It was…good, better than I expected. All week classmates had been telling me how enjoyable this movie was. I probably saw the preview for this movie five times considering that’s how many times I went and sat through previews to see Star Wars.

Ok, so the movie starts and we’re given exposition right off the bat. It’s hard to give exposition without sounding annoying or bothering me, but the opening of the movie actually did just fine. Yes, the whole opening scene was somewhat unnecessary but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t entertaining.

The characters in this movie are great and  they really drive the action. They had good writing and great voice actors to portray them. Ginner Goodwin is someone who I’m unfamiliar with but she did a good job as the main character. Jason Bateman was also great but his voice did stick out a little. I kept thinking he was playing Michael Bluth and not a fox. Idris Elba as a grumpy police chief, stellar. Tommy Chong as a stoner nudist hippie, hilarious.

Ok, let’s get this Shakira thing out of the way now. Why is she in this movie? I was so thrown off guard when I heard her voice. All I said is, “why?” It’s just completely unnecessary.  Disney definitely just got her so they could get an Oscar nomination for best original song and it’s blatantly obvious. The song isn’t even good.

I love the environment this movie creates. Zootopia is a huge metropolis with many unique and cool features. It reminds me of something I’d imagine as a little kid and that’s why I loved it so much. It’s very creative with its 12 different climate zones and all the animals that live in each. it makes for a huge and exciting world that still has much to be explored.

So I’ll say a little bit about the story without spoiling it. First it was very predictable. I guessed the who the villain was half way through the movie. They also did a very poorly executed bait and switch. I won’t say what it is but you can see it coming a mile away. They had a funny reference to The Godfather which I liked and a reference to Breaking Bad which felt forced. The most common gripe I’ve seen by reviews and that I have read is the added character conflict between the second and third act. Our two main characters get in a fight for about five minutes and everyone is left wondering “omg, will they ever be friends again!?!?” It seems like movies follow a formula where they think they need a scene like that which is completely unneeded. Other than that it was very solid story.

Two themes that play a major role in the movie are prejudice and racism. Of course this is Disney’s attempt to comment on race issues in the real world. The movie states that predators are at a minority and only account for 10% of the population. The other 90%, or the prey become more and more weary of the predators as they begin to go “savage.” The movie handles the idea of racism fine enough without shoving it in your face. I guess all of the prey hate all the predators and pretty much everyone hates foxes, because at the beginning of the movie a fox was denied service just for being a fox.

Overall I liked this movie more than I thought I would. I went in very skeptical and was impressed. Disney made a very clever and somewhat adult movie. I give it a 7/10. If you haven’t yet, go see it.

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Jenny Slate as Bellweather