Review CXXVIII - Zootopia

Review 128
Zootopia (2016)

My boyfriend and I decided to visit the theatre on Friday to finally use a movie pass we got for Christmas. Since we rarely see anything in theatres worth watching, we decided to check out a bad film to make fun of it. He was set on Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, but considering I've never been a fan of the franchise, and I already knew the film was a copy paste of the original, we went in to see Byron Howard and Rich Moore's Zootopia, with voices from Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman as our protagonists.

Zootopia was bad. Now, don't get me wrong. The animation was spot on and pretty fine, as expected from a Disney/Pixar film. I wouldn't expect anything less from this multi-million(billion?)-dollar company. No, what I'm talking about is the plot.

Now, I watched the film as an adult, so of course I'm seeing it through experienced eyes. But the amount of social justice this film pushed scared me. No, really, I was scared. I mean, check it, I thought the film was going to be all "love everyone" considering the plot. I mean, really, it was expected. But the film took a rather ambiguous and respectable meaning for a kid's film and took it way, waaay out of proportion. I'll explain why. And be warned: I'm the ruining the film here on out. No mercy.

The film starts off with a play. We find out that bunnies and tigers were natural enemies at some point in history, but after the formation of major metropolis Zootopia, prey and predator evolved to live in harmony. Already we kind of see this derogatory stance of those living outside of the city, but wait, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Filled with humour, we find out through this play that our rabbit protagonist, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), wants to be a cop. Her parents are absolutely appalled, considering there has never been a rabbit cop before. "Don't do it, honey. Be a farmer like us. We gave up on our dreams and settled down. You'll never survive as a cop." A "fellow" fox classmate, complete with Southern drawl, pushes her down further emotionally and physically by reminding her of her genes. "You'll never be nothing more than a stupid bunny!" Okay, that gives us enough to discuss for now. So, one, the film points out that farmers basically gave up on their dreams of going to the city and are happy being submissive and sticking to old traditions. How about we tell that to the family in The Grapes of Wrath, hm, or the real small-time farmers out there today who face rising constrictions on their hard work (and yes, I am talking about the Oregon farmers who had a huge protest)? A completely respectable family who was forced out of their homes only to travel to bigger, better places and get shut down and told they were garbage, partly because they were from mid-South. Based on this one vicious fox obviously from the South, Southerns are also all conservative nutheads (can't even make a pun, so sad). I mean, yes, based on what I've seen as an outsider, the South is more republican-based, but the subject of conservative = bad in the media is a story for another time.

So yeah, this hare wants to be a cop. Not only is she a rabbit, but she's a female. And when she graduates top honour in the police academy, Mayor Lionheart (J.K. Simmons) is all ready to bring her in, supporting this whole movement to bring more prey into the police force. Remind you of all these movements to bring more women into the army/reserves, or to bring more women into engineering? One hundred percent. As a female pursuing a male-dominated field, this is real. This is very real. Anyway, we see that Mayor Lionheart is actually a jerk to the vice-mayor, a nice sheep, Bellwether (Jenny Slate). Bellwether, after seeing that Judy is not really getting the work she hoped - she's assigned parking duty - she keeps telling her, "Us small guys gotta stick together." Which, all right, that's fine. That's nice.

During one of her patrols, Judy happens upon a con-artist fox, Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman). Now, I didn't mention this, but foxes are the bottom of the barrel in this city. No one trusts them. But given what Nick Wilde is - taking advantage of other animal's niceness, including Judy - can you really blame them? Well, instead of explaining everything leading up to it, Judy finds out through a heartfelt moment that Nick was treated like shit at some scout meeting because he was a fox. So he decided, "I would just become what everyone expected from me." Honestly, my mouth opened wide at this shit. Are you serious? Are you blaming everyone else on your problems? Obviously this is saying that if a minority supports a stereotype, it's not their actions - it's the result of social conditioning. Honestly, guys? Guys. I understand not all stereotypes are just. I understand. But don't give me this bullshit. Yeah, a child who is sexually abused may go on to be a pedophile, but if a black man robs a store, do you think it comes only from a white man putting him down, saying he will never amount to anything? Yes, of course this is the subject of many rap songs where black people can be put down, but seriously, stop blaming your problems on other people. Nick chose to be this way. If it was me, I would have proved them otherwise. I know a lot of you will disagree, and honestly, I never investigated a lot into this, but I nonetheless don't appreciate this "it's never my fault" attitude. Fess up to your crime.

Nearing the end of the film, once Lionheart is booted out since he was hiding the fact that predators were reverting back to their predator nature, we found that new mayor Bellwether was up to this all along with some nighthowler plant thing. "Prey are 90% of the population! We will push the predators out, so we are no longer the little man! Muahaha." Way to spread on the white guilt, guys. Once again, white Man is the problem, leading to minorities doing wrong. Once again, I understand how much white people have done, but if you look at what people in general have done, seriously, it's just easier to blame the white Man for everything since white people went to conquer mass areas. But anyone see what Asians have done to other Asians? See what a lot of African country leaders are doing right now? See the state of a lot of Latin American countries? Yeah. White Man.

But the part that really... So, this is before we find out everything about Bellwether. Judy finds the crazed predators and explains that predators can go crazy, but prey can't. Nick is completely and absolutely offended, and storms off. Judy heads back to her hometown, only to find out how the predators are going crazy. She heads back to Zootopia and tells Nick she was wrong in her assumptions, and she was a jerk and... Honestly, I can't remember exactly. But the way it was said... Honestly, it was like Judy deserved such punishment. Given the whole debate on genes playing a role, it's like the whole debate on how men and women are completely equal in every way. I mean, shit, I believe in equality, but we're different. Prey and predators are different. You cannot deny your evolutionary history, people! You cannot deny genes, no matter how much this film pushes that shit down your throat. I refuse to accept that!

My point here is, Zootopia is pushing all this on our children. They are impressionable. And we're shoving these socialist views down their throats and setting them up for this victimised culture. Even if you agree with it, don't you think this film takes it too far? I mean, shit, like I said, a "I love everyone" theme is fine, but to push this much shit down your throat... Even this idea that politicians may do good while doing bad... Am I even getting through to anyone? This is extreme. I wouldn't want my kid watching this. Not with this many social agendas being shoved down their throats. No. Please, no.

And yet, this film is being declared as the best Disney film ever produced. Instead of accepting our differences, the film promotes a unity. But it also promotes a self-destroying culture where we're all at fault for the decisions of others. And those who are against seeing this equality are simpletons who gave up on their dreams. I... stop here. Zootopia further emphasised what I already knew: when/if I have kids, they are not going to watch recent films.

Also, separate rant: the animal sounds and depictions were not always accurate, and I would have liked to see some two-toed sloths. They're cuter, you know.