Most Recent Disney Movie I Saw

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and fluffed it out to 31 entries (since December has 31 days).  I have done a 30-day challenge before for movies, though that one was poorly executed (I started it in the middle of a month, at one point I posted 2 entries on one day, it is a mess).  I did another one just this year in August on Video Games, that one was better, go read it after this one, all of it.  Or don’t, no pressure.

            Today is day 27 and the topic is “Most Recent Disney Movie I Saw”.

I think I used this image already this month.
Either way, good movie.

 “Zootopia” was a smash hit earlier this year and it was the last Disney movie—that is to say, Non-Marvel and Non-Star Wars—that I saw and it is going to be my movie of the year.  There are other movies that might have taken that if I had the time and drive to watch them, but I only have so much money.  Besides, I like “Zootopia” so much I think it is pretty secure on the pedestal.

I haven’t seen “Muana” yet.  I am sure I will like it when I get to it.  I live in an area where movie tickets are kind of overpriced.  Even a matinee with student rates only takes it down to 9 dollars.   Double what that would be in Tallahassee, my previous berg.  Not convenient.

Just for reference, I saw “Zootopia” on Netflix after twice trying to rent it and getting a bad disk.  Reason #2,000,000,000,000 that hard media is going to die out.  I actually saw this after seeing “Finding Dory”, which is also a good movie, go watch it too.

The Plot

The plot of the movie “Zootopia” goes as follows: Officer Hopps must enlist the help of a conman in her search for several missing people tied to mysterious incidents of violence.  Along the way she must face off against the lack of respect she gets from being the only small mammal on the police force.  Traditionally most of her comrades in blue are multi-ton weighing giant mammals like Rhinos and Water Buffalo, and there is an omnipresent air of discrimination as many feel she lacks the muscle to get things done.

Let’s just go ahead and try to outline the things I liked about the movie and give examples.

First Thing: It’s Funny

The movie has good humor, starting off with a children’s play emphasizing the sort of silly production values those usually have, coupled with a clear statement of the movie’s theme.  This is an excellent way to put forth exposition, you start off with a narration of the distant past, which turns into a modern day lesson on the past, the change of venue wakes up the audience and keeps them engaged.  Another movie that used this technique was “Serenity”, Joss Whedon’s swan song for the show “Firefly” which is simultaneously one of the best shows ever, and one of the most overrated now that its hypothetical greatness has been proselytized endlessly in nerd culture.  Getting off topic.

“Zootopia” moves from the school play to confrontations with systemic internalized prejudice, and external prejudice.  Pointing out these hang overs from prehistoric times of barbarism still hang around.  Thru practical example existing prejudices are shown after having the foundation explained, all flowing effortlessly into one another.  The movie even pokes fun at the idea of parents trying to discourage behavior they see as fruitless via what sociologists call, “The crab bucket mentality”, but these parents are still nice and positive people so they do not want to say “no” outright.

Parents, can't encourage bad ideas, but can't crush dreams.  A razor thin line to walk.

Stu: Judy, you ever wonder how your Mom and me got to be so darn happy?

Judy: Nope.

Stu: Well, we gave up on our dreams, and we settled.  Right, Bon?

Bonnie: Oh, yes.  That’s right, Stu, we settled hard.

Second Thing: It’s Exotic

The primary location of the story is a city divided to accommodate the numerous types of sentient animal contained within it.  The locations are vibrant and varied.  There is an area that is scaled up for large animals like Giraffes and Elephants and an entire micro-city for the mice and voles.  There are divisions for jungle, forest, tundra, desert, and the grand cityscape that blends elements in subtler ways.

Like the over world of a Nintendo game.

IT IS COOL.  And I thought going in that I would hate it as being too tortured a concept.  I imagined it being cheesy but the twisted logic of the setting has it make a great deal of sense.  This is the sort of—I won’t say “silly”—but “high-minded” consideration that I appreciate.

I hope this sort of thought is put into science fiction and fantasy projects Disney might make going forward—a Disney iteration of “Babylon 5” maybe—As the varied visuals add so much to the movie.  I like traditional fairy tales that take place in one environment type, but this is so different that it was refreshingly different.

Third Thing: It’s Exciting

“Zootopia” is primarily a mystery story.  There are missing animals, signs of violence, and a government conspiracy.  The unraveling of what is going on and why adds tension to the narrative, clues are dispensed at regular intervals so that the audience takes in and processes the information like the characters do.  You don’t feel cheated as you do with some mysteries that seemed to be holding back information.

