Jillian English Blog Post #4

Zootopia

Disney is known for packing powerful messages into kid friendly films and Zootopia was no different. Zootopia follows an ambitious bunny named Judy with hopes to become the first bunny cop of the land. Zootopia is built around the idea that all animals, no matter the species, can live together harmoniously. At first glance this racial allegory seems to have the prey represent the minority groups and the predators as the majority, however I found out that it’s the opposite.  Judy Hopps enters the police force through the new “Mammal Inclusion Initiative” which very much favors affirmative action. However, later in the movie we find out that prey makes up 90% of the population dismissing my beliefs that the prey was in fact the minority group. As the story progresses, random predators around Zootopia turn “savage” due to injections from tractor juice. This is an allusion to the 1980s crack epidemic where an influx of crack in minority communities caused chaos. This epidemic kills the peaceful dynamic in Zootopia. One scene that really portray the prejudice is when Judy was on the train and a bunny pulled her kids away from the tiger that sat in the seat next to her. The mother was trying to protect her children while the tiger’s eyes showed how upset he was because he truly means ton harm. Also, even Judy herself is discriminatory, she tells the press that predators are naturally “savage”. I didn’t like the fact that the minority groups are considered the predators. I feel like this just reinforces the twisted ideas of the real world that minority naturally are more savage then their counterparts. However, I don’t believe Zootopia did this on purpose. They try to dismiss the claims that some animals are more savage then others, however on the allegorical side they are just simply reinforcing the idea that minority groups are the “savage” ones.  Overall, Zootopia highlights the different obstacles minorities overcome when integrating into a new society. Zootopia represents our natural instincts of judging based on looks and dirty rumors while trying to look past them to make a more peaceful society in the face of true ugliness.