By Cynthia Ayala

“From the largest elephant to the smallest shrew, the city of Zootopia is a mammal metropolis where various animals live and thrive. When Judy Hopps becomes the first rabbit to join the police force, she quickly learns how tough it is to enforce the law. Determined to prove herself, Judy jumps at the opportunity to solve a mysterious case. Unfortunately, that means working with Nick Wilde, a wily fox who makes her job even harder.”

    —IMDB

This is a great family film that everyone needs to watch because of all the teaching moments within the film. Let me phrase that: the entire movie is a teaching moment. Zootopia is a film that is all about inclusion, about putting away the stereotypes and prejudices aside to live in a better society and how negative they are, how much they blind someone to see something but hatred and anger.

The story is just amazing as it follows Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) a small town bunny who wants to be a part of the big leagues as an officer with all the other large big animals that work together to solve crime in the big city. But she’s a bunny, what the heck can a bunny do as a crime? It’s a stereotype the resonates so strongly with the audience, with anyone who was thought of as being too weak to do what the “big boys” do. Judy is breaking those barriers, breaking those stereotypes to show that even though she may be tiny, she can do their job twice as good as they can. And boy, does she do it. She is suck a great character and the film has so much heart to it because of who she is and how she develops in the film. She’s so single minded on her quest to do something right, to prove herself, that she becomes lost within the prejudices that now surpass the. It’s a growing moment for her and the audience because they see her mistakes and they see her fix them.

As for Nick (voiced by Jason Bateman), he faces many of the same challenges as Judy, but his are based more on the prejudices of a fox. He’s a predator, and no one gives him the chance to be anything more than that, so he stopped trying. This is something everyone faced in their life, bullies to geeks, jocks and cheerleaders; society has a way of bunching the few alongside with the few bad apples. Nick represents that side of society that many people don’t realize is even there because it is just part of how culture tends to work. And the fact that this film is addressing that makes is such a profound film.

This movie should be applauded on the story itself, because these writers and the directors, together they were able to create this very time-appropriate story that has a very powerful theme to it. It is simply such an amazing story about inclusion that doesn’t play nice. This is may a kids movie, but that did not stop the writers from adding in some very dramatic scenes to highlight the negativity that comes from watching life through stereotypes and prejudices, how dangerous and hurtful they can be to an individual. It’s all about not to judge the book by its cover.

Story and amazing voice acting aside, A movie filled with heart, laughs, and plenty of teaching moments for a better society is amazing, and to make it even more amazing were the graphics of the film. Animated movies just get better and better, and Disney works amazingly with their graphics putting so much work into it, they deserve the recognition for their hard work. Everyone deserves something for this film because all together, this film was just an amazing piece of animation that had such a strong story. This is the perfect family film and is the perfect film for everyone of any age, gender, or race because of what it teaches: inclusion. (★★★★ | A+)

—Film Credits—

Directed by Byron Howard & Rich Moore

Screenplay by Jared Bush & Phil Johnston

Story by Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush, Josie Trinidad, Jim Reardon, Phil Johnston & Jennifer Lee

Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, J.K. Simmons, Jenny Slate, Tommy Chong, Octavia Spencer & Shakira

Genre | Length | Rating: Animation, Action, Adventure | 1 hr. 48 min | PG

Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures