By Maddy Lockwood, Features Contributor
Over the past few weeks, my friends and I have been holding daily movie marathons in our dorm rooms and “Zootopia” is the most recent movie or TV show I have decided to rewatch, as it came out in 2016. When this movie was released I was almost 13 years old, and I distinctly remember loving this movie and its characters.
“Zootopia” is a Disney film telling the story of Judy Hopps, the first bunny to become a police officer in the large city. Zootopia is a city filled with 12 different ecosystems, similar to neighborhoods, that split up the city’s residents into their natural habitats. In her first case, Judy is forced to team up with a low-level criminal to solve the case of 12 missing mammals. This movie tackles a lot of large social issues and presents them in interesting ways that I completely missed as a kid.
On my first watch as a preteen, I did not pick up on the undertones of the movie and how it presents issues like stereotypes, racism and the view on police officers. The movie starts with a pageant at Judy’s elementary school about the history of how Zootopia came to be a city. It talks about predator mammals being “savage with urges to maim and maul others.” This makes sense in terms of animals, but as it keeps being brought up throughout the movie, it starts being used to stereotype the current mammals. This becomes the largest and most recurring issue throughout the story. Multiple times, Judy falls back on the stereotype of predators “going savage.” In the end, Judy sees the error in her ways and her ideas are corrected and replaced with better understanding of other animals.
Although this movie has some serious undertones, it is still packed full of humor that everyone enjoys. A particular scene featuring Flash the sloth working at the DMV had a dorm full of 18-year-olds rolling with laughter. I admit that we rewatch this movie just to see Flash the sloth. Flash, a DMV employee, tries to help Judy solve her case, but ends up taking an extraordinary amount of time to do so while cracking some serious jokes. There is also a scene referencing the famous movie “The Godfather,” which proves to be incredibly funny with the characters involved. There are many very lovable characters in this movie that you will fall in love with if you aren’t already laughing. Of the over 20 movies in our movie marathon, we all agree on “Zootopia”’s supremacy as our favorite movie to watch.
The final decision: It was good!