Monthly Archives: March 2016

Zootopia Review

zootopia

Zootopia is one of the smartest, most nuanced movies I’ve seen about race relations. It gets so many complex and often-overlooked aspects across: the way that historical biases still have power in a “post-racial” world, how racism often comes from a place of fear or ignorance rather than outright hate, how even good people can let their biases get the best of them, how society’s presumptions about race can dictate one’s behavior, and quite a lot more. Even generally well-received films like Best Picture winner Crash can get this stuff wrong and make characters cartoonishly racist, so for an ACTUAL cartoon featuring a city of animals to convey these ideas so brilliantly is quite an achievement. Like last year’s excellent Inside Out, Zootopia manages to convey ideas that are far above most childrens’ heads in a way that they can understand on an emotional level.

But to just say that Zootopia is successful for conveying complex ideas to a broad audience in a nuanced manner is to sell it short. Just as a piece of entertainment, it’s hugely successful. For children, there is great animation and plenty of visual gags to keep them entertained. It’s briskly paced, very funny, and features extremely likable characters. For adults, there are several clever jokes that are likely to fly over kids’ heads, including references to R-rated fare like The Godfather and Breaking Bad. However, unlike a lot of animated pictures, these references feel like genuine nods of affection rather than cheap throwaway jokes, and they never detract from the central narrative.

Continue reading Zootopia Review