Zootopia

Jacqueline Garcia

Corc 3117

Professor Weimer

May 11th 2016

     Zootopia

The movie I chose to do my review on is called Zootopia, a children's movie released February 2016. For children, the movie is a cute story about a bully and a little bunny who overcomes him ; for us adults, we realize that Zootopia is actually about how our society is today, and what we are trying not to let happen with our children. In the movie Zootopia, there is a little bunny named Judy Hopps who happens to be a prey, is told she will never become a police officer because she is a bunny and police officers are bigger animals like predators. Officer Judy Hopps becomes partners with a fox who happens to be a predator, together they solve a mystery about why animals, mainly the predators are suddenly disappearing, little do we come to find out that the mayor’s assistant is behind all of it because she is infecting the predators with a flower called night howlers which makes them turn into their natural way such as being a predator and attacking smaller animals. The movie includes activist, rude cops, hustlers, and people who put down Judy because she is a bunny. It is pretty intense movie, I know!

        This movie is a utopian society which becomes dystopian. Aside from utopia being in the name, the movie has to do with minority groups and how some are seen dangerous in a way. The movie starts off with all the predators being nice but yet they are still feared because of their background so people are cautious when it comes to being around them. The movie is related to some of the works we read in class because although it is not stated it clearly shows that the predators were conditioned and when they were infected with the night howler they were sent to a jail/hospital to be examined of why they were acting the way they were and why they were attacking smaller animals. They were also given many test to see if they can be conditioned back to being nice and caring to the prey. The movie however is unique in that it shows how our society is today, being that a minority is ruler (in the movie a predator is Mayor) and when worse comes to worse everyone blames the minority because of the way their social/racial group is.  Not only does it show how our society is in today’s day and age but also stereotypes because of the fact that, in the movie the preys were scared of ALL predators when one became vicious because they believed all predators were dangerous.

       The movie is to show us how someone's background is not defining who they are, and that no matter how hard you try you cannot have a perfect society, because every utopia eventually becomes a dystopia. It comes to show us parents how we shouldn’t base anyone off their social class or race, and it makes us aware of today’s politics where the government (Trump = Mayor’s Assistant) is trying to get rid of the minority, compared to having a ruler (Obama = Mayor Lionheart) who wants to help us grow and allow us to be part of the society without being shamed for being who we are.

Zootopia relates to the other works we read in class because like I mentioned earlier, it shows that the predators were conditioned and then brought out to be themselves, but unlike in Anthem the predators were forced to be themselves instead of in Anthem, equality decided to be himself because well that's what he wanted to do. Zootopia is in a world where they are trying to make everyone the same and get rid of those who do not fit into their society (those being the animals who have gone predator).

The producers reason to creating this movie is to bring awareness to the parents about what is going on in today’s society, where they claim to be bettering society but yet they are making it worse by keeping secrets and trying to get rid of the minority. Not only that but they also created the movie because they saw how it could exist in the world today. It also helps those little guys realize that you can be whatever you want and it does not matter what others say. However, I could be wrong but this is how I interpreted the movie. I saw it as New York City today and how it is becoming, how there are many people claiming to better the world by getting rid of minorities but yet that would not be helping or bettering the world because well minorities, immigrants especially built this city we call home. While people believe immigrants are dangerous and because we’re spanish we are all the same, but we are not. Unfortunately this is where stereotypes become part in this, because of one person we are all looked at the same.

I feel that with this movie we should care because sadly we are raising a new generation to think that they are better than others. This class has made the movie really opened my eyes and made me realize how something that can be perfect one minute and then the next it just all crumbles, of course in the movie after the mystery is solved they live happily ever after but that would never happen in today’s society unfortunately.