flopping during emotion changes or her nose twitching. The animators really studied animal behavior, not to mention going back to some of the classics like Robin Hood for the character design, Bambi for animal-like behavior and even Dumbo (my fav film) for some of the emotional character interactions. It's nothing short of incredible when a film like this really knows how to nail computer animation better then it's predecessors like Big Hero 6 and Frozen.
Music: Music can play a big part in a movie, and what better way to portray music in a film about an animal/human hybrid civilization then with the mix of rural and jungle. Michael Giacchino (Up, Inside Out, Jurassic World) once again delivers his brilliance to the animated film format by pumping into the speakers some really exotic and exciting themes that really draw out the world that these animals live in. Is it any wonder Disney keeps hiring this guy. he's just that good at making music for their films. It's certainly no surprise he won an Oscar for his score in Up, so theirs your proof. Also, got to give props to the song used in the film written for it by Sia and Stargate to be sung by Shakira, which she also voices the character Gazelle. her song really is a celebration of the world that they live in, and it is quite mesmerizing and doesn't fall to close to the category of pop-culture-ish.
My final score for this movie is a 9.5 out of 10. Truly this film is a masterpiece in story, music, character, animation, and message spreading. This is a film that you never want to miss out on, go check it out, it is worth it. even if your not a furry, go and see it. Yes, no doubt the furry community will be having fun with this film in their artwork, stories, and shipping for years to come XD
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Published:
8 years, 9 months ago
10 Mar 2016 02:35 CET
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