Movie review: 'Zootropolis'

Kavish Chetty is enchanted by this visually stimulating film which is a furry fable depicting our troubled times.

Zootropolis is a world where humans never happened, and animals have long since evolved beyond the primordial antagonism of "predator and prey". Left to their own devices over the years the animals, with front-facing eyes and walking on two legs, have carved out a space for themselves in the cosmic order resembling nothing so much as our very own Western civilisation.

It's all here, from the bucolic farmlands with lime-green fields stretching across the horizon, to the metropolitan skyscrapers and industrial economies. This upright menagerie - with its bat-eared foxes, slow-tongued sloths and lumbering bears all living in relative harmony - was clearly created in the image of man.

The movie opens with a splendid mini-tour ofZootropolis as our heroine, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), an ambitious bunny no taller than a glass of milk, heads into the city to train at the police academy and defy expectations by becoming the first ever rabbit cop. From her vantage point, peering out of the train window, we see the sprawling empire of Zootropolis, an artificial kingdom, looking like an epic complex of Disney theme parks.

We pass over the sand-crusted desert biome, whirr past an arctic stretch buried in ice-cream scoops of snow, and, finally, rumble into the asphalt jungle of law courts, parking meters and modern life. Zootropolis is a richly imagined alternate universe, bursting with bright colours and crammed with interesting details.

It's also a place where many believe that "anyone can be anything", a land of opportunity, a stand-in for the yearnings of an egalitarian, multicultural America. But as Judy will discover, achieving your goals can often mean standing up to an unending stream of micro-aggressions, and the prejudice of those who have already made their minds up about who you are.

As a bunny, her reputation precedes her: timid, tiny, carrot-crunching, and good for little more than a "What's up, Doc?" In this sense, Zootropolis is a parable of personal resistance, featuring hors d'oeuvre-sized insights into the great social questions of racial and gender equality that are becoming increasingly urgent.

Judy gets the chance to prove herself when she accepts a missing persons case and is given 48 hours to finish the job. Teaming up with a streetwise fox con-artist named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), the two begin sleuthing through the shadowy side of Zootropolis, and this animated caper takes on the satiric shape of such classic neo-noir adventures as Chinatown and Los Angeles-style screwball detective thrillers like Inherent Vice.

As the pair follow the trail deeper, they encounter all sorts of amusing co-stars, like the Cape buffalo Chief Bogo (Idris Elba), a gazelle pop star (Shakira), and a chilled-out yak (Tommy Chong) who runs a naturist club called Mystic Springs Oasis.

Zootropolis is a growling, meowing, visually exciting production from Disney and one of its main pleasures is to be found simply in the expressiveness of the characters' bodies. Judy's ears are like emotional antennae which prick up and fold back to represent her inner feelings, and Wilde's vulpine face registers a whole comic repertoire communicated through his bushy eyebrows and sly snout.

Zootropolis is packed with great cinematic references and in-jokes, and at the heart of all the Disneyfied drama is a "you can do it" lesson for kids.

Rating: 4/5