Zootopia

While normally the quality of films during this time of year are often less than desired--this being a 'dead zone' time of year, once in a while, we are handed a little gem so we can keep watching and hoping that there will be more gems to follow. One such gem is "Zootopia", where I got a lot for than I bargained for.

From the largest elephant to the smallest shrew, the city of Zootopia is a mammal metropolis where various animals live and thrive. When Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) becomes the first rabbit to join the police force--the ZPD, it being her life dream, she quickly learns how tough it is to enforce the law. Determined to prove herself, Judy jumps at the opportunity to solve a mysterious case, much to the chagrin of Chief Bogo (Idris Elba). Unfortunately, since her street smarts are incredibly limited, she must work with Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a wily, street smart fox who makes her job even more difficult, especially since she has only 48 hours in which to solve this case or loses her position on the force. Can she solve the case using Nick's assistance, or will Nick cause her to throw in the towel?

Others to round out the cast are Jenny Slate as Bellwether, Nate Torrence as Clawhauser, Bonnie Hunt as Bonnie Hopps, Judy's mom, Don Lake as Stu Hopps, Judy's dad, Tommy Chong as Yax, J.K. Simmons as Mayor Lionheart, Octavia Spencer as Mrs. Otterton, Alan Tudyk as Duke Weaselton, Shakira as Gazelle, Raymond S. Persi as Flash, Della Saba as Young Hopps, Maurice LaMarche as Mr. Big and Phil Johnston as Gideon Grey.

This was deftly directed by relative newcomers to feature films, Byron Howard ("Bolt" '08, "Tangled" '10) plus shorts and Rich Moore ("Wreck-It Ralph" '12).plus TV. The staging and pacing in this was executed with amazing delineation and the fluidity of continuity was unsurpassed. The writing by Jared Bush and Phil Johnston was equally well executed. Bush has a ton of TV to his credit whereas Johnston has that and a number of screenplays to his credit as well. Truly their well-orchestrated script wouldn't be the script it was if it wasn't for Howard, Bush, Moore, Johnston, Jennifer Lee, Josie Trinidad and Jim Reardon having the insightful story idea in which the screenplay is based. The continuity, cohesiveness, and well thought out story was not only creative, but had an awesome message that all needs to witness.
Certainly, knowing that Disney Studios, being the company that produced this, created this caused me to be quite leery of seeing this because the studio is simply part of that Hollywood machine into marketing a product to death so as to make a ton of bucks, but with all objectivity, this film soared on so many levels. Hey I went into the theater hoping to catch errors, and left finding none. Kudos to Disney Animation Studios! Jason Bateman's role as Nick simply stills the show.

Honestly, if you're into animated flicks, you'll be in animation heaven, but even if you're not, this is still entertaining and carries an amazing message that all can learn from--whether one is old or young, male or female, any race. Enjoy!

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                      Rated: PG                                   108mins.