Zootopia

Will you kids shut up! I'm trying to watch the game.

 

Fans are making a scene over critics not liking it. Very classy. Looks like it will be another Frozen thing but for furries. :/ Why Are 'Zootopia' Fans So Angry About Critics Ruining the Movie's Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score? »

 

Wow. It's been a week since its release here in the States and it's already nearing half a billion at the B.O. Impressive for Disney. Zootopia (2016) - Box Office Mojo »

 

*sniff*sniff*

What's that?

That's the smell of a sequel getting the green light!

Wait... What? I can't usually smell light.....

Oh, it's the sequel I smell, not the green light. That's a little more paws-ible.

 

I'm not sure if it needs a sequel. Like Frozen, Zootopia seemed like a complete story. While Zootopia had a stronger story, I like both of them but I do think sequels may be unnecessary. Shorts would be fine though.

 

My whole family saw it yesterday and overall enjoyed it. Interestingly it was my 6 year old that was least enthusiastic, and that's owing to a far more adult level of storytelling than is usually found in a Disney film these days. It's quite dark in places, and is a PG-13 movie so not entirely appropriate for all ages. Her 9 year old sister liked it a lot and their 18 year old sister liked it although that didn't stop her from being on her phone (discreetly under her jacket) throughout most of the movie. Normally not something I would tolerate but it being a kids movie there were plenty of other distracting young folk to compete, and I just didn't have the will to fight about it yesterday.

As for me I thought it was a really good effort and I very much appreciated it not being a musical, but for the pop singer Gazelle (voiced by Shakira) concert sequence at the closing credits. The thing that bothered me the most is it's anthropomorphic animals living in visually a completely human built society. It would have been a much richer film had the production design brought us a world of evolved animals and THEIR world, not animals living in a human world.

 

As funny as this was, I do wonder how funny (if not awkward) it would be if you were to put one human in this world and have him/her try to live in this non-human animal society, even though it already mirrors human society.

 

I haven't seen the movie yet. Did they explain what the animals eat? I mean, if all the animals are sentient humanoids (but animals), can they eat other animals? Are they all vegetarians? Is it artificial food? This is an interesting story problem, if all the animals are supposed to be intelligent and cooperative with each other.

 

I hope I'm not giving too much away when I say this but the characters seem to be okay with ice cream and there's a scene in which a character talks about sending someone a rug made out of a skunk's... most infamous part of its body. Methinks they recycle fur from deceased animals like how in our world we recycle skin for people who need face transplants for example.

 

I haven't seen it either, but I doubt that that particular thought would appear in many peoples' heads, especially for a 'cartoon'. Besides, they probably just eat chicken!

Actually, I just remembered something dealing with the same objection, but I cannot remember where I'd heard it. It was along the lines that the sentient animals ate other animals that were purely bread for food and were not sentient, therefore no ethical dilemma.

 

Zootopia's cleverness is that the animals were created around perceived stereotypes, not offensive by any means, but as situation comedy. It permits us to laugh at ourselves through animated characters juxtaposed into human roles/jobs that wouldn't work the same way if filmed with actors. We become aloof observers. Not only does Zootopia mirror human society, but it allows us to hold a mirror up to ourselves & contemplate how others see us. That's why I think this film is brilliant.

BTW, I believe this has been retitled Zootropolis for UK release; the rationale for changing the ironic pun eludes me.


Cat

 

If we go down that rabbit hole we'll end up talking about the logic behind the world in Pixar's Cars films.

 

That whole line of dialogue took me out of the movie because I immediately wondered what kind of society would skin other members and use them for decorations. Totally unnecessary.

 

Quick! Delete this post before Vidiot sees it!

 

I'll say that my only MAJOR problem with the movie is Shakira. To me, she was brought in just to advertise a new song. I'm not sure if it'll be over-played like "Let It Go" but we'll see.

 

Slowly I turned... step by step...

 

I've heard you loved them.

 

What a great movie it was. I'm glad Disney Animation Studios is on a winning streak again.

 

They have been since Bolt in 2008, which was the first Disney film that made me happy that I saw a Disney film again.

 

The DMV Sloth bit seemed to be a direct rip of an old Bob & Ray skit "Slow Talkers of America".

 

According to the film's art book, the predator characters were originally gonna wear these shock collars to prevent them from going nuts. Interesting yet pretty dark concepts but I think leaving them out of the final product was for the better because it would've made this world that the creators built seem more of a dystopia than a utopia.

 

It just hit $1 billion worldwide. Well-deserved. Zootopia (2016) - Box Office Mojo »

 

According to the directors, it was changed for copyright reasons. They didn't know it at the time, but the name "Zootopia" is already copyrighted in most of Europe, not just the UK, so Disney had to change the title in European territories when they found out (apparently the name was copyrighted by a Danish zoo, and while I'm not entirely sure how copyright laws work, I'm assuming that since Denmark is an EU nation then the copyrighted name extends to every other EU country). In France they renamed it to Zootopie and in Germany is was renamed Zoomania. For these European releases, the signs and whatnot you see in the movie were changed to reflect this so they now read whatever the title was changed to. Similarly, for the UK release the actors also redid their lines whenever they say "Zootopia" so they now say "Zootropolis". It's actually done pretty seamlessly as far as the audio goes, but unfortunately the animators didn't re-edit the characters' mouthes whenever they say it so you see the characters all saying "Zotropolis" but they're clearly mouthing the word "Zootopia" instead. The moose news anchor's voice was also redubbed by BBC Sports presenter Vassos Alexander for the UK release, but aside from that it's exactly the same.

 

Blu-ray released in the US. The viewing experience of the 2D is demo-worthy for front projection home theater enthusiasts! Anyhow, the Disney Revival era continues. I do prefer the musical oriented animated films, but I'll enjoy Zootopia in both 3D and 2D for years to come.

 

While I do like the musicals, I also like it when Disney takes risks with their films.

I personally prefer 2D since I already have glasses and wearing the 3D ones at the same time is too much of a nuisance for me.