I was right.
For my birthday, I went on a Disney Cruise. And as is customary, Disney was playing its latest movies in the theaters. My parents finally got to see Star Wars and then on my birthday, we all went to see Zootopia in 3-D in the Walt Disney Theater.
And it was amazing.
Beware SPOILERS!
We are introduced to the set up of Zootopia via a school play. Long ago, animals were divided into predator and prey. But over centuries, they evolved until they were bipedal and could talk. Predators suppressed their savage instincts and began to live peacefully with predators. And the crown jewel of their civilization is Zootopia, a place where animals can be whatever they want.
And Judy Hopps (Della Saba) wants to be the first rabbit police officer.
Her parents, Stu and Bonnie (Don Lake and Bonnie Hunt), try to dissuade her. In a surprising move for a Disney movie, they tell her to dream but not to follow it. To just settle and be content with farming like the rest of her family. Judy, though, is determined. And not even a scuffle with local bully Gideon Gray (Phil Johnston is the only voice listed, so he may have done both young and adult Gideon) can deter her. It just makes her more determined to prove that prey can do anything predators can do.
Despite all the evolution these animals have done, presumably in the absence of humans, their society is still divided between predators and prey. This is important to the movie.
Fifteen years later, Judy (now voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) makes her dream come true. She is the first bunny to graduate from the Zootopia Police Academy and she is the valedictorian. Mayor Lionheart (J.K. Simmons) and his assistant, Dawn Bellwether (Jenny Slate), support her and assign her to Zootopia’s main precinct. Judy says goodbye to her parents, who give her gear to ward off foxes, and heads to the big city.
She moves into a hole-in-the-wall apartment with loud neighbors and begins her new job. Judy meets Clawhauser (Nate Torrence), the cheetah officer who works dispatch at the ZPD. He’s a pleasant officer who loves donuts and points Judy in the direction of the bullpen. There, she meets her boss—Chief Bogo (Idris Elba)—and gets her first assignment. Despite there being several open missing animal cases, Judy is assigned to parking duty. She tries to get a better assignment but it’s clear that Bogo is less than thrilled to be stuck with her. He tells her to hand out 100 tickets before noon to impress him and she vows to give out 200.
Judy reaches her goal when she spots a fox. He walks into an ice cream shop for elephants and she follows, suspicious. One of the elephant workers refuse service to him, even though the fox pleads with him to give his son an ice pop because his boy just wants to be an elephant. Judy is moved and notes the different violations she spots. When the fox doesn’t have any money, she pays for him and sends father and son on their way. Judy feels like she’s making a difference, just like she always wanted to.
However, she later spots father and son melting down the popsicle and pouring the juice into containers. They load them into a truck…which the son drives. She follows it, watching as they use the juice to make their own set of smaller popsicles. The fox then sells them to gerbils or hamsters as they leave for the day. The sticks are recycled and sold to a mouse construction crew. “Father” and “son” split the profits and go their separate ways.
Judy stops the fox and learns his name is Nicholas P. Wilde (Jason Bateman) and she tries to bust him. But he points out that nothing he’s doing is technically illegal, so she can just go back to issuing parking tickets. He tells her that her dream about being able to do anything is just that…a dream. She’ll never be anything but a meter maid.
Dejected, Judy heads home and talks with her parents. You just want to give her a hug at this point.
The next day, Judy is now facing the downside to being on parking duty—everyone yelling at her. She climbs into her car and is ready for a carrot martini, I imagine. Someone breezes by her and a shopkeeper tells her he’s just been robbed. Judy tells him to call it in and pursues the thief.
What follows is a great chase sequence, where the weasel disappears into the mouse section of the city. So it’s like a monster fight sequence between a weasel and a rabbit. Judy rescues a mouse from being crushed by a donut and uses it to capture the weasel. She brings him in, exuberant.
