Psycho's Movie Reviews #252: Zootopia (2016)

Zootopia (titled Zootropolis in various regions) a is a 2016 American computer-animated buddy cop film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 55th Disney animated feature film, directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, co-directed by Jared Bush, and stars the voices of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Tommy Chong, J. K. Simmons, Octavia Spencer, Alan Tudyk, and Shakira. Taking place in the titular city where anthropomorphic mammals coexist, it tells a story of an unlikely partnership between a rabbit police officer and a red fox con artist as they uncover a criminal conspiracy involving the disappearance of predators.

Zootopia premiered at the Brussels Animation Film Festival in Belgium on February 13, 2016, and went into general theatrical release in Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, and 4DX formats in the United States on March 4. Zootopia received positive reviews from critics, who praised its screenplay, animation, voice acting, subject matter, and Michael Giacchino's musical score. The film opened to record-breaking box offices in several countries, and earned a worldwide gross of over $1 billion, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2016. The film earned numerous accolades; it was named one of the top ten best films of 2016 by the American Film Institute, and received an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Critics' Choice Movie Award, and Annie Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

Plot

Rabbit Judy Hopps from rural Bunnyburrow fulfils her childhood dream of becoming a police officer in urban Zootopia. Despite being the academy valedictorian, Judy is delegated to parking duty by Chief Bogo, who fails to recognize her talent. On her first day on the job, Judy is hustled by a con artist fox duo, Nick Wilde and Finnick.

Later, Duke Weaselton steals a bag of crocus bulbs known as Midnicampum holicithias. Judy abandons parking duty to recover them, and is reprimanded by Bogo. Mrs. Otterton unexpectedly barges in to Bogo's office pleading for someone to find her husband Emmitt, one of fourteen missing animals. Judy volunteers and the city's assistant mayor, ewe Dawn Bellwether, praises the assignment. Bogo has no choice but to agree, but secretly orders Judy to resign if she fails within forty-eight hours.

Having ascertained that Nick was the last to see Emmitt, Judy blackmails him into helping her by covertly recording his confession to tax evasion. They track Emmitt to a limousine owned by crime boss Mr. Big, an arctic shrew. He reveals that Emmitt suddenly went "savage", attacking Mr. Big's chauffeur Manchas. The two visit Manchas, a black jaguar, and he says Emmitt yelled about "Night Howlers" before the attack. Manchas then turns savage and chases the pair. Judy traps Manchas and calls the ZPD for help; however, Manchas vanishes before they arrive. Bogo demands Judy to resign, but Nick reminds Bogo that she still has ten hours remaining. While leaving the scene, Nick reveals to Judy that he became a con artist because, as a child, he tried to join the Junior Ranger Scouts, only to be mistreated and rejected simply for being a fox.

At City Hall, Bellwether offers Judy and Nick access to Zootopia's traffic cameras. They discover Manchas was taken by wolves, whom Judy surmises are the "Night Howlers". Following the wolves, the duo locate Manchas and the rest of the missing animals, all "savage" predators, imprisoned at a local asylum. Zootopia's mayor, Leodore Lionheart, ordered their capture, and is trying to ascertain the cause of their behaviour. Lionheart and the asylum staff are soon arrested for false imprisonment and Bellwether becomes the new mayor. Judy, praised for solving the case, asks Nick to join the ZPD as her partner. However, he angrily rejects her offer after a reporter manoeuvres Judy into saying predatory biology is behind the mysterious "savageness" epidemic. Judy's comments, broadcast on television, incite fear and discrimination against predators throughout Zootopia.

Wracked with guilt, Judy quits her job and returns home. There, she learns that Night Howlers are actually the crocus bulbs Weaselton stole; they contain a neurotoxin that has severe, lasting psychotropic effects on mammals. Judy returns to Zootopia, tearfully reconciling with Nick. She, Nick, and Mr. Big interrogate Weaselton, who admits he was hired by a ram named Doug. They find Doug in a laboratory hidden in the city subway, where he manufactures a Night Howler serum to be shot at predators via a dart gun.

Judy and Nick obtain a serum gun as evidence, but before they can reach the ZPD, Bellwether confronts them in the Natural History Museum, revealing herself as the mastermind behind a prey-supremacist conspiracy. The duo become trapped in an exhibit and Bellwether attempts to infect Nick as she summons the ZPD, but Nick had disabled the gun by replacing its ammunition with blueberries and Judy reveals she recorded Bellwether's confession just as the ZPD arrives.

Bellwether and her accomplices are arrested, while Lionheart, still in prison, publicly denies knowledge of her plot and insists that imprisoning the infected predators was a "wrong thing for the right reason". With the cause of the epidemic identified, the predators are cured, Judy re-joins the ZPD and Nick becomes her partner and the first fox police officer.

Production

Writing

Development of the film that would come to be called Zootopia began when Byron Howard pitched six story ideas to Disney Animation chief creative officer and executive producer John Lasseter, of which three involved animal characters: an all-animal adaptation of The Three Musketeers, a 1960s-themed story about a "mad doctor cat...who turned children into animals", and a "bounty hunter pug in space". The common thread running through these ideas was that Howard wanted to do a film similar to Disney's Robin Hood, which also featured animals in anthropomorphic roles. According to Howard, Zootopia emerged from his desire to create something different from other animal anthropomorphic films, where animals either live in the natural world or in the human world. His concept, in which animals live in a modern world designed by animals for animals, was well received by Lasseter, who responded by embracing and lifting Howard "in the air like a baby Simba". Lasseter suggested that Howard should try combining the 1960s theme with the animal characters, especially the space pug. This led Howard to develop and pitch Savage Seas, an international spy film centred on an arctic hare named "Jack Savage" who was somewhat like James Bond. It was around this time that screenwriter Jared Bush was hired to work on the film; he was excited to work on a spy film because his own father and grandfather had worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Howard and Bush continued to develop the film with the assistance of the Disney Story Trust, the studio's top creative personnel who meet regularly to review and discuss all projects in development. The most delightful part of the spy film turned out to be its first act, set in a city created by and for animals. To focus on the all-animal city, Howard eventually dropped the 1960s setting, along with the espionage and international aspects, and changed the film into a contemporary police procedural in which Nick Wilde was the lead role and Judy Hopps was essentially his sidekick. For a while, "the filmmakers were very committed" to that version of the story, but then in November 2014, the filmmakers realized the film's plot would be more engaging if they reversed the roles to instead focus on Hopps as opposed to Wilde. The change in perspective involved dropping several characters, including two characters known as "The Gerbil Jerks" who were described as "trust-fund gerbils that had nothing better to do than harass Nick."

Pre-production

In May 2013, The Hollywood Reporter initially reported that Howard was directing the film and that Jason Bateman had been cast, but little else about the film was known at the time. Zootopia was first officially announced on August 10, 2013, at the D23 Expo, with a March 2016 release date.

Research for the film took place in Disney's Animal Kingdom, as well as in Kenya and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, where animators spent eight months studying various animals' walk cycles as well as fur colour. Eight hundred thousand forms of mammals were created for and featured in the film. To make the characters' fur even more realistic, they also went to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County to closely observe the appearance of fur with a microscope under a variety of lighting. The filmmakers drew inspiration for Zootopia's urban design from major cities including New York City, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Brasília. To develop a city that could actually be inhabited by talking mammals ranging in size from two inches (5.1 cm) to 27 feet (8.2 m) and from drastically different climates, the filmmakers consulted Americans with Disabilities Act specialists and HVAC system designers. For assistance with designing motor vehicles appropriate for so many different types and sizes of mammals, the filmmakers consulted with J Mays, former chief creative officer of the Ford Motor Company. During the development process, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan F. Horn suggested that Nick should expressly state his disappointment ("Just when I thought someone actually believed in me...") after discovering that Judy still fears him as a predator. In March 2015, it was revealed that Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph) had been added as a director of the film, in addition to Jared Bush (Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero) as co-director.

