This is not the vacation post you're looking for

[sholio]

This is really more a post to mention that I watched Zootopia on the flight home from England, and absolutely adored it. I think it might be my favorite of the various Disney/Pixar/computer-animated movies since Finding Nemo. A buddy-movie about an adult male and female character without a romance in sight, multiple female characters doing stuff and interacting with each other (including some very atypical female characters, like the polar bear drill sergeant, and a main female protagonist who didn't feel stereotyped or sexualized), loads of sight gags and jokes that are genuinely funny (THE DMV OMGGGGG), a plot that hit a lot of unique beats and (to me at least) didn't feel as formulaic as the Pixar-style movies sometimes can ... it was basically just a really fun, distracting movie that hit loads of my character-related happy buttons. Definitely one to be rewatched.

coulda used more h/c though, given the premise

Edit: Movie spoilers in comments!

Comments

[sgatazmy]

I enjoyed Zootopia as well. I think the art was spectacular and the characters were a lot of fun. It's interesting watching the commentaries. Originally the story was supposed to be about the fox instead of the bunny.

[sholio]

Oh wow! I'm really glad they recentered the story on Judy, because it's so much less typical a story with her as the main character, even though we still get the fox's story too (which I also really enjoyed!).

[amalthia]

Zootopia is one of my favorite movies that came out this year. :)

[sholio]

It took me awhile to watch it because I had NO IDEA I'd like it so much! It's definitely one of my favorites too, maybe even my favorite so far. :D

[amalthia]

I only went because I felt like seeing a movie and it was the only one playing with a high rating on rotten tomatoes.

[alatefeline]

I loved Zootopia. A great, great movie with some issues but shockingly good overall.

[sholio]

It was really well done! I was especially pleased at how the female characters were handled. It shouldn't feel like such a breath of fresh air to have multiple female characters who were interesting, different, and not at all stereotyped (even the ones who were intentionally playing off certain tropes, like the shrew mobster's daughter - she was such a sweetie!) but it really is.

[alatefeline]

I enjoyed it for that too. And for the classic coming-of-age / friendship storylines, with some unusual and realistic nuances, e.g. being alone in your teeny new room may be exciting but it's also lonely after a long day; you will get suckered, it's part of the learning process; you can say something bigoted and harmful without ever intending to. And the music and stunning visuals!

[sholio]

Oh yes, I really loved the coming-of-age arc in particular. It was so believable and easy to relate to -- which is a bit odd to say, since the protagonist was a rabbit, but it really was! I think most of us have had the experiences she's having (the lonely little apartment, the new city that's exciting but also alienating, the new job that's not all it was promised to be, etc). And it is surprisingly rare to get that kind of arc for female characters, especially female characters in genre movies.

[alatefeline]

As far as the rabbit part goes ... they are clearly more of a case of Petting Zoo People than realistic depictions of anything like sapient tech-using animals, despite the many species jokes ... and if anything that might make them MORE relatable.

I think that since in addition to anthropomorphizing animals to make them easier to understand (or have the illusion of understanding) humans sometimes anthropomorphize animals so that we can imaginatively apply animals traits to human life. It's easier to think of being quick and tricky like a fox if we blur the distinction between what it means to a human to be tricky and what it means to exhibit behavior we would call 'tricky' for a small mammal that is both predator and prey. By making the fox a bit more human in our minds, we make it easier to then compare a human to a fox. So if a rabbit character is very very human, it's easier to put oneself in the shoes of that character; it's more relatable on the level of immediate experience than the (admittedly still imagined and somewhat anthropormorphized) attempt to get inside a different species mindset that appears in books like Watership Down.

I think part of the positive reaction many people have to Zootopia is that the experience of dealing with some of those daily challenges is familiar. Another part is the sense of Judy being someone who is actively shaping her own life instead of passively reacting to other characters - the agency of the lead character - makes a difference because we're so accustomed to seeing agency primarily as a trait of male characters. (White, cis, straight, young, English-speaking, normatively abled, neurotypical, masculine, economically privileged, etc. male characters at that.) It's refreshing and yet it feels odd that it's refreshing, because it is normal in the lived experience of most people to be and/or see women doing their own thing for the own reasons, and it should be normal in media, and it's only barely budging in that direction.

Someone a while back made some excellent comments about how Zootopia both did and didn't incorporate elements of accessible design, and an instance of ableism that I initially missed in my overall love for the fundamentally pro-diversity world-building and plot. I think I'll go try and find that comment thread to link.

[alatefeline]

Links (spoileriffic, if that matters):

Positive review by a friend:
https://ysabetwordsmith.dreamwidth.org/10498196.html

Critical review citing an ableist trend and a specific instance: http://davehingsburger.blogspot.com/2016/03/open-letter-zootopia.html

Positive review citing relevance to current social problems including racism:
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/03/zootopia_yes_disney_made_a_movie_about_racism_but_with_talking_animals/

And the TvTropes page:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Disney/Zootopia

[naye]

YES! It was so much fun! It had so much heart and so much sweet friendship and amusing world building and nice visuals and I really, really enjoyed it. Glad you had a chance to see it on the flight.

[sholio]

It was such a delight! :D It took me awhile to watch it because I really didn't think it was one I was going to enjoy that much, but yeah, it was everything I wanted from an animated movie - absolutely lovely. :D

[brightknightie]

I haven't seen Zootopia yet. But: welcome back! :-)

[sholio]

Thank you! :)

[winter_elf]

I loved Zootopia to pieces and saw it twice in theaters :) And welcome back!

[sholio]

Thank you! :)

It is a really delightful movie.

[anotherslashfan]

Yes to all the above but an interesting aside: my Chinese students apparently read Judy and Nick's friendship as romance O_o. To me, Zootopia is thankfully romance free.