Bogo, though, is less than thrilled. He says she left her post, nearly caused a stampede and rattles off a few things. Judy’s like “But I got him” and Bogo’s like “He was carrying onions.” She corrects him but he’s not in the mood. He didn’t want Judy in the first place and now he seems to have the chance to get rid of her.
And then in storms Mrs. Otterton (Octavia Spencer). She pleads with Bogo to find her husband, who has been missing almost two weeks. All she wants is for him to come home. Bogo tries to tell her that they are doing everything they can but she wants someone to try to find him. So Judy volunteers to do it. Mrs. Otterton is pleased and hugs her before Bogo ushers the otter out of his office.
He rounds on Judy and tells her she will not be investigating the case. He orders her to go outside and tell Mrs. Otterton that there was a mistake. Judy refuses so Bogo begins to fire her. But Bellwether shows up at the right time, pleased that Judy is being given such a great case. Bogo is trapped, so he gives her forty-eight hours to solve the case or Judy resigns. She accepts.
Clawhauser gives her the case file which…isn’t much. But she does find a lead. And it’s Nick, her new fox friend. She finds him and reveals that she could book him on felony tax evasion. And it turns out she recorded him admitting it thanks to the recorder in her cute carrot pen. She says she’ll give him the recording if he helps her with her case. Nick’s accomplice Finnick (Tom Lister, Jr.) heads off, laughing at the fact Nick is now helping the police.
Nick brings Judy to one of the last places Otterton was seen—which turns out to be a naturalist facility. Meaning, it’s a place where animals go to be nude and one with nature. Otterton took a class with Nangi (Gita Reddy), an elephant yoga instructor, but she doesn’t recall him. The owner, Yax (Tommy Chung), does though and provides Judy with a lot of clues. Including a license plate. But since Judy hasn’t been set up in ZPD’s system, she can’t run it herself.
And so we come to the scene that was shown before The Force Awakens: Nick takes Judy to a friend of his at the DMV…which is staffed by only sloths. Every adult who has dealt with the DMV started howling at that one. Nick and Judy meet Flash (Raymon S. Persi), who agrees to run the plates for them. He is slow and during this, Nick decides to tell Flash a joke. I swear his reaction is probably already a really popular gif on the internet. In fact, I’m going to see if I can gif it. Anyway, he then turns and tells it to Priscilla. I’m only really mentioning this because Priscilla is voiced by Kristen Bell, who is well-known to be a BIG fan of sloths. If you didn’t know, google the video Dax Shepherd made when he surprised her with a visit from a sloth for her birthday a few years ago. It’s internet famous and amazing.
Flash finally gives them the information they need and when they leave…it’s night. Judy wonders if Nick did it on purpose since he knows she only has 48 hours but he protests that he didn’t. She drags him to where the car is registered and they find it locked up. She tricks Nick onto the property and uses it as a good cause to enter without a warrant.
They search the limo and Nick figures out who it belongs to. He tries to get Judy to leave but two big polar bears catch them and say they are taking them to Mr. Big. Nick reveals he has bad history with Mr. Big and Judy is like “Crap.”
In some backroom, Judy is introduced to Mr. Big (Maurice LaMarche)—a mouse Marlon Brando. He says that Nick was treated like family and then sold him a rug made from the fur of skunk’s butt. And now he was poking around a limo and Judy reveals she’s a cop, looking for information. Mr. Big orders them to be iced—which means being plunged into ice cold water.
But it’s also the day of Mr. Big’s daughter’s wedding. And Fru Fru (Leah Latham) is less than pleased with what her father is doing. She then recognizes Judy as the cop who rescued her from the donut and so the icing is called off. Nick and Judy are invited to the wedding instead.
Mr. Big reveals that Otterton was his florist and he had sent the limo to pick him up for final wedding consultations. Judy asks if he was snatched from the limo but Mr. Big reveals that Otterton went savage and attacked the driver. There’s even video proof. He gives them the driver’s name so they can ask him about it.