Animation

Disney's most recent work on animating fur was for the titular character of the 2008 film Bolt, but the software they had used at the time was not ready for creating the realistic fur of the animals of Zootopia. Therefore, the studio's IT engineers developed the fur-controlling software "iGroom", which gave character designers precise control over the brushing, shaping and shading of fur and made it possible to create a variety of eccentric character styles for each animal. The software was also able to control an unseen "imaginary" under-layer that gave fur a degree of plushness not seen before. This feature was used to create characters like Officer Clawhauser, who has a big head that is entirely made of spotted fur. Characters with noteworthy numbers of strands of hair or fur included both of the two lead characters, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, who each had around 2.5 million hairs; a giraffe with nine million strands of fur; a gerbil with 480,000 strands; and a rodent with more strands of hair than the 400,000 that were on Elsa's head in Frozen.

Zootopia was the second time Disney used the Hyperion renderer, which they had first used on Big Hero 6. A new fur paradigm was added to the renderer to facilitate the creation of realistic images of the animals' dense fur. Nitro, a real-time display application developed since the making of Wreck-It Ralph, was used to make the fur more consistent, intact and subtle much more quickly, as opposed to the previous practice of having to predict how the fur would work while making and looking at silhouettes or poses for the character. The tree-and-plant generator Bonsai, first used in Frozen, was used to make numerous variations of trees with very detailed foliage.

Zootopia was produced in makeshift quarters in a giant warehouse in North Hollywood (together with Moana) while Disney Animation's headquarters in Burbank was being renovated.

Casting

On May 6, 2015, Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin were announced as having been cast, respectively, in the roles of Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. The filmmakers chose Bateman because they wanted an actor who could bring "a funny yet heartfelt side" with "a wily, dry-witted sort of voice". Bateman described his character as "a crafty, sarcastic schemer", remarking on the role's similarity to many other roles he had done since he was 12. He explained that he had said to the directors: "'What kind of voice do you guys want me to do?' And they just looked at me like I was an idiot and said, 'Just do what you do. Just talk.'"

Commenting on the casting of Goodwin, Moore said that she brought "very centred sweetness, tremendous heart and a great sense of humour"; he described Judy as "a little Pollyanna mixed with Furiosa". Goodwin stated about her character: "People mistake kindness for naivete or stupidity, and she is a good girl through and through. But she's not a dumb bunny."

Soundtrack

The film's score is composed by Michael Giacchino. It marks his first feature-length project for Walt Disney Animation Studios, as he previously scored the Goofy short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, the two Prep & Landing specials and short film, and the short film The Ballad of Nessie, as well as multiple Pixar films. In addition to her voice role of Gazelle, pop star Shakira also contributed an original song to the film titled "Try Everything", which was written by Sia and Stargate. The film's score was recorded by an 80-piece orchestra in November 2015, with Tim Simonec conducting. The soundtrack was released on March 4, 2016, by Walt Disney Records.

Release/Reception/Box Office

Zootopia was released in Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D, making it the first Disney animated film shown in domestic IMAX theatres since Treasure Planet (2002). It was shown for the first time to the public as a feature film in an international competition for a young audience during the Brussels Animation Film Festival on February 7, 2016.

In China, the state's SAPPRFT granted the film a rare two-week extension to play in theatre's in addition to its limited 30-day run, which was to have ended on April 3.

The film was retitled for theatrical release across several international territories. In the United Kingdom and other European, Middle Eastern, and North African countries, the film was renamed Zootropolis, a reference to the concept of a "metropolis" rather than to that of a "utopia". This was due to Disney being unable to trademark the name "Zootopia" in these territories for various legal reasons, including Danish Givskud Zoo registering the name Zootopia in 2014. In Germany, the film was titled Zoomania due to a children's book by German author Kay Fischer titled Zootopolis released in 2010.

