First off, the main body of this post will be spoiler free but the end has spoilers so you have been warned!
I saw Zootopia the day after its release and was very pleasantly surprised by how it turned out. To be honest I just expected a cute childrens flick with bright colours and cutesy animation. Not that there isn't either of those (trust me they are. In spades) but the story and message were genuinely meaningful and a lot of effort had been put into the movie. I later went online to check it's reviews (not having heard anything about the movie before I went to see it) and was shocked it received an 8.1/10 from IMDb and a perfect 100% from Rotten Tomatoes. The movie was good definitely but that good? Probably not. So lets dive in and unpack this movie.
Firstly, the movies design is great. It flaunts it's world every chance it gets and does a decent job of fleshing out how all the different characters with their different body shapes and sizes fit into one city. The idea of having multiple districts of different biomes within Zootopia itself was also a brilliant idea by the creators. The train and train station scenes being prime examples. Some of us may question the logistics of having to build everything to fit multiple sizes of animals but honestly realism isn't what the film is pushing for and it didn't really bother me.
The character animation is good too. Not the best up certainly not slap-job. I've been hearing people say Zootopia is like a Disney Pixar film instead of simply a Disney film when it comes to animation but... no it's not. The animation is good but not mindblowing. The characters themselves are extremely likeable and the chemistry between Nick (the fox voiced by Jason Bateman) and Officer Hopps (the rabbit voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) was believable. The chemistry and banter between the two is funnier than some of the visual gags or set-up jokes of the movie and quite honestly, I think it's the best part. They designed characters we really care about and we are allowed to see how they both grow and mature in a well crafted story-arch.
Now we get to the plot, and this was the single most decisive thing to me for this movie. I love the setup, the buildup and even the antagonist were very well done. They managed to make a movie for children actually very intense and frightening (in different ways for adults and kids). However, the conclusion to me was just a complete flop. The climax, supposedly the best part of the film, fell flat on so many levels. I'll get into that in more detail in the spoilers section. Another strike against the plot though is that everything was predictable as hell. Defenitely not to the kids but being someone who avidly watches movies, I could see every single scene and twist the movie had to offer a good 15-30 minutes before they happened. It's the typical "smalltown girl has big dreams that no one supports" story mixed in with the typical "slimy no-gooder has a change of heart" story all involved in a typical "small case turns into huge threat" story. However, I honestly think the cliches get in the way of the film being good. It's not original in the story arch but the actual problem the characters have to face is ingenious and downright freaky (I've mentioned this twice now, it's that cool). The story doesn't seem old or recycled because even though the general arch is the same, Zootopia adds a new twist to it and makes it their own. It wasn't painfully cliched or annoyingly lazy, it's just that many plot points could be seen coming and if that bothers you this is definitely not the movie for you. I saweverything coming. If you like surprises or 6th sense level twists, sorry this ain't gonna do it for you.
The comedy in this movie isn't great. It's good, certainly passable and I had a few good laughs but mostly it was smiles and chuckles. The kids seemed to love it though and every complaint I have with this movie actually stems from what I see as the studio being unwilling to be edgier due to it being a kids film. With that, I move on the discussion of plot in details and spoilers. You have been warned.
SPOILERS BELOW!
The buildup of this movie was great. The first 45minutes or so is used setting up both our main characters and their shared life struggles. This is time well spent. It didn't seem boring or in anyway forced and you really do feel for them. Bright eyed optimists will relate to Hopps's endless idealism and can-do attitude and those who've tried but been disappointed by humanity one too many times will identify with Nick. Then the plot hits the problem, and good God is it amazing.
The scene with the Panther in the rainforest district is well executed and fantastic. The buildup and horror story he told is just creepy. It's something out of a horror movie for the characters, the animals going back to their primal ways and you understand the fear. It's like a freaking zombie apocalypse in a kids movie. The tension is suitably built up and it's possibly one of the best intentionally scary scenes in a childrens movie. I'd be shitting my pants and having nightmares for weeks if I were still 7 or 8. Just the idea of going "savage" as the movie calls it is a psychological terror. It's the fear of wild dogs, savage animals, psycho serial killers and bloodthirsty monsters (oh and of course brainless zombies) all mashed into one idea. It's simply perfect. No mystery or plot could have been better suited to the premise of the movie to make it so gripping and absolutely terrifying. I mean rabies is scary as hell by itself but imagine if it was human rabies that turned us all into that possessed girl from the exorcist! What an idea!... Wait a sec...
And this is where the movie really fails for me. Not the cliches or predictability but more because they have such a genius concept and never use it to its full potential.
The scene with the panther was amazing. It was built up, I could see it coming from a mile away but when it did come there's nothing quite like seeing a frightened average Joe suddenly snarl and turn into an animal; literally. From there I expected there to be more scenes like that. The thrill of being together with civilised people who could at any time turn into a psycho killer! The tension of the characters running for their lives but being unable to hurt an innocent driven crazy by an unknown entity! Unfortunately, all we get for the rest of the movie are teases of possibilities of this but without realising it's full potential. The real letdown is the ending. When it's revealed that it was actually the cute, seemingly innocent, sheep vice-mayor that was basically committing acts of terrorism and hate-mongering to "equalise" the playing field for herbivores I'd have loved to see them make the sheep seem scary. To show that truly evil is not skin deep but can manifest in anyone. To turn her into an actual scary villain is no mean feat but it would fit perfectly into the movies message and add gravitas to the films climax. However, she's just her old cutesy self (while doing evil things of course) and I got none of the o-so-great thrills of the panther scene in the climax. Instead we get them laughably running for their lives from comical rams which is hilarious but ruins the whole ending. Essentially, this movie is a cocktease which peaked at the panther scene and teased of greatness until the climax in which it inevitably stopped short in it's tracks by the studio, smacked sharply on the head and told "bad movie you can't do that, this is for children". What a waste. They even went with some cop-out (geddit) deus ex-machina where her parents magically tell her what's causing the animals to turn savage. Shame really, the film had a good message and was well executed but it failed to have the balls to push boundaries in both excitement and fully fleshing out it's own themes.
Is it still worth going to? Hell yeah! The concept alone is so freaking creepy it's worth price of admission. Oh, and did I mention the cool panther scene?
TL;DR: Good movie; maybe overrated; could have been much better. Worth a watch with the family, or even with your friends. solid 7.5/10 movie and probably 9/10 to 9.5/10 for a childrens movie.
