ZOOTOPIA (Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush). 108 minutes. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Zootopia is a lot of things at once, and all of them are pretty good.
It’s a fish-out-of-water picture about a wide-eyed small-town bunny named Judy (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) who comes to the big city to fulfill her dream of becoming a police officer.
It’s a buddy comedy in which the overmatched Judy enlists the help of a crafty fox named Nick (Jason Bateman) to crack a missing-person case. And it’s an allegory about the need for tolerance and understanding in a quietly racist society where xenophobia and fear of the other are recast as the tension between predators and prey.
Yes, really. Zootopia – a comedy about talking animals who wear people clothes and take the subway and stuff – is an incredibly ambitious movie, and it’s remarkable that Walt Disney Animation has pulled it off.
It’s as quietly political and subversive in its way as Frozen, which gets a couple of sly shout-outs here. And, like Frozen, it’s also gorgeous to behold and consistently entertaining, so that’s nice, too. Directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore find unexpected depth in their character relationships (and provide excellent supporting roles for Idris Elba and Jenny Slate, among others), refuse to dumb down their material and keep the pop culture gags to a minimum.
Okay, there’s an extended Godfather reference, but it’s really funny. Just trust me on this.
