Zootopia (2016)

In a city of anthropomorphic animals, a fugitive con artist fox and a rookie bunny cop must work together to uncover a conspiracy.

Directed:

Byron Howard
Rich Moore
Jared Bush

Produced:

Clark Spencer

Story:

Byron Howard
Rich Moore
Jared Bush

Starring:

Ginnifer Goodwin
Jason Bateman

Review:

In a world populated by various anthropomorphic animal species, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) is an idealistic rabbit from Bunnyburrow who fulfills her dream of joining the police force of the mammal metropolis of Zootopia. She passes her difficult training and is introduced to the city as Zootopia Police Department's latest recruit by Mayor Leodore Lionheart (J.K. Simmons) and assigned to the ZPD's 1st Precinct. Unfortunately, Judy is relegated by Police Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) to parking duty. Although she operates zealously to prove herself, she is manipulated and humiliated by Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a small time fox con artist.

The next day, Judy impulsively joins the chase of Duke Wealseton (Alan Tudyk), which takes her through Little Rodentia where she successfully captures the criminal. However, Captain Bogo reprimands her for overstepping her authority and public endangerment in order to capture a thief with plant bulbs. Furthermore, when a distraught Mrs. Otterton (Octavia Spencer) pleads for help finding her husband, one of many recent disappearances in the city, Judy's impulsively insubordinate offer to help her nearly gets her terminated by Bogo except for the timely support of Deputy Mayor Dawn Bellweather (Jenny Slate).

Agreeing that she would resign if she does not solve the case within 48 hours, Judy tracks down her only lead, Nick, and coerces him to help lest he be charged with tax evasion. Nick sullenly assists her while passively resisting to frustratingly prolong the investigation. However, Judy is able to manipulate him to investigate an enclosed compound with probable cause. However, the needed vehicle they find is the property of the crime boss Mr. Big (Maurice LaMarche) and his polar bear enforcers promptly capture them while they are in Tundratown. Judy and Nick are nearly killed for trespassing, but are saved by Mr. Big's daughter Fru Fru (Leah Latham) who was rescued earlier by Judy during the chase of Duke. Mr. Big explains that Mr. Otterton is his florist who urgently requested to speak with him. However, when his chauffeur Manchas (Jesse Corti) went to deliver him, Mr. Otterton apparently went savage en route (His personality reverted to the basic non-sapient animal instincts of his species). At that incident, Mr. Otterton went missing and Manchas was traumatized.

Hopps and Wilde go to interview Manchas at his home, but the only information they get is the term "Night Howlers," before Manchas turns savage. Pursued by the panther, the pair are barely able to handcuff him and escape being killed in the incident. Unfortunately, when ZPD backup arrives, Manchas is nowhere to be found. Chief Bogo orders Hopps to surrender her badge for this apparent false alarm, but Nick Wilde successfully stands up to him with the observation that Hopps still has 10 hours remaining to solve the case in a wager that was unreasonable to impose in the first place.

Accepting Hopps' thanks, Wilde explains he recognized her situation from his own troubled youth where he was mercilessly bullied for being a fox by prey animals and resolved to live out the stereotype as defiance. Inspired by the idea of checking traffic surveillance footage, they consult Deputy Mayor Bellwether who helps identify Manchas' abductors, uniformed wolves, which Hopps concludes are the Night Howlers that Mr. Otterton was referring to.

The pair trace the location to a laboratory where all the people reported missing are being held and all of whom have turned savage. As they investigate, they spy Mayor Lionheart consulting with a doctor about the captives' condition and barely escape to take their evidence to the ZPD. Mayor Lionheart is thus arrested and the missing furries are detained, but Hopps' triumph is marred when, under the pressure of a media conference, she describes the situation as predators reverting to their natural instincts. Wilde is deeply offended by that generalization, which results in an argument that inadvertently seems to confirm Hopps' bigotry against him. Ashamed both at insulting Wilde and causing a wave of a species-based fear of the city's predator minority, Hopps resigns over the protests of Deputy Mayor Bellwether and Chief Bogo.

Back at her family's farm in Bunnyburrow, Hopps learns that night howlers are actually flowers that have a severe psychotropic effect on furries. With this revelation, Hopps returns to Zootopia and apologizes to Wilde for her thoughtlessness, for which Wilde gladly forgives her. Together, they learn from Duke Weasleton that he was collecting night howlers for a laboratory. They find the lab and learn that the plants are being used by certain sheep to create a serum that is then deliberately injected into select predators through dart guns. The pair attempt to get their evidence to the Zootopia Police Department, but are destructively pursued by the rams until they meet Deputy Mayor Bellwether just short of Police headquarters.

Bellwether demands the evidence, but the pair realize that she is the mastermind of the conspiracy and flee. They are eventually captured and are thrown into a pit where Wilde is darted by Bellwether to make him turn savage and kill Hopps for refusing to cooperate in her species-supremacist scheme to dominate the city, while Bellwether summons the police to ensure Wilde would be subsequently captured to further stoke species-based fear in the city. However, when Bellwether openly admits that plan to the pair, the pair end their pretense and reveal they changed the ammunition of Deputy Mayor Bellwhether's dart gun for a harmless blueberry to maneuver her into a confession. When Bellwether defiantly threatens to frame them like she did to Mayor Lionheart, the pair reveal their audio recording of her words, just as the summoned police arrive. With Deputy Mayor Bellwether's guilt exposed, she is swiftly arrested by the Zootopia Police Department.

Months later with Hopps reinstated into the ZPD, Bellwether and her minions imprisoned and the missing furries successfully treated of their poisonings, Chief Bogo is pleased to espouse her tempered ideals for a graduating class of police cadets. That class includes Wilde, inspired by his friend's faith in him to become the ZPD's first fox officer and Judy's new partner.