Judy and Nick go into the rainforest district to meet with the driver, Machas (Jesse Corti), a panther. He’s all scratched up and they are surprised that an otter did that. While he’s understandably nervous and mentions something about the nighthowlers, they convince him to answer some of their questions. But before they can get more answers, he goes savage and starts to attack them.
They run for their life as he pursues. Judy calls for backup but has to rely on Nick’s skills to save her life. They get to the skyway and seem to be safe as Bogo and the backup arrive. But when they go to where they left Manchas, he’s no longer there. Bogo asks Judy for her badge but Nick stands up for her. He points out that the chief gave Judy an unrealistic amount of time to solve a case his best detectives had yet to solve. She did a lot of work in that short amount of time and she still has ten hours left. Nick is confident she will solve it.
We then learn Nick’s backstory. All he wanted to be as a young fox was a junior ranger. His mother saved up and bought him a uniform. He went to his first meeting but apparently Zootopia’s junior rangers don’t believe in adult supervision. The other junior rangers gang up on Nick and muzzle him, saying they’d never let a predator near them without one. Humiliated, Nick ran away and promised to never let anyone see that they got to him. He also tells Judy that being a predator or a prey still matters and it’s foolish to think Zootopia is a perfect place. But he’s also coming to trust Judy.
As they leave the rainforest, they spot the traffic cameras that dot the city. They realize that they probably have clues and Judy remembers that she has a friend at city hall—Bellwether. She and Nick head over to see what she can do for them.
Bellwether herself admits she is more of a glorified secretary than deputy mayor, chosen only so Lionheart could get the prey vote. Her office is in the back of a storage unit and I’ll admit this is when I figured it out. But we’ll get to that. She gets them access to the traffic cameras and then goes off to tend to Lionheart’s emergency. Judy and Nick track the van until it gets to a creepy palace like building guarded by wolves. They figure they are the night howlers Manchas mentioned.
Judy and Nick go to the place and she starts a howl, letting them sneak past the guards. They manage to get their way to a room filled with cells, which they soon learn are filled with the missing animals. All have reverted to their primitive state—in essence, they have gone “savage.” They hear voices and hide in an empty cell.
Lionheart and a doctor enter. The doctor (Katie Lowes) tells the mayor that she can’t figure out what’s going on but that the only thing she does know is that it’s only happening to predators. She begs the mayor to go public so everyone can protect themselves. Lionheart doesn’t think it’s wise, especially since he’s a predator and is afraid everyone will turn on him. He orders the doctor to find out the cause and fast. Judy records the whole thing.
Just as it seems Judy and Nick are in the clear, her parents try to Facetime with her. The sound alerts Lionheart and the doctor to their presence and they lock the facility down. Trapped, Judy sees only one way out—the toilet. She asks Nick if he can swim as she puts her phone in a ziplock baggie. (Which I loved!) They make it out, somehow surviving a fall over a waterfall.
(Cartoon logic).
Bogo and the ZPD respond, busting Lionheart and rescuing the missing animals. Judy is hailed as a hero as Bellwether becomes the next mayor once Lionheart is thrown in jail. However, no one has any answers as to what exactly happened to the animals. When Judy gives a press conference, she harps on the doctor’s belief that it was biological and that predators may be reverting to their primitive state. As Nick listens to this, he recalls his time being muzzled and the hatred of the other animals because he was a predator.
Judy finishes the press conference and goes to talk to Nick. He tells her that she’s just made all predators targets, including him. She says the public needs to protect themselves. He asks if she needs to be protected from him. He gets so worked up that when he approaches her, she reaches for her fox repellant out of instinct. It gives him his answer and he walks off. Before the conference, Judy had given him an application for the police academy and asked him to be her partner. He leaves the filled out application behind. She’s heartbroken.
Things get worse in Zootopia as paranoia takes over. Predators are discriminated against and the prey treat them as if they could go savage at any time. And some still do, which only adds to the fear. As a panicked pig (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin’s husband Josh Dallas) asks her what are they going to do and as pop singer Giselle (Shakira) tries to get everyone to be peaceful, Judy finds herself lost.
