295: Zootopia

[00:00:00] Chapter 8, Random Films, Movie Roulette Let's get into Zootopia, the Disney animated film from 2016. This one is directed by Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Jared Bush. It stars Jennifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrance, Bonnie Hunt, J.K.

[00:00:21] Simmons, Octavia Spencer, Shakira, Alan Tudyk, list goes on. And the synopsis is, in a city of anthropomorphic animals, a rookie bunny cop and a cynical con artist, Fox, must work together to uncover a conspiracy. So when this one came out, I didn't have a lot of high hopes.

[00:00:39] I was like, okay cool, another Disney animal animated movie, I'll check it out. And it remains one of my favorite animated movies of the 2000s, or at least the 2010s. I think it is so entertaining, it's really funny.

[00:00:58] That's one thing that I think both Pixar and Disney animation has struggled with, is actually being really truly funny, like early Pixar is. But this movie to me is really consistently funny, and whether that's more so through the writing or performance, I don't know.

[00:01:15] But either way, it's excellent. And the story itself, also for a Disney film and just an animated film in general, is pretty complex, at least to a certain degree. The mystery adventure is really well done in terms of the sleight of hands and following different breadcrumb trails.

[00:01:36] And Jason Bateman is amazing as that fox, and I love that character. And then Jennifer Goodwin is great as the bunny. I think they're great together, and they're great on their own. And the whole supporting cast as well, Idris Elba, Octavia Spencer, love Jenny Slate.

[00:01:50] It's a really good cast that, again, whether it's writing or performance, I'm not sure. But it really, to me, stands out way, way higher than a lot of other animated films of the 2010s.

[00:02:04] Some other parts of the movie that I like are the night howlers, the wolves, that's hilarious. The poison, like adrenaline shot thing that is causing the different animals to go crazy and the twists and turns on that is really good.

[00:02:22] The sloth DMV sequence, that's one that's referenced a lot as being a favorite. I think it's hilarious. I love that. And so there's so much humor there that they didn't have to do as much with in order to get the success that it had.

[00:02:37] There's a lot of, not hidden meanings necessarily in the movie, but there's a lot of rewatchability in terms of humor that you didn't catch, certain lines you didn't catch, parts of the world, details, parts of the visual style. So all that's really good.

[00:02:53] The sequence with the elephant ice cream bar or shop, whatever you want to call it, is really good. And Jason Bateman and Jennifer Goodwin's character meet there, and there's the whole hustle sequence that's really, really good. There's, I could talk forever about it. I think it's so good.

[00:03:11] And if you haven't checked it out, please do watch it. One thing is the world. It's really fleshed out. All those different parts of Zootopia, the different like jungle and all those different subsections of the world, the frozen one, like all that stuff is really creative.

[00:03:27] Visually, it looks amazing. The score and soundtrack are good. One part, you could call it a little tired, but I think it's fairly well done, is the Godfather parody. I really like that part.

[00:03:43] The backstory with Jason Bateman's character where he was the Boy Scout and he got picked on and all that stuff, I think that's really good. And Jennifer Goodwin's sort of, not teacher's pet, but do-gooder, top tier A student, I really like her a lot.

[00:04:04] It's one that, maybe it was just right time, right place, but I wish they would get back to doing this level of quality in terms of their animated films because they, at least since then for the most part, have really been struggling.

[00:04:16] And even in some ways Pixar has. I mean Pixar has been up and down a lot over the last decade or so, but I find it to be endlessly rewatchable. It is a feel good movie to me.

[00:04:27] I can always put it on and get a laugh, get a smile. And that's pretty rare to get these days. I think both with animated movies and with live action films, this one for whatever reason really connects with me, the characters, the world.

[00:04:40] I love talking animals in terms of animated films, love that. And I can't wait to see what they do next with it because if it's the same cast and crew, all that, I think the sequel could be fantastic and I really hope it is.

[00:04:56] So that is a five out of five.