Zootopia

Blog 4

The Disney movie Zootopia recently hit the theaters in 2016 causing many people to fall in love with the film, including myself. Disney is known for having the most educational messages for kids, but also makings it an enjoyable film to watch. In the movie Zootopia, the positive message that is being put out is equality. Recently, the world has had a bit of a black eye for equality, so Disney created the perfect movie to let kids know that everyone is equal no matter who you are. In the opening scene of the movie, the main character, Judy Hops, explains that back then there used to be a fine divide between predators and prey, but due to a society change, everyone is equal. The scene does a good job at portraying the whole breaking of the  stereotypes, and even throughout the film, for example, none of the animals had a category they were put into, they all lived in the same city and were viewed as just the type of animal they were. Also, another message that Zootopia gives out is that no matter how big your dreams are, you have to keep pushing until you reach them. The main character, Judy Hops the rabbit, has always wanted to be a cop her whole life, but everyone told her she couldn't because she was a rabbit. This is also portrayed in the first scene of the movie when her parents are telling her she should just sell carrots on their carrot farm with them, but then she told them no that the only job she wanted was to be a cop. That did not stop her from becoming what she wanted to be, and she worked so hard that she actually got accepted into be a cop.

Most people would think that there is no such thing as a negative message in a kids movie, but surprisingly, every kids movie has a flaw to it. Although the movie does a good job at breaking stereotypes, it could also send the wrong message that their are two different groups, minorities and majorities. In the movie, it quotes “only 10% of the population are predators, making prey the majority and predators the minority,” quotes one of the characters. Surprisingly, the makers of the film made the predators the minorities, which is a little ironic because one would thing the more powerful animals would be the majorities. This could be contradictory to a child, and even an adult, because it could send a weird message when the whole point of the story is to not create stereotypes.

In my opinion, I this this a great movie with an even better message to kids, and the message is that everyone is equal and there should not be any stereotypes. Anyone can be anything they want in life if they do not let people get to them, and if they work hard enough just like Judy Hops. The movie did a great job at portraying what the overall positive message was, and I think it was one of the most influential movies disney has ever made.  

First scene of the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNCDpTd_j3Y