Zootopia

            Disney Animation Studios is giving us two films this year, one coming in November, and another brought to us fairly recently. Seems fitting, since they had Pixar give out two films last year, as a way to play catch up. So let’s not waste any more time and talk about “Zootopia.”

            The film tells of Judy Hopps, a rabbit who dreams of working on the police force of Zootopia, despite being a prey species. As she acquires the job, she takes on the task of searching for one of fourteen missing predators, with the help of a hustler fox named Nick Wilde.

            Not only is “Zootopdia” good, it’s also a really smart. It isn’t just another kids film that tries to appeal to a specific audience, it's also a film that tackles a lot of issues that have gone on in our own society, especially with recent events. While it is mostly a film about following your dreams and never giving up so easily, the themes of political corruption, sexism, racism, stereotyping, and prejudice are cleverly showcased in a way that feels natural to the story, similar to how “Wreck-It Ralph” did it. Kudos to the team of writers the film had, because this is one of the best written scripts I’ve seen in a while.

            As for the animation, it delivers on being excellent. It’s fast paced, colorful, comforting, detailed, and always has one or two jokes that you may miss in one scene that you’ll notice a second time. Bryon Howard and Rich Moore really put their direction skills to the test and crafted one of the finest modern day animated films of the past few years. It’s always nice when you have two directors in animation to have a nice collaborative mindset.

            And with every great buddy cop film, it’s nice to have two foils that you grow attached to. Judy and Nick have such good chemistry with one another, with Nick’s smart aleck attitude contrasting against Judy’s goody-two-shoes attitude, learning from their antics and applying it to their style throughout. They both were taunted for not being accepted for what they wanted to be, going on different paths of whether to accept reality or fight against stereotyping, showing that they may have more in common than what you may think. I have to give props to Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman for voicing these characteristics so well in the film. Other characters like Idris Elba as the buffalo chief of police, J.K. Simmons as the lion mayor, Jenny Slate as his assistant sheep, Alan Tudyk as a weasel, an appearance by Shakira as a Gazelle pop-star, John DiMaggio as an ice cream parlor elephant, Maurice LaMarche as an arctic shrew, and several other characters are all very enjoyable as well.

            With what I was expecting of “Zootopia,” I got so much more out of it, and it stands as one of my favorite films of the year, the more I think about it. Everything about it just hit the right spots, and it’s a worthy addition to Disney’s Neo-Renaissance Era. I highly recommend you see it.

Rating: 10/10