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Zootopia

September 19th, 2016

"Everybody comes to Zootopia thinking they can be whatever they want to be, but they cant. You can only be what you are"- Nick Wilde the Fox

The movie Zootopia depicted social injustice and discrimination in a wonderful allegory that was light-hearted and humorous, yet contained deeper meanings. The beginning theme depicts a young Judy Hopper who explains the history of the world they live in today, a world where the "predators" once terrorized the "prey," but that the two groups now live in harmony. Judy has big dreams and a hunger to make a difference in the world. Her parents and peers tried to make her realize that she was dreaming too big, and that her future would best be spent in the small rural town she grew up in. Refusing to settle, she instead followed her dreams and finds herself 15 years later accomplishing her desire to become the first bunny police officer. She quickly discovers that Zootopia was not everything she thought it would be. It's messy, not everyone gets along, and people are not friendly--reminding me of a modern day big city.

A major theme that ties the world of Zootopia to the world in which we actually live is society's expectations, and how certain cultural groups are defined by a prescribed role that they're supposed to fill. Judy Hopper is a bunny, so she isn't supposed to be anything but meek and docile; she is the "prey," after all. Meanwhile, the "predators" are supposed to be feared, but never to truly be understood, since this would break with the roles that have been agreed upon.

If there's a troubling connection between the world of Zootopia and the real one, it's that there are entities in positions of power who would prefer to keep the roles and expectations exactly as they've always been. The powerful should stay powerful, and the downtrodden should remain downtrodden, by whatever means necessary. It recalls institutions such as Jim Crow or Apartheid, where rules were in place to ensure stability of the status quo.

If there is one overwhelming takeaway from Zootopia, it would be this: if we preach progress while institutions simultaneously make progress impossible, actual progress is impossible to achieve.