Beyond mystery, there are chase scenes in the context of being a police officer, and it is some daring action.  Judy is a tiny little bunny, but she is so agile, fearless, and fast she manages to move almost like Spider-Man and in one memorable scene makes smart use of her movements to turn her opponent’s strength against him.

There is a neat little juxtaposition when she and a suspect (who is a weasel) fight in the micro-city of mice and voles.  She and the weasel are like Kaiju, compared to the tiny residents, knocking over multi story buildings.  While the rest of the time she has to get by fighting people much larger than her via escape, regroup, and counter attacking… you know, like a cop who is out gunned and getting back up.

Also, little known stereotype: Cops eat donuts.

Fourth Thing: It’s Paced

The script is rock solid in regards to unveiling information and character development.  Beyond the technical proficiency the SUPER complex racial and gender themes running thru this elevate it to that next level of story telling you always hope to see in a family movie.  I do not want to discuss specifics, it is a mystery film, so I am trying to be more general with the praise for this element, instead letting the examples in the other entries illustrate.

Fifth Thing: The Themes

I keep seeing people (morons) trying 1-1 comparisons of the material to real life, completely ignoring that the movie is not entirely about simple racial stereotypes applied to animals.

Applying straight 1-1 racial stereotypes to different species… say, making all the Hyenas black people, would have bad implications.  The closest they come to this is one scene in which a crime boss is portrayed as Italian.  And I have to ask, when it is a straight up reference/homage to “The Godfather” is it still racist?  Is “The Godfather” racist to Italian people?  Because at this point it is all a little weird, mostly because I am so tired of that movie being referenced.  Whatever.

My point is, that people are too hung up on RACE as the issue this movie hits on.  Race is there, no denying that, but these strawmen are missing another element: there are also a lot of gender issues too.  You don't see a lot of female officers on the police force in this movie.  I don’t actually remember any beside Judy, and she is forced into the role of meter maid.  There is some commentary going on there and it might be too subtle as it is not getting mentioned very often.

And Judy has some culture shock too.

But beyond that there are other forms of stereotyping that ascribe only to the animals in the setting.  Even between non-predatory species stereotypes and pre-conceptions exist as there is a big scene about how, "An elephant never forgets, man" even as that stereotype is not shown in action and completely subverted.

There is also a thing about the effects of drugs on a community?  I put a question mark because there are drugs, but they are inflicted, not voluntarily consumed.  So that message is a bit muddled.  There is also a “Breaking Bad” reference, though that almost felt out of place.

The whole thing is supposed to be allegorical, but not simplistically so.  It is supposed to make you think.  Unlike other racially charged projects of the past that I have talked about in this blog series.

No Numerical Position: My Only Identifiable Complaint

The only complaint I have is that the movie ends with a godawful Shakira song that has nothing to do with anything.  Would it have been too hard to license "Man in the Mirror"?  Or was that too obvious?  The movie is about discrimination and that is the quintessential song about discrimination and prejudice.  Like, right on the nose that is the obviously better song for this situation.  Whatever.

The Other Thing: Beg for Attention

            Share your own thoughts on this in the comments.  I know I am not the only person out there who is nostalgic for Disney products, and I am sure many people disagree with my selection for today’s entry. 

I picked Disney stuff just because I knew there was so much of it to talk about and it lends itself to discussion in the comments.  So tell me about the last Disney movie you saw.

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If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Favorite Disney Protagonist (Female)

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and fluffed it out to 31 entries (since December has 31 days).  I have done a 30-day challenge before for movies, though that one was poorly executed (I started it in the middle of a month, at one point I posted 2 entries on one day, it is a mess).  I did another one just this year in August on Video Games, that one was better, go read it after this one, all of it.  Or don’t, no pressure.

            I am already feeling the fatigue of writing these.  What day is it?

            Today is day 2 and the topic is “Favorite Female Protagonist”.

            Damn.

            I have two favorite female protagonists and I don’t really want to pick between them.  Because they are both amazing and they both have similar personalities, though their character arcs are both the same and different in interesting ways.  I am not making as much sense as I would like to.

Anyway, my picks are between Joy from “Inside Out” and Officer Judy Hopps from “Zootopia”.  Needless to say, I have been impressed with the recent output of Disney Studios.

I had to take two images and put them side by side.  Sounds simple.
Having to put those images together in PAINT?  Not fun.

