Zootopia

Story: An ambitious bunny rabbit named Judy Hopps (Goodwin), a resident of Bunnyburrow, dreams about becoming a police officer in Zootopia – a city populated by a plethora of anthropomorphous animals. Her happy-go-lucky but protective parents Bonnie (Hunt) and Stu (Lake) sweetly try to convince their daughter otherwise. But nothing will come in the way of Hopps’ dreams.



Review: While there has been a smattering of animated films out in the last couple of months, few can lay claim to having a lasting, residual feel-good factor to it. Some go over-the-top in terms of colour saturation. Others were just too outlandish and some are crammed full of moralistic messages for children. But thankfully, Zootopia doesn’t suffer from any of these wearisome traits.

There are various allegorical references. ‘Zootopia’ is itself a portmanteau or rather, a blend word of ‘zoo’ and ‘utopia’. So it’s a place where animals – both predator and the hunted – can ideally coexist. The civilized predators abandon their savagery and live without threatening the herbivores who incidentally, outnumber the predators ten to one. Keeping the peace is the ZPD, (Zootopia Police Department) headed by Chief Bogo (Elba). No one imagines Hopps to become a ‘real’ cop, but she does have friends in high places, such as Dawn Bellwether (Slate), the Deputy Mayor of Zootopia, to back her. She and the wily fox Nick Wilde (Bateman) uncover a plot that’s aimed to destabilize the peace in Zootopia and turn the animals against one another.

But more than just being wildly entertaining, what will strike you as quite refreshing is the originality of the characters. Also the fact that the voice casting is so spot-on that you can just picture Bateman (terrific here), Elba, Shakira and so on as mouthing their lines in a live-action film rather than in an animated outing. The rendering of the characters by itself is cute without being cloyingly sweet. Take for example Officer Clawhauser (Torrence) who sits at the front desk of the ZPD. And of course, the hilarious Flash (Persi), a three-toed sloth who works in a government department. This one’s both intelligent and endearing.