Zootopia. This is a movie I had never watched until last Friday, and for which I expected something completely different.
When hearing about it, I initially imagined a movie with a “generic” story, so to say, and which focused on the cute and funny aspect of the interactions between animals in an extremely diverse environment. What I saw, however, was a very mature message in a light-hearted context, and an amazing movie which completely blew my expectations away.

The movie has a few flaws in my opinion (which I detail in the discussion below), but it’s baffling to me how it managed to talk about several different themes (mainly prejudice, non-binarity of good/bad, and overcoming obstacles/diversity) while creating and exploring an entirely new world, with mostly well-developed and likable characters, and still managing to be a funny family movie in the process!

Watching Zootopia ended up being not only a great study break, but also quite a lot of food for thought. And I don’t mean that only in terms of the messages of the movie, but also in terms of how the movie uses settings, characters, interactions, and etc to deliver this message. It did send me back to my Film Club days in high school, and I really enjoyed that! =)

 

Since I was very generic in these two paragraphs, I want to explain a bit better with what I mean about the movie having several different messages, and I’ll try to also talk about a few things I really liked about the way the movie portrays them. (Also, I preemptively apologize if the text ends up being a confusing mess. I tried my best, with the time I had, to organize my thoughts, and I ended up with this chunk of text below. It’s a lot, so some parts of it are probably confusing, sorry :/ )

Of course, before I start, HUGE SPOILER ALERT  FOR THE REST OF THIS POST for anyone who (like me until Friday) hasn’t watched the movie and doesn’t want to be spoiled.

As a summary for the main plot points (which will probably be useful for the discussion):
– Judy Hopps is born in a family of farmers, has a strong sense of justice and wants to become a police officer to help animals and make the world a better place. There is a message, from the beginning, that anyone can be anything in the big metropolis of Zootopia, where “predators and prey live together harmonically”, and she wants to go there despite her family’s fears. Due to her family’s preconceptions and Judy’s childhood bully Gideon Grey, our hero develops internal prejudice and fear with regards to foxes.
– Contrary to everyone’s beliefs, Judy is able to make it through and become a police officer. In her training, she didn’t succeed by her ability to do a task in the same way as bigger animals (climbing walls, boxing/fighting, etc), but rather using her own particularities in her favor (jumping between others’ heads to climb the wall, literally using the opponent’s strengths against them in boxing by making them hit themselves, etc). She travels to Zootopia evokes different reactions. She is highly praised by some (Mayor Lionheart), treated mostly indifferently by some (Clawhauser. There’s a very interesting moment with this character, but I’m not sure if I’ll talk about it here, since there are other more important things), and deemed inferior by some (Officer Bogo).
– Judy intercepts a crime committed by Duke Weaselton and catches him while other police officers took too long to respond and were unable to pursue him. Her size and speed were fundamental, in this segment, as she was the only police officer able to easily navigate through Little Rodentia to continue the pursuit and save rodents who would otherwise be dead by Weaselton (since he’d make some buildings fall).
– Judy naively helps the fox Nick, who used her to make a profit. He expresses disdain for her view that anyone can be anything and, in this sense, is skeptical of her ability as a police officer. Nick represents the antagonism of worldviews that characterize the Judy-Nick interaction.
– Despite Officer Bogo’s attempt to impede it, Judy starts investigating the case of finding the missing otter Mr. Otterton.
– She threatens to arrest Nick to get his help. Together, they discover that the most powerful mafia was involved with Mr. Otterton, and assume they were the ‘bad guys’. Their impressions are shattered, as they find out that Mr. Otterton supposedly went ‘savage’.
– Judy finds out about Nick’s past, who became a criminal due to discrimination suffered throughout his life (particularly in his childhood, where he was unable to fulfill his dream of becoming a Junior Ranger Scout solely due to discrimination). Judy also sees, first-hand, the ZPD’s distrust for foxes.
– Judy and Nick discover Mayor Lionheart’s scheme of imprisoning the enraged animals (until a cure was found) in an attempt to avoid wreaking havoc in the city and avoid creating discrimination against “predators”. Our protagonist arrests him without thinking twice.
– The Mayor is imprisoned, and Ms. Bellwether becomes the new mayor. Fear of “predators” generates discrimination against the minority. Nick leaves Judy’s side after seeing her openly partake in the idea that “predators” were becoming berserk because of biology.
– Judy gives everything up and goes home, where she realizes she changed her parents’ views on foxes and sees her childhood bully apologize to her. She also finds out the substance (flower) that was causing the “predators” to go berserk (and hears her her parents mentioning a bunny – a “prey” – go berserk), and goes back to town. Judy apologizes to Nick, interrogates the Weasel she had chased earlier in the movie and finds out the scheme.
– After attempting to take evidence back to the ZPD, Judy discovers Bellwether was the mastermind all along. Her backstory and motivation are unclear, but she essentially wanted to keep a position in power and have a “prey”-dominated city.
– Nick and Judy trick Bellwether and gather evidence to arrest her. Nick becomes Judy’s official partner, the cure for the animals’ berserking is found (as the origin was now known), and both Judy and Nick stop suffering prejudice in the ZPD.

