'Zootopia' charms with sweet message, arresting visuals
Cats and dogs living together?
Without the mass hysteria predicted by Bill Murray in "Ghostbusters"?
Yes.
In Walt Disney's dazzling, sharply prescient animated comedy "Zootopia," felines and canines and lupines and bovines peacefully cohabitate in the same gleamingly futuristic, multicultural city.
This wild and comic political twist on "Animal Farm" works for both kids and adults as a reaffirmation of equal justice and opportunity while rejecting racial and gender stereotyping,
"Zootopia" wraps a Sunday school lesson in a mystery pumped with smartly observed jokes and dense, layered visuals, some that might require a couple of viewings just to absorb everything, such as hamster businessmen using clear, colored plastic tunnels to travel to work.
Or the "You want it when?" coffee mug on the desk of a sloth working at the DMV.
The main character in this engaging, eye-popping animated fantasy is Judy Hopps (delightfully voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), a rural bunny who early on develops a protective attitude toward the victims of a local bully, a fox!
Her parents - voiced by Don Sharp and Bonnie Hunt - operate a carrot farm. Despite her meager origins, Judy wants to become Zootopia's first rabbit cop and make the world a better place.
At the police academy, Judy struggles to prove herself amid disparaging comments and disapproving looks of the other cadets.
Finally accepted as Zootopia's first bunny with a badge (by J.K. Simmons' Mayor Lionheart), Judy is crushed that Captain Bogo (Idris Elba) will only give her parking ticket duty while the other cops get the best assignments.
So, Judy delivers the movie's "work ethic" message by becoming the best ticket issuer in the city.
A crime occurs and suspicion falls upon a predator, who must be guilty because, well, it's his nature as a predator, right?
Judy comes in on the case, and reluctantly partners with a smooth and crafty fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman, whose smirky mannerisms are hilariously employed by the animators).
Slowly, "Zootopia" slides into a neo-noiry mystery, something out of Toon Town from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" with a genetic science-fiction component that would be ridiculous in any movie not featuring talking animals.
Nick and Judy develop a begrudging trust, but she continues to carry a can of anti-fox spray, just in case. Remember, she grew up thinking foxes were all bullies. Will she be able to see beyond her own biases before the hoppy ending?
Directed with joyful verve by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, (and supervised by animator Nathan Engelhardt, a Barrington native) "Zootopia" offers an entertaining education in PC attitudes.
And the timing for this awareness-elevating story couldn't be better.
“Zootopia”
★ ★ ★ ★
Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, J.K. Simmons, Don Lake, Bonnie Hunt, Shakira, Tommmy Chong, Nate Torrence
Directed by: Byron Howard and Rich Moore
Other: A Walt Disney Pictures release. Rated PG. 108 minutes