Zootopia

Zootopia is a complex onion of a movie to peel back because it has its heart in the right place, but its mixed messages have made it hard to rewatch in the years since its 2016 premiere. On the surface, Zootopia is a film about prejudice. Its titular metropolis is meant to be a paradise where anthropomorphic predators and prey live together in harmony. 

Rookie cop Judy Hopps moves to the city and discovers that the idealized vision is not as it seems, and is forced to reckon with her own privilege after seeing how the social hierarchy affects predators like con-man fox Nick Wilde. The core allegorical premise is strong, and leads to some of the most emotionally affecting moments in recent Disney memory; it’s the pro-cop framing that is harder to swallow a decade later. Sure, the movie examines the “bad apples” in the system, but is largely uncritical of the institution it idolizes—though I’m reminded that it’s a Disney movie, and those are not often particularly radical. Its discussions of prejudice and privilege are apt, and it does a good job of presenting those ideas so that the average child (or adult, let’s be frank) might take something of value away, but it fails to interrogate the role the police have in how these social phenomena are perpetuated. 

Zootopia does have some of Disney’s sharpest writing, funniest comedic setpieces, and best performances from Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman as its two leads. Nick remains one of my favorite Disney characters.