The year 2016 will be known for a number of things – an inordinate amount of celebrity deaths and an equally inordinate amount of lackluster movies. Are these two correlated? I’m not convinced its’ not. Anyway, here is my list of movies I watched this year that was released in 2016. It’s not been a good one.
Plot: In a city of anthropomorphic animals, a rookie bunny cop and a cynical con artist fox must work together to uncover a conspiracy.
Rating: 8/10
I was coerced into watching Disney’s powerhouse film, and I really loved it. It seems that animation is everywhere these days, and you know how I feel about that. I’ve already seen Hotel Transylvania 2 this year and Finding Dory, which exceeds my limit of one movie.
Anyway, Zootopia is actually really damn cute. It has quite a clear message, they weren’t trying to give you any subliminal messaging here. I think that this film would appeal to very small children, because even though a movie like Inside Out appeals to grownups, it is generally over the younger audience’s head.
Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) is an inspiring little bunny, no doubt about that. She is determined to be a cop, even though the other animals in her field are much larger and imposing. Her family, even though they really love her, believes it is a dangerous choice and that she won’t succeed, but that only makes her more determined. Her wheeling, dealing and investigating with Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) is funny and serves to provide some more lessons on how to just not be a silly racist and judge people by their stereotypes.
What else did I enjoy? You must be quite blind not to catch the Godfather reference – it was a scream and it was one of my favorite parts of the film. There is apparently a Breaking Bad reference in the film (I sadly haven’t watched the series yet), and I also really liked Gazelle, the very feisty springbok singer. Idris Elba as Chief Bogo was also hilarious – I loved how they made him exactly what you’d expect him to be.
There went a lot of detail into this film – make sure to check the cups and wall paintings everywhere – it is so well thought out. So much to mention, I won’t even be able to mention it in one post. The sloths annoyed me a bit – gosh I really loathe slow things and they were sloooww. That is basically the only thing that went awry in this film, and the ending was just a bit drawn out and lost the plot somewhat.
I had a great time with Zootopia. Be sure to remember though that it is a very basic animation (even though the visuals are incredible) – this is actually just a lovely story for the kids, and the adults who have the patience to sit through it.
Life of this city girl 