Bellwether and Bogo decide to make her the new face of the ZPD but Judy doesn’t feel honored. She explains she became a cop to protect and serve, but all she’s done is create chaos and fear. So she turns in her badge and leaves Zootopia.
Judy returns to her hometown and works at her parents’ produce stand. While they are happy she’s safe and home, they are worried about her. She says they were right—she should’ve just settled and not chased her dreams because she only made things worse. Her parents say she didn’t and reveal they now work with Gideon Gray, who is one of the best bakers in town. This surprises Judy.
Gideon comes to drop off some pies and apologizes to Judy for how he treated her when they were children. She forgives him as her father warns the children to be careful around the plants he has to keep the scavengers away. Gideon says they call them nighthowlers and Bonnie recalls that her cousin went crazy after accidentally ingesting one. Judy puts everything together and heads back to Zootopia.
She tracks down Finnick and gets him to reveal where Nick is living. Turns out that it’s under a bridge. Judy finds him and gives him a tearful apology, saying she was a horrible friend and just a dumb bunny. Nick records it on the pen she gave him and says he’ll give it back once they figure out who is turning everyone savage.
They track down Duke Weaselton (Alan Tudyk, the name a nod to his Frozen character) and demand to know why he stole the Nighthowlers. He refuses to talk so they get some help from Mr. Big, who is now going to be a grandfather. Fru Fru asks Judy to be the baby’s godmother and she accepts. Hanging over the ice, Weaselton admits he sold the Nighthowlers to Doug, who hangs out in an abandoned subway station.
When they enter an old subway car, it’s a scene from Breaking Bad in there. Except Doug (Rich Moore) is growing Nighthowlers instead of making meth. Judy and Nick hide and watch as he distills the juice of the nighthowlers into pellets. He has a gun and they spot pictures of all the predators who have gone savage. Doug gets a call with his next target and agrees to go.
Judy and Nick accidentally make their presence known and a fight ensues. They manage to lock Doug out and Judy puts the subway car in motion. Nick wants to take the gun and pellets to the ZPD as proof but Judy goes bigger—she wants to bring the entire lab in as evidence. But Doug manages to get back in and the fight continues. It ends with everyone abandoning the subway car as it explodes.
However, Nick’s managed to snag the gun and pellets. He and Judy go through the National History museum in order to get to the ZPD. They are almost home free when the real mastermind is revealed—Mayor Bellwether! As I said, I figured this out halfway through the movie but I’m sure it’s a twist some people weren’t expecting. She has goons with her and they pursue Nick and Judy.
Judy gets injured by Nick refuses to leave her. He tries to carry her and in the process, drops the gun. They take refuge in one exhibit but Doug shoots Nick with the nighthowler pellet. Despite Judy’s pleading, Nick goes savage and starts to attack her as Bellwether explains her plan: Pretty much, she feels the control the predators have is unfair since prey makes up the majority of the population. So she hoped to make everyone so afraid, the prey could take over and Bellwether got the power.
Nick and Judy reveal that they were just acting. He had switched the pellets with blueberries Judy had from her parents’ farm. And they recorded Bellwether’s confession. With that, she is put in prison and the panic ends. Doctors can make a treatment to counteract the effect of the Nighthowlers, turning Mr. Otterton back and letting him reunite with his wife.
Nick graduates from the police academy and becomes Judy’s new partner. They are given good assignments and end the movie by catching a notorious drag racer—Flash the Sloth!
The movie ends with a Gazelle concert as “Try Everything” plays and the cast dances around. Except Bellwether.
I enjoyed this movie and was glad it lived up to its hype. In true Disney form, it will entertain the children but it has something for the adults. There are a lot of important messages that are relevant to today’s society, especially in terms of race, gender identity, sexuality or any other way we may discriminate against each other.
So I definitely encourage everyone to go see it. You won’t be disappointed.
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