'Zootopia' animal world reflects human issues
Zootopia started off as an animated comedy about a city full of talking animals. Then it found a deeper side as a slightly subversive study on tolerance and diversity.
It might be a society full of all creatures great and small, but at the core of Disney's Zootopia (in theaters Friday) are very real-world human issues tackled by a plot that features rookie rabbit cop Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and fast-talking fox con artist Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman).
Putting two natural enemies from the wild in a contemporary story allowed directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore to build an animal metropolis where there is a social contract between all species, with predator and prey working together. When that balance is upset, the film explores the trouble and subtly weaves in racial profiling, stereotypes and preconceived notions of others in a creative way.
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In other words, maybe Judy and Nick can show us how we can all get along a little better.
The mantra of Zootopia — "Anyone can be anything!" — is something Judy subscribes to when she moves there from Bunnyburrow, yet finds the city stiflingly pigeonholing: Everybody makes it clear to her that she doesn't have the right stuff to be a cop because she's cute and small amid a precinct of big tough guys.
"All of the animals in this world, seemingly even outside of Zootopia, feel that they’re limited by their animal instincts," Goodwin says. "She feels there is a nature vs. nurture argument, and no one in her universe has ever thought that way. She feels that she can overcome the limitations imposed on her by her animal creation and make a difference."
Meanwhile, Nick is a cynical fellow who insists on espousing to Judy the idea that "we are who we are," Moore says. "I’m born a sly fox, you’re born a dumb bunny, that’s who you are. There’s no use trying to get out of those boxes that society’s put us into."
Though Howard acknowledges that the movie feels "weirdly timely," the deeper meanings within Zootopia "never came from a messaging standpoint. We never started with an intellectual idea or said, 'We’re going to push this political agenda.' "
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Instead it came about organically during the eight months of research into animal behavior, sociology and evolution.
One of the things that jumped out to Howard was the fact that 90% of mammals are prey animals and 10% are predators. They began imagining how these mammals might evolve if they simply put a history of violence behind them but also asked the question of what happens if that fear might still be present in some way.
"At watering holes, even though predators and prey don’t always get along, when they have stuff in common that they need, then everything chills out. Everyone behaves," Howard says. "That led us to some very interesting ideas and parallels with our own society."