This being said, we can identify three main themes of the story:
1) Prejudice (both its causes and its effects)
2) The non-binarity of “Good” and “Bad”
3) Pursuing dreams and being what you want to be despite difficulties (this is somewhat related to the prejudice theme, but it’s still a topic worth discussing on its own. It’s also very much related to diversity)

Each of them is represented in different parts of the story, though some more than others. Let’s go through each of them:

1) Prejudice

This is arguably the most ubiquitous theme in the movie. It appears in two generic forms, which I’ll generically refer to as “prejudice is bad” and “absence of prejudice is good”. However, as we’ll see, prejudice itself is not portrayed generically: it is a real thing with a real cause and real consequences. In this sense, it’s portrayed in a rather mature way for a family movie, as prejudices are not exclusive to “blank villains”.

– “prejudice is bad”:

Until Mayor Lionheart is arrested, this is mostly discussed through Judy and Nick.

Although we know little of Nick’s backstory, we know that he gave up on his dreams and became a criminal. In this sense, prejudice “alone” has essentially changed his whole life for the worse.
This idea of prejudice changing lives become more and more prevalent after the population finds out about the berserk “predators”. Several scenes depict “prey” in fear of strangers and avoiding them because they are “predators”.

The discussion through Judy occurs mainly in her interactions with Officer Bogo, who distrusts her ability to be a “real” police officer and, thus, gives her parking patrol tasks. Moreover, he attempts to impede her from investigating Mr. Otterton’s disappearance.

After Lionheart is arrested, Officer Bogo’s position is maintained, while Clawhauser is changed positions so he’d not be the first animal someone would see when entering the ZPD.
This is particularly relevant because of their positions until this point. Clawhauser is presented as one of the most harmless and carefree characters of the story (he is also the first officer to acknowledge Judy when she enters Zootopia, which places him in a “positive light”, and is involved in a decent portion of the funny scenes of the movie, which also links him to a sense of innocence, clumsiness, and joy). Officer Bogo, besides his prejudice, is depicted as agressive and strict, and thus depicted in a very negative light while attempting to impede Judy.

With that considered, having Clawhauser negatively affected and Bogo unchanged with the surge in fear of “predators” is arguably one of the movie’s most powerful (and clever) ways of depicting prejudice and its consequences. After all, those aren’t just “random” animals in the city, but rather recurrent characters of the story and who have suffered consequences by no fault of their own. It’s also not something distant in the past (like Nick’s backstory), but rather something contemporary with real consequences, which makes it even more powerful.

– “absence of prejudice is good”

Since the beginning of the movie, Zootopia’s diversity is heavily praised. Be it through the students’ presentation, through Judy’s “awe” feeling when first going to Zootopia as a police officer, through the presentation of the extremely different biomes harmonically co-existing in the city, or even through the inclusive measures utilized in the city (for example, buses are divided in parts with different sizes so that all different animals can use them). Diversity is a reason for celebration, a reason for joy.
Another point in which diversity is celebrated is through humor in interactions between very different species. Probably my favorite part, in this sense, is the interaction with sloths in the bank. As a very comical and light-hearted passage, it associates sloths’ supposed slowness (which could otherwise be criticized, due to making bank lines larger) with joy and fun. In this sense, it celebrates the differences between animals.

The “absence of prejudice is good” idea is also depicted through the Judy-Bogo interaction. Despite Officer Bogo’s prejudices against her, Judy’s superation of those prejudices is what allows the finding of the missing animals and the uncovering of Ms. Bellwether’s scheme. In this sense, prejudice is seen as a barrier, and its absence is, by contrast, seen as a way for progress.

 

As we can see, prejudice is very much present in the movie. However, it is not naively depicted as “bad people have prejudices”, since the the movie shows the generation of prejudice through fear. Moreover, it also delves into the consequences of those prejudices, both instantaneous (through Clawhauser and Officer Bogo) and long-term (through Nick).

 

2) The non-binarity of “Good” and “Bad”

This is arguably the least important point of the three (and it does have one exception), but one I like very much.

