Interesting read. I can't wait to see the film and find out if the reviewer is reading into things or not.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonwillmore/zootopia-is-a-disney-movie-about-racial-biases#.hbevmv8vG
It’s a world in which race does not exist. But
species certainly do, and they provide a fuzzier, cuddlier way for
Zootopia to get at some thorny issues of prejudice and profiling. On a broad, kid-friendly scale, the movie does this through the developing of Judy and Nick’s cross-species friendship and how they overcome the assumptions placed on them and that they hold for each other — a story about acceptance and the damage caused by prejudgments. But
Zootopia is filled with more specific references that signal its aims unmissably to older viewers, from the moment Judy, who becomes the first rabbit to graduate from the police academy courtesy of a “mammal inclusion initiative,” firmly informs someone that “a bunny can call another bunny ‘cute,’” but that it’s really not OK for other animals to do it.
It’s torn between classic animated film instincts and more urgent ones. No one gets killed by a cop in
Zootopia, but the city becomes gripped with police-incited paranoia about the predator minority, overcome with suspicion that they really are inherently more dangerous, a population that can’t be trusted and that everyone else needs to be protected from. There’s a scene in which one character instinctively flinches from another, and, for a small moment, it’s a shocking betrayal. Zootopia is a place where anyone can be anything, as Judy idealistically trumpets, except when you’re reminded that everyone’s already assigned you qualities based on what species you were born as.
