Movie Review: Zootopia

I don’t remember seeing a lot of advertising for “Zootopia” until a few weeks before its release. Regardless, I learned of its existence and wanted to see it from the first trailer I saw.

Disney has really outdone itself for this movie, as shown by its record breaking opening weekend, especially in the animation department. I’ve never seen more detail packed into character models. You can see each strand of fur, even on the smallest of animals, and the character’s facial expressions are fantastic.

“Zootopia” follows a new officer in the Zootopia Police Department, a rabbit named Judy Hopps played by Ginnifer Goodwin, and her new partner, who she’s blackmailed into helping her, track down supposedly kidnapped animals. Her and Nick Wilde, a fox played by Jason Bateman, have a great relationship, making this an awesome buddy-cop film and bunny-cop film.

The city of Zootopia is split into four districts to accommodate different kind of animals. Each of them are beautiful to look at, especially the rain forest. It feels like walking into an actual zoo.

“Zootopia” can be enjoyed by kids, teenagers and adults. There are tons of jokes aimed at each demographic. For instance, a scene that you can watch here, sloths work at the DMV. Kids will love the sloths, and anyone older than 14 can relate to how slow the DMV is.

There’s even some political undertone that deals with racism between predators and prey during the second act. It’s touched earlier in the movie with a fantastic joke about racial slurs. You can watch that scene here.

Truly, “Zootopia” is one of the best animated movies I’ve ever seen. It’s got beautiful animation, fantastic characters and some wonderful comedy that will span generations. This is one of the movie I’m going to buy on DVD once it comes out, and I might even go see in theaters again before it releases.

Watch the trailer for “Zootopia” here.