Judy Hopps is a trailblazer.
She is a rabbit with 275 brothers and sisters, all carrot farmers. Judy, however, has wanted to be a police officer since childhood. Bunnyhood?
In the animated comedy-adventure “Zootopia,” Judy (voice of Ginnifer Goodwin) lands a job with the police in the teeming metropolis of Zootopia, where she is the sole bunny on the force and assigned to give out parking tickets. She does a kindly act for a fox, Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), only to learn he is a scam artist, but the pair later join forces to investigate the disappearance of 14 mammals. If Judy cannot find one of the missing, she will have to turn in her badge.
Starring: Voices of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba.
Rating: PG for some thematic elements, rude humor and action.
Can a rabbit and a fox work together, let alone be friends? Is Zootopia really a place where anybody can be anything and all mammals can live in harmony, as sunny go-getter Judy believes?
Along the way, there are lessons about dreaming big, never making assumptions about animals — or, in our case, people — based on their appearance, history or DNA. Here, critters once were predators or prey, a designation that may go over the heads of the youngest audience members. But the movie’s messages about the cruelty of bullying, how tormentors can change and how you should not judge or stereotype any creature by its appearance are ageless.
Adults will appreciate “The Godfather” takeoffs and playful depictions of the Department of Mammal Vehicles, where employees are, literally, slow-moving sloths. At 108 minutes, though, the movie is about 10 minutes too long to hold everyone’s attention, and skip the pricier 3-D and go for old-fashioned 2-D. The animation is as colorful as it gets, with vividly realized characters against backdrops that sometimes seem straight from TV and sometimes are worthy of the big screen.
In addition to Ms. Goodwin and Mr. Bateman, the impressive voice cast includes Idris Elba as the police chief; J.K. Simmons as the mayor; Octavia Spencer as the wife of a missing otter; Bonnie Hunt and Don Lake as Judy’s parents; and assorted others such as Nate Torrence, Tommy Chong, Alan Tudyk and Jenny Slate. Shakira sings for Gazelle, the biggest pop star in Zootopia, who closes the movie with the song “Try Everything.”
Disney does just that, trying for an empowering female heroine who is no dumb bunny, a fox with a secret sensitive side and a world where, when someone acknowledges the elephant in the room that’s because there’s an elephant in the room.
Movie editor Barbara Vancheri: bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. Read her blog: www.post-gazette.com/madaboutmovies.
First Published: January 16, 2017, 10:03 p.m.
