Review – Zootopia

Zootopia has been advertised in the trailers as this cute little comedy about a universe where animals live together.  This movie is way more than that.  This is a crime film with twists and turns that is filled with rich characters and police drama and deep meanings about stereotyping, all while being an incredibly entertaining and fun children’s film.

Zootopia tells the story of a small town bunny named Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin).  Judy has big aspirations of becoming the first rabbit cop ever, and when she succeeds, it moves her to the big city of Zootopia, where predators and prey both live amongst each other.  Judy soon gets involved in a case trying to find missing animals, she uses her police skills and the help of a sly fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) and solve the case.

As I said at the beginning, this is more than just an adorable kids movie.  This is actually a very interesting, very intriguing cop mystery, very similar to a film noir.  There are different habitats of Zootopia that have certain species living there, similar to there being different neighborhoods and different gangs residing there.  There are crime bosses, sketchy street characters, and even drugs.  That’s right, drugs.  It’s incredible.  And it’s not like we see a zebra snorting a line a cocaine off a gazelle antler.  It’s all Disney-fied, but it makes the experience a little more enjoyable and fun for adults.  I also liked the message the movie had about judging people based on appearance rather than who they really are.  This is one of the more mature non-Pixar movies I’ve ever seen.

The voice work in this movie is terrific.  Goodwin and Bateman are a fantastic team and could have their own hilarious spin-off movie.  Idris Elba is great as the always angry Chief Bogo.  J.K. Simmons is wonderful as the town mayor.  Jenny Slate is hilarious as the under appreciated assistant to the mayor, Bellwether.  And the rest of the cast is perfect.  The film is also a visual stunner, perfectly utilizing the 3-D technology and using bright colors that pop off the screen.  I also love how they kept the animals true to size.  It made this world a little more fun to see a giraffe, a lion, and a gerbil all get off the same train.

Zootopia is a great and enjoyable movie.  It’s a cool cop mystery thrown in the candy colored world of Zootopia.  The voice work is great, the message is strong, but not overbearing, and there is a lot of things for kids and adults to enjoy.  This is one of the best surprises of 2015.

MY RATING – 3.5/4

Did you see Zooptopia?  What did you think?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @kevflix.  And don’t forget to like Kevflix on Facebook.