On June 22, 2020, amid the reopening of movie theatres due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Disney announced that Zootopia, along with 11 other Disney owned movies were to return to US theatres during a 4-week period. Zootopia returned to US theatres on June 26 and played through July 2, 2020, alongside The Avengers, and The Greatest Showman. The film grossed a total of $393,600 and was the top film in theatres during its US re-release.

Weeks later, on July 20, 2020, it was confirmed that the film would be returning to theatres in China, along with Big Hero 6 and the Chinese debut of Sonic the Hedgehog on July 31, 2020.

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 98% based on 293 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 8.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "The brilliantly well-rounded Zootopia offers a thoughtful, inclusive message that's as rich and timely as its sumptuously state-of-the-art animation—all while remaining fast and funny enough to keep younger viewers entertained." It was the site's second-highest-rated film of 2016 behind Moonlight. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 78 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times considered the movie "funny, smart, [and] thought-provoking". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that Zootopia "may be the most subversive movie of" 2016, giving the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and praising its timely message about the harm of prejudice in the face of the prevailing xenophobic political rhetoric at the time of the film's release, and the film's humour. Peter Debruge at Variety opined that Zootopia "plays directly to the studio's strength". IGN reviewer Eric Goldman gave the film a 9.0 out of 10 'Amazing' score, saying "Zootopia is a wonderful example of how Disney, at its best, can mix its past and present together in a very cool, compelling way. It takes the classic animation trope of animals walking, talking and acting like humans, but gives it a modern spin both in terms of its humour and animation style and also in its themes, which are meaningful and fascinatingly topical."

In the UK daily newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Robbie Collin noted, "The lion doesn't just lie down with the lamb, they run for City Hall on a joint ticket. It's the diversity dream come true. Or is it? Think Busytown by way of Chinatown. It's almost certain to be the most existentially probing talking animal cartoon of the year." Collin added, "Like Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs., albeit considerably cuter, Judy and Nick make a hilariously strained but effective double act – not least thanks to Goodwin and Bateman's tremendous vocal work, which trips along with the effortless swing and snap of great bebop."

Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com, despite generally liking the film (three out of four stars), had trouble with the film's central metaphor that conflicted with its message.

Also in The Daily Telegraph, Rosa Prince singled out the film's lead character, Judy Hopps, as a welcome change for Disney animated feature film heroines, such as the Disney Princess franchise. She found that unlike those characters' focus on romance or family loyalty, Hopps' focus is on her dream career as a police officer and serving her city.

Some were critically divided of the message about universal prejudices of all sorts interpreted as an allegory of American racism. Nico Lang of Consequence of Sound felt that Disney delivered a kids' version of Crash, yet others criticized the use of prey and predator species in the "allegory" while critics at The Root stated positively that the movie acknowledges culpability of systemic racism and white supremacy.

Zootopia grossed $341.3 million in the U.S. and Canada and $682.5 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $1.024 billion, against a budget of $150 million. On March 18, 2016, the film reached the $500 million mark, becoming the third consecutive Walt Disney Animation Studios film to reach the milestone after Frozen (2013) and Big Hero 6 (2014). On April 5, it became the first film of 2016 to gross over $800 million in ticket sales, and on April 24, became the first ever film of 2016 to cross $900 million. On June 5, the film crossed the $1 billion mark, becoming the second film of 2016 to do so (after the studio's own Captain America: Civil War), the fourth animated film (after Toy Story 3, Frozen, and Minions), the eleventh Disney film, the third Disney animated film, and the twenty-sixth film overall to reach the milestone.

Worldwide, it was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2016 (behind Civil War, Rogue One, and Finding Dory), the second-highest-grossing animated film of 2016, the second-highest-grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film (second-highest overall) of all time in its original release (after Frozen), the second-highest-grossing original film (behind Avatar), and the fourth-highest-grossing animated film of all time. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $294.9 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film, making it the fifth-most profitable release of 2016.

