Zootopia

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½ based on 2 reviews.

tl;dr: A film all kids need to watch and which most adults would benefit from as well. Beautiful story crafting and brilliant characters. An instant classic.

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Disney Animation

Review

Spoilers Ahead: My reviews are not spoiler-free. You have been warned.

Holy karp! Hamster accountants are utterly adorable. No other words are necessary.

Although if I was pushed for other words, Zootopia is a brilliant, well-crafted kids story with some exceedingly relevant societal morals (*cough* American election *cough*). I loved pretty much everything about this film. The animation was charming, the voice acting imbued it with emotion and the plot was surprisingly fun and interesting. Characterisation and puns were both on point throughout and, ultimately, I really want to drive home how clever Zootopia is with its lessons. Along with Inside Out, this is a film that all kids need to see. Drill these messages into them young and never let them forget and possibly we may be able to reverse some of the awful in the world.

Less Shakira would have been good though. Not really sure why they put her in the mix nor why they kept pushing a distinctly average pop song throughout the film. Plus, 'Gazelle'? Surely this role was intended for Giselle! I spent the entire film just assuming this was the case, so to see Shakira's name in the credits was a little confusing. Given that this is my biggest gripe, however, speaks volumes for the rest of the film.

Rewatch

It's definitely a little soon to rewatch Zootopia, despite how much I enjoyed it the first time around, but I found myself with some friends who hadn't seen it so rewatch it I did. Does it stand up to a repeat viewing? Yes, absolutely it does. The humour actually shone through a little more this time around, probably because I was able to spot many more of the neat little touches that litter the background in every scene. The animators clearly had a field day designing a world that caters for so many extremes in body shape. In fact, I think a lot of science fiction writers and illustrators could take away a lot from watching Zootopia through a lens of culture design. Otherwise, there is little to add. The plot remains thoroughly enjoyable, the emotions were all still fired up at the right times and the moral of the story remains one of the most timely and notable of any kids film for some time. This is definitely a movie that all children should watch as these are ideals we desperately need our future generations to do better at embracing than we have.