Zootopia 2016
I didn’t know what to expect from this movie. I knew nothing about it except the preview with the sloth at the DMV, which seemed pretty good, but has very little to do with anything. Disney has created a whole new world where animals (mammals anyway) all live in harmony together, dressing and working just like people. But there are divisions and not everything in the world is perfect. A young idealistic police rookie is looking forward to the challenges of her new job. Even that is more than I knew going in, but doesn’t tell you much. There is some great animation here with all of the different kinds of animals, complete with vastly differing sizes. The characters are all very well done and the plot of the movie is great, borrowing from all kinds of crime movies. Then there is a theme where animals have certain prejudices of one another which gives the movie a lot of depth without over the top sentimentality that has become standard in animated movies. There is still weight, but it is not overbearing, just a not too unlikely wrinkle to this society. Mostly fun, great animation, great story, and some important lessons, so all of that is great and I have no problem giving this movie an A.
The Blu-ray disk had some good extras going into how the story changed and evolved from something that would have been a lot darker and probably more black and white on societal differences, to something lighter and more fun. The animators also get to talk about the challenges of the differing scales of animals and how to animate all of that fur, something they said computers would not have been capable of doing only a couple of years earlier. I was reading recently about Pixar getting started and they knew a feature length computer animated movie wasn’t possible yet, but that rapidly improving computers would get them where they needed to be in a few more years, so they forged ahead hoping the computers would be there when they needed them. Honestly, I didn’t notice the fur that much while watching the movie, but maybe that is as it should be.
Written: 17 Sep 2016
Owned on: UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital