How long has it been since Russovoir's last animated film review? Four years? Ah yes, Rise Of The Guardians (2012). This is because he normally doesn't write reviews for an animated film. I think it's unfair that we have to hear (or read) what the adults have to say on a material made for children. The last scene of The Polar Express (2004) actually influenced this opinion. When the kids shook the ornament bell, no one in the room could hear it. Except them.
Children have a take in life that we, adults, have shed. They are going to go through changes that are reflected on films for their benefit: friendship, obedience, imagination, e.g. We adults sort of learned this already, so the themes unfolding before us are repetitive. Otherwise, if you're an adult and haven't been acquainted with such themes, your childhood was terribly misguided.
Mistake admitted that Russovoir had not written anything for the 2015 Academy Award winner Big Hero 6, especially interesting by merging San Francisco and Tokyo, San Fransokyo. This is obviously a reference to United States and Japan's relationship, encompassing all themes in the film, technology, medicine, teamwork, and intellectual property theft - but that's another story. We got a little carried away there. Russovoir doesn't blame you, Big Hero 6 is packed with subtext!
Zootopia is going to be a contender at the 2017 Academy Awards, Russovoir guarantees it. Just like Big Hero 6, Disney has yet broached on what is currently relevant, not with pitchforks and torches, Beyonce music videos, or Chris Rock monologues. Zootopia is like South Park but with tact, like X-Men but without Jennifer Lawrence - ha! - but with animals. Zootopia digs out from the rabbit hole of difursity.
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| Zootopia Cityscape |
Let's begin where we always begin. The title. Zootopia is a portmanteau - obviously, for adults - of 'zoo' and 'utopia', wherein utopia means an imagined, perfect place, and zoo, well -
Right off the first scene, a young bunny, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), stars in her own play where anyone can be anybody - a lion can be an astronaut, for instance. It sounds so far-fetched, but if you look closely, that's everything we're taught growing up. To be whoever we want to be. The theme just doesn't end there no sir. This film isn't banal. We're introduced to the prey and predator hierarchy.
What comes into mind when you think (or see) a predator? Threatening, aggressive, deceitful - a bully, in this context, to helpless preys. Isn't the personification familiar to our society? Throughout history what manipulatively comes to mind of a particular race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, is engraved in our heads like it's the natural order of things, that predator always catches prey, and prey always lives in fear. This is why we cannot blame the parents of Judy when she's been told not to dream too big, and instead tend the farm with them, alongside her centiplet siblings. Persistent as a bunny, Judy eventually becomes what she wants to be, a policewoman.
Well, isn't that convenient? How relevant is this with what's going on with America? Bear that in mind as we go along. So, Judy Hopps is long away from home to the flora and fauna of Zootopia. Imagination hits animation like a bus! The utopic society of animals, big and small, is zoned into their natural habitats, accessible by public transport, despite maximum one-time establishing shot by a train Judy was in.
In Zootopia, the bestial tension of prey and predator is not felt, and somehow each animal knows their place in the society. This pleases Judy because finally that little school play she wrote came to life. This strongly resonates to Russovoir's younger self back in the Philippines and the (pipe) dream to be in America, coursing to the current with foreign films. Now that he's here, at whatever situation he had been in, alone and in a seedy apartment, Russovoir is happy.
Life, of course, with Judy Hopps as with Russovoir, is unfair. Poor Judy assumes life, let alone her career, will be handed on a silver platter. She is a long way to 'serve and protect', and starts out as a meter maid; the zootopia sociographic slowly and cleverly unfold.
There's so much to tell, but Russovoir wants to jump right in to the most relevant subtext. Judy and her partner in crime Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a fox, a predator, two polar opposites set to one goal - classic trope - are on a missing person case. They go out investigating, meet interesting animals who provide a lead - one of Russovoir's favorites is the mafia capo mole rat (Francis Coppola's Godfather homage) and her equally New Jerseyan bride-to-be daughter, ultimately discovering a government conspiracy of the night howlers.
This is the motherload. The reveal (laughs).
What do you call a baby cow?
Zootopia has given us a tangible agent to address an issue in our society. The media. The night howler is partly a McGuffin*, even though it's the object of conflict. To be frank about what we're trying to imply, and we've had enough of what's subtle and start being blunt about it, the media is the night howler that makes certain people of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation 'savage'. That we cannot control them because it's what's in their DNA, so we stigmatize, ostracize, and eventually incarcerate them.
Hands down to this film. Going back to Judy as a policewoman, United States is in hot water with their police department. People, especially the black community, think they're incredibly racist to not think twice of shooting a black person than a white. Or is it, again, what the media wants us to think? The manifestation of a police academy in Zootopia is no accident. Disney is trying to send a message that this power tripping coverage is manipulated to generate fear. Fear against each other. Prey against predator. White against Black.
Brilliant, isn't it? Zootopia is the most relevant film of the year. While the kids can enjoy and follow along the underdog - underbunny in this context (laughs) - solving the crime and saving the day (with the blackmailed help of the fox), us adults can - must draw what's really kicking and screaming under the scratches on the surface.
*a device that is deliberately placed to catch the viewer's attention, but serves no purpose. It has little to no narrative explanation.
What comes into mind when you think (or see) a predator? Threatening, aggressive, deceitful - a bully, in this context, to helpless preys. Isn't the personification familiar to our society? Throughout history what manipulatively comes to mind of a particular race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, is engraved in our heads like it's the natural order of things, that predator always catches prey, and prey always lives in fear. This is why we cannot blame the parents of Judy when she's been told not to dream too big, and instead tend the farm with them, alongside her centiplet siblings. Persistent as a bunny, Judy eventually becomes what she wants to be, a policewoman.
Well, isn't that convenient? How relevant is this with what's going on with America? Bear that in mind as we go along. So, Judy Hopps is long away from home to the flora and fauna of Zootopia. Imagination hits animation like a bus! The utopic society of animals, big and small, is zoned into their natural habitats, accessible by public transport, despite maximum one-time establishing shot by a train Judy was in.
In Zootopia, the bestial tension of prey and predator is not felt, and somehow each animal knows their place in the society. This pleases Judy because finally that little school play she wrote came to life. This strongly resonates to Russovoir's younger self back in the Philippines and the (pipe) dream to be in America, coursing to the current with foreign films. Now that he's here, at whatever situation he had been in, alone and in a seedy apartment, Russovoir is happy.
Life, of course, with Judy Hopps as with Russovoir, is unfair. Poor Judy assumes life, let alone her career, will be handed on a silver platter. She is a long way to 'serve and protect', and starts out as a meter maid; the zootopia sociographic slowly and cleverly unfold.
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| Sloths in DMV. How accurate. |
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| "We may be evolved, but we're still animals." |
There's so much to tell, but Russovoir wants to jump right in to the most relevant subtext. Judy and her partner in crime Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a fox, a predator, two polar opposites set to one goal - classic trope - are on a missing person case. They go out investigating, meet interesting animals who provide a lead - one of Russovoir's favorites is the mafia capo mole rat (Francis Coppola's Godfather homage) and her equally New Jerseyan bride-to-be daughter, ultimately discovering a government conspiracy of the night howlers.
This is the motherload. The reveal (laughs).
What do you call a baby cow?
Zootopia has given us a tangible agent to address an issue in our society. The media. The night howler is partly a McGuffin*, even though it's the object of conflict. To be frank about what we're trying to imply, and we've had enough of what's subtle and start being blunt about it, the media is the night howler that makes certain people of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation 'savage'. That we cannot control them because it's what's in their DNA, so we stigmatize, ostracize, and eventually incarcerate them.
 |
| A prey mother and child uncomfortable next to a predator. |
Hands down to this film. Going back to Judy as a policewoman, United States is in hot water with their police department. People, especially the black community, think they're incredibly racist to not think twice of shooting a black person than a white. Or is it, again, what the media wants us to think? The manifestation of a police academy in Zootopia is no accident. Disney is trying to send a message that this power tripping coverage is manipulated to generate fear. Fear against each other. Prey against predator. White against Black.
 |
| "90% of the population, united against one common enemy." |
Brilliant, isn't it? Zootopia is the most relevant film of the year. While the kids can enjoy and follow along the underdog - underbunny in this context (laughs) - solving the crime and saving the day (with the blackmailed help of the fox), us adults can - must draw what's really kicking and screaming under the scratches on the surface.
*a device that is deliberately placed to catch the viewer's attention, but serves no purpose. It has little to no narrative explanation.
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