Think about Nick. Technically a criminal (tax evasion), as soon as he starts helping Judy, he starts being seen as a “good guy”. From his interactions and backstory, we see that his crime and his current “job” doesn’t represent who he is, or what he believes. As the story progresses, his representation is shifted from that of a criminal to that of an oppressed individual, thus putting into question notions of “Good” and “Bad”.
Now think about Mr. Big. Originally the frightening mafia leader, he is a character who becomes friendly very quickly. Although it is true that he only befriends Judy after discovering she saved his daughter’s life, he shatters notions of good and bad by demonstrating that the mafia (here represented by him) is not the one causing the animals to go missing. This is quite a shock to a more streamlined notion of justice (such as that of the beginning-of-movie-Judy), as a criminal becomes a friendly ally.
Such a contradiction is also portrayed through his physical appearance. Mr. Big’s name indicates power, but he is the smallest character in the room. In other words, he is not who he appears to be.

(we could also mention Mayor Lionheart another example, as he is a ‘good character who did something bad but had good intentions’. However, I’m not discussing it in length because this is much more explicit and much more common in movies – something which Lionheart himself acknowledges publicly: “Did I falsely imprison those animals? Well, yes. Yes, I did. It was a classic ‘doing the wrong thing for the right reason’ kind of a deal!”)

 

Probably the only exception to this rule (at least in terms of the main characters of the story) is Ms. Bellwether. We have no knowledge of the motivation behind her actions and no knowledge of her personality (why does she want to have a city dominated by “prey” if “prey” already represent 90% of the population? Why does she hate “predators” so much? Why does she want to become the mayor so desperately? How did she find out about the Night Howlers’ effect? etc). In this sense, she fulfills a role of a “blank villain” which, in my opinion, is very much detrimental to this message of the movie.
NOTE: Although the movie suggests it and the wiki states she “apparently endured a life of neglect” and that had “years of discrimination and lack of consideration from her predator coworkers”, this is never explored in the movie besides a single interaction between her and Mayor Lionheart. In this sense, I still think she is a “blank villain” since her motivation is never explored and the specifics of her backstory are largely irrelevant.

 

3) Pursuing dreams and being what you want to be despite difficulties / Diversity

In general, this would be very much related to the topic of prejudice through Judy, as she has to overcome it to be accepted in the ZPD, and to Nick, as the prejudices against foxes begin to diminish and he becomes a police officer in the end.

But that is not the point I want to make here. I want to look at the part of this that is not directly correlated to prejudice. Such part is mostly represented by Judy’s training in the police academy.

I really like these scenes because they don’t represent what we usually see in movies: struggle –> dedication –> success. Rather, Zootopia represents a much more mature view on it.

As mentioned earlier, Judy didn’t succeed at doing the same tasks as bigger animals, such as climbing walls and boxing/fighting, but her dedication wasn’t towards doing those tasks. Rather, she dedicated herself learned her own particularities and used them in her favor: she jumped between others’ heads to climb the wall, and redirected an opponent’s fist to use his strength against him. In this sense, Judy’s narrative doesn’t fall under the usual “struggle –> dedication –> success”, as she is not learning to do particular tasks. Instead, she is learning more about herself and her own capabilities.

This reminds me very much of the “Now Climb that Tree” cartoon that became viral several years ago. If the police academy was strict in requiring her to climb the wall by herself, of fighting an oponnent by using her strength alone, Judy possibly wouldn’t have become a police officer. In this sense, the police academy scene represents a rupture with often-portrayed tree-climbing process and values a much more complex view of the world, which is why I like the scene a lot.

Such a more complex worldview actually allows, in the movie, progresses that would otherwise be impossible. For example, none of the other police officers would have been able to enter Little Rodentia to arrest Duke Weaselton, and this implicitly praises Judy’s otherness.

Overall, although a minor point in terms of the movie’s messages, I really like how Zootopia ditches the streamlined “obstacle –> dedication –> overcoming of obstacle” and allows a much more complex worldview that values and praises individual particularities. This allows a much more powerful message, as there’s no single best way of doing a task, and there’s no single way of being what you want to be.

 

 

I’ll be ending the discussion here, because this is getting waaaaaaay too long (I’m honestly wondering if anyone will actually get to this sentence hahaha), even though we didn’t even get to discuss aspects like character and character development (even though we touched on it slightly).

I really, really enjoyed Zootopia, and I think it’s an extremely well-made movie.
In my opinion, it does have the flaw of trying to say too much (3 main themes) in too many different ways in too little time, which leads to problems such as Ms. Bellwether being a blank villain, and missed potentials such as Judy’s fox repellent not being addressed in the story’s second part (for example, it could have been used to represent Judy’s personal growth, as the repellent symbolizes her parents’ prejudice and even her own. This symbolism, however, was left unexplored and even forgotten about when Judy leaves the ZPD, and is, in my opinion, a big waste of potential).
However, it still is a family movie which manages to treat complex matters such as prejudice, non-binarity of good and bad, and diversity (and its effects on interpersonal interactions) in a very mature way while still being a light-hearted and funny movie with well-thought characters (with Bellwether’s exception). I honestly find it impressive that a movie with 110 minutes has managed to do all of that at the same time.