Movie Thoughts: Zootopia (2016)

• Released: March 4, 2016
  
• Directed by: Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush
• Running time: 1 h 48 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A rabbit cop and a fox conman set out on cracking a case of missing predators in the animal-inhabited city of Zootopia.

My Thoughts

I actually got to see this movie before it released in most territories when it first came out and I thought it was fine. Nothing great, nothing bad, just fine with the obviously great-looking Disney animation we're all used to. How do I feel after re-watching it?

Mostly the same, though I think I may like it a bit more than initially. It's a good mystery story with plenty of twists and turns along the way, and I do like our main characters (especially Nick, Judy falls a bit too much into the standard "standard upbeat girl main character" stereotype for me). The side characters I'm less fond of, except for the mafia shrews, I do think those are genuinely kind of funny.

One major thing that this movie does have working against me liking it is the title itself: the city. This may just be me, but I hate large and busy cities. I have visited plenty of locations like this in my life and except for Vienna and one or two others I never really enjoyed being in them. They're too big, too busy, the buildings too high, there's too many noises and stimuli. I don't like them. And this movie perfectly encapsulates how stifling cities like this feel, making it a very unappealing setting for me.

I do like the more "outskirt" settings we have, such as the rain forest district or the tundra district, but anything that takes place in this busy city center in these shots that are supposed to show off how great this city is just comes across as stifling to me. "But Alex you live in a city", yeah, a relatively small one and I live in the outskirts and only go to the busier city center when I need to for brief instances. I guess I could appreciate how the city was adjusted to all these various species of mammals, but outside of that creativity I just hated the setting for this movie. And I know that's 100% down to personal preference and me generally not liking big cities.

As for the rest, it's mostly fine. Like said before, I like the main characters but not the side ones. The mystery of the mammals case was executed fine but the ultimate conclusion of it I also don't vibe with. It ends up being yet another plot of a shitty twist villain. Which sucks because despite my gripes with the movie I was genuinely invested in the story and mystery. But then it's just a racist sheep who hasn't even been properly set up as a villain before. 

Also, the whole Chekov's gun with the berries was stupid. They just had to show the berries again during the climax despite them being established earlier, right? If they'd just been briefly established like that and then later revealed to be the fake night howlers in the gun, that'd be a good twist. But this random forced "oh we dropped our berries" took away any and all surprise that Nick got really shot by Bellwether. Just kinda lame.

So overall I do enjoy the movie. It looks great (though I don't like the setting) and the main characters have a good relationship, and the mystery (up until the final reveal and twist villain) is genuinely interesting. I just wish this movie was more polished because it could've been pretty dang good if it had been.