Budget $150million

Box office $1.024billion

My Review

As someone who has been an enormous Disney fan all my life (the only films that don't do much for me are 'Chicken Little', 'Home on the Range' and 'The Black Cauldron', if it counts also 'Planes'), Zootopia may not be as good as the best of classic Disney or the 'big four' of the Renaissance era.

It's quite amazing how far computer graphics have come in films. Watch an older film like "Toy Story" or "Shrek" and you'll see what I mean. They were the cutting edge CGI movies when they came out but when seen today you realize just how far they've come since then. As an experiment, try watching one of these older films and then see the best computer animated film you can find, "Zootopia", and you'll see just how far they've come. The characters not only are gorgeously animated but the film is so rich in texture. Scenes of the characters flying through a rain forest or walking in a bustling metropolis simply look astounding. Combine with that some of the nicest 3D effects you can find and some very lovable characters and you've got a winner.

However, it is for me the jewel of Disney's 'second renaissance' (their return to form era starting with 'The Princess and the Frog', and if it counts -might not as it is Disney Toon Studios- their only misfire from that era is 'Planes'). Despite a couple of issues 'The Princess and the Frog' was still enormously entertaining. 'Tangled was Disney's best since 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (not sure how much of a popular opinion that is though), until the even better 'Wreck it Ralph' took that title. 'Winnie the Pooh' was immensely charming and sweet with its one problem being that it was too short. 'Frozen' despite what people say to me was the best animated film of 2013 besides 'Ernest et Celestine' (and the amount of hate it gets and the detractors' attitude towards those who loved, or even liked, the film has been blown way out of proportion). And 'Big Hero 6' was fun and touching with one of Disney's most endearing characters in recent years in Baymax.

So is the film perfect? Not quite. Unlike the typical CGI film, this one did not have a short the preceded it and because of this I felt a bit cheated since this has become the norm for most computer animated films from major studios. Additionally, some might find the message within the film to be a bit heavy-handed...though I didn't mind. Overall, this is a great film for all ages....something that makes it a major plus for families. Parents won't feel like taking a nap and kids will be captivated because the film, if anything, is amazingly cute!

Onto the review properly for 'Zootopia' now. The animation is fantastic with rich colours, vivid, beautifully designed and colourful backgrounds and lovingly designed characters whose movements flow fluidly and never robotically. Some of it is even very inventive and imaginative in the set pieces. Michael Giacchino's score is cleverly orchestrated, energetic and catchy, not as good as his scores for the ones for the Pixar films 'Up' and 'Inside Out' but it complements 'Zootopia' very well indeed.

'Zootopia' has some very smart and hilarious writing, cleverly balancing sly references, witty humour and also genuine pathos and heart with few if any awkward tonal shifts. The visual gags are similarly inventive and a joy to watch. The story is so consistently well paced and involving and is told with such energy, charm and heart that some may forget the storyline being predictable. To me, it had enough originality to not make it matter that much. What was also impressive about 'Zootopia' was how it dealt with such heavy and wholly relevant themes and issues, one of most daring along with 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' and deal with it with a light touch. Some did find the message (one that's easy to identify with) forced and heavy-handed, it wasn't an issue to me at all, to this viewer it was incorporated well and respectfully.

The characters in 'Zootopia' are interesting - all serving a point to the story- with colourful personalities, none of them felt bland, none felt shoe-horned in, none felt annoying and none felt unnecessary. Love the sassiness and charm of the protagonist, and while the twist wasn't a surprise as such the villain did serve a good threat and more interesting than the recent Disney twist villains. The voice acting is just terrific from all, especially from Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman. Can't go wrong with Idris Elba, JK Simmons and Maurice LaMarche either.

All in all, with the one small exception of the forgettable and slightly grating main song from Shakira (which was not enough to bring the film down personally) 'Zootopia' was a superb film, not only of Disney's post-2009 films but also one of their best post-Tarzan and towards the top end in the Disney animated film ranking. 9.3/10