Let’s look at each of them and then see if one wins out over the other.

Joy is a metaphysical construct representing a young girl’s ability to feel joy.  Joy is played by Amy Poehler—who kind of proved to me that I will never find true love because Leslie Knope is not a real person—and Joy is possessed of the energy Poehler has brought to all of her performances.

The plot of the movie “Inside Out” goes as follows: Joy and Sadness, two of the five governing emotions of the little girl Riley, are lost inside the mind of the little girl along with several core memories—this movie is deeply metaphysical in a strangely literal sense—these core memories and emotions are necessary for Riley to behave in a healthy and “normal” fashion.  Joy and Sadness must get back to the main control center of Riley’s mind before she does something rash or dangerous without her full spectrum of emotions and memories to guide her.

This movie will likely make another appearance this month.

Along the way the movie teaches a complex lesson on the nature of emotional complexity and how it is necessary to let yourself feel emotions along a spectrum, a blending of ideas that make you a deeper and more mature person.  Joy learns to understand and appreciate her role as part of that spectrum rather than the only emotion that matters.

It will also rip out your living guts and make you cry like a bitch.  It is also hilarious.

Officer Hopps is a young bunny from the country trying to make it in the big city as a police officer.  She is played by Ginnifer Goodwin whom you might know as Snow White from “Once Upon a Time”, but I only know her from muttering, “Who spells their child’s name like that?  Must be a Screen Actors’ Guild thing,” to myself while looking at imdb.

The plot of the movie “Zootopia” goes as follows: Officer Hopps must enlist the help of a conman in her search for several missing people tied to mysterious incidents of violence.  Along the way she must face off against the lack of respect she gets from being the only small mammal in a police force where most of her comrades are multi-ton weighing giant mammals like Rhinos and Water Buffalo who feel she lacks the muscle to get things done.

This movie will likely make another appearance this month.

Over the course of the movie she and the audience learn a complex lesson about bigotry in numerous forms.  Guising the whole thing behind animals allows them to touch on multiple issues without making any 1-to-1 racial stand ins, which would have instantly killed the movie’s value and turn it into racist trash.  Instead it deftly handles stereotyping and all of the characters see a larger more complex picture of society by the end.

This movie will also rip your guts out, but more with the sentiments of, “Aww… They’re friends! … Why am I so happy about this?”

Can you see the tension I have in choosing between the two?  One deals with coming to terms with yourself as part of a system, the other deals with coming to terms with yourself as part of a system.  Albeit one system is a healthy growing mind and the other is a complex multi-ethnic city, but it is still about finding one’s part in it.

I guess if I had to pick one, I will have to go with Officer Judy Hopps.  I wanted to be a police officer growing up so I understand that drive, and I fully understand not enjoying it once I got to be one.  I can’t really identify with Joy as much as I am not a metaphor, so even though I like the character, the existential nature of her keeps me from seeing her as superior.

These movies are also buddy comedies with two strongly contrasting leads.
Judy and Joy are the main protagonists of each.

I should also point out something you would not expect.  I did not do movie reviews for movies I saw in 2015 this year, I was burnt out and feeling on the ropes so I just let the whole thing slide, and I probably won’t do them for 2016 either.  With that in mind, “Inside Out” was my favorite movie of 2015 and “Zootopia” is probably going to be my number one for 2016.  So take that to whatever opinion bank you use.

I would also like to note the original prompt for today was “Prettiest Disney Princess”.  So, I shit canned that crap immediately.

 

Although if you want to read a lame article on the subject, here is one from the nadir-of-human-sexuality, Cosmopolitan.
The format of this thing makes me want to slap the editor.  You don't start a ranked list on the #1 slot.
Has VH-1 taught you nothing?  YOU COUNT DOWN TO THE #1!  Idiots.

            Share your own thoughts on this in the comments.  I know I am not the only person out there who is nostalgic for Disney products, and I am sure many people disagree with my selection for today’s entry.  There are probably people who would prefer me to talk about who I think the prettiest princess is, those people are odd but they probably think I would be funny about the whole thing… I hope, I can’t otherwise imagine why they would want me to rate the bang-ability of Disney Princesses.

I picked Disney stuff just because I knew there was so much of it to talk about and it lends itself to discussion in the comments.  So please, tell me how my opinion about cartoon movies is biased and how your opinion on cartoon movies is objectively right.  Who is your favorite female protagonist in Disney?

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If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.