They've had some qualified successes of late, and managed to do so without taking a hit to their bottom line. From a messaging standpoint, their latest, Zootopia, is a real step forward and should give some open-ended talking points to families once the plentiful laughs (for adults and kiddies alike) subside. The crux here still digs deep into respect one another sandpit, but there's a complexity of presentation that hasn't been as noticeable in the past - a willingness to engage a little more with the structural issues inherent in the non-animated world at large.
Of course, these refreshingly liberal ideas are made more palatable to middle America because Zootopia goes conceptual with its societal friction. We're is dealing with characters that are walking, talking, (mostly) pants-wearing animals. Our entry points are the world's first ever bunny cop, Officer Judy Hopps (chirpily voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and her foxy grifter-come-sidekick, Nick Wilde (a cheekily animated Jason Bateman). The pair's investigation, which grows out of a some initial glass ceiling meter-maiding, sees the unlikely partners chasing down a dozen or so devolving predators, an event that soon has the whole of Zootopia questioning the intrinsicness of their DNA, be they predator or prey.
Parents will be able to freely assign their chosen disadvantage to this biological divide and the resulting moral will still hold worth. Whether it is read as a burgeoning race war or a assertion of queer identity, or any ideological difference for that matter, the "we are not defined by our biology" message, which goes hand in hand with the "you're not inherently special but you can always be something better if you try" takeaway, is easily drawn out. It may not hold up to deeper scrutiny - there's some conflicting politics at points and the "bite back of the underclass" denouement could leave a bitter taste in the mouths of those taking the film at its most metaphorical - but it'll be a solid enough teaching point for the youngsters.
On a purely entertainment level, Zootopia nails the age-gap straddling necessary to provide all-conquering box office, and does so without slamming all the pop-culture references into a sassy side-kick. Highlights include an hilarious riff on Brando's Tito Corleone, a cracking 'Breaking Bad' sequence and an impressively timed scene in a traffic office involving a veeeerrrrrryyyy...
hhhheeelllllpfuuullll....
sloooooothhhhh...
All in all, Zootopia is going to be a success. It may be a little too generic on first glance, which will hamper its marketability and its ability to pierce the public consciousness long term (there's not grating song about letting anything go here) but it'll be one that parents won't complain about when the kids ask to rack it up on Neflix for the 20th time. Everyone will learn a little something and have a laugh doing it.
★★★★
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