Joe Fedro ’18

Zootopia was a very capable movie. This animated movie, directed by Byron Howard, Rich Moore, and Jared Bush, experiences its action and adventure revolving around the main character Judy Hopps. Voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, Judy Hopps starts off as a small bunny with a big dream-to become a police officer in Zootopia. She faces adversity, as there has never been a rabbit police officer before. She graduates at the top of her class at the police academy before moving onto the promising city of Zootopia-where animals big and small, predator and prey, can all live in harmony.

Yet, it is in Zootopia where the Zootopia differentiates itself from other animated Disney movies. Zootopia presents the predators as the minorities and prey as the minority. But the terms “predator,” “prey,” “big,” and “small” relate to daily discriminations such as societies expectations regarding race and gender. Due to her sheltered childhood, Judy was discouraged of becoming a police officer since it was for “predators.” Judy works nonstop to prove that the minority can come on top. On her departure to Zootopia, her parents warn her about the dangers of the city. They generalize foxes and other predators as violent and sly savages. This plays out to be irony as the roles are eventually switched as Judy befriends a fox, and are unsuspectingly terrorized by a prey.

Perhaps the primary message of Zootopia is less directly about race, but more about living in tranquility while complementing each other’s strengths. In such a society, the populous is encouraged to pursue his or her passion as Judy did to better the individual and the society as a whole.