Zootopia

I applied leave until today as the initial plan was for my mum and sis to spend additional night in Singapore. They changed their plan but I am too lazy to work. Yep, call me an idiot for 'wasting' a leave day just to do nothing. I guess I am really sick of work as usually I will not take leave even when I take a late flight which arrive past midnight here.

I went to see my skin doctor and I was surprised when she said that everything seemed to be on track. Wow.. I thought my face worsened because of the weather in Australia. Well I am not gonna complain with a 6-month TCU and that will save me money.

When I saw the Door of Mercy thingy in St Mary's Cathedral last week, I was not too bothered about what the whole thing is all about. I guess I was just being a hypocrite because in the end I still wanted to go to confession just for the indulgence. Bleah.. Terrible me right? So yeah in the end I went to Risen Christ in the morning. I was surprised with the crowd!! I think it took me longer than usually when I go in the evening.

I want to watch Gods of Egypt and I am very surprised that it is already not showing in many cinemas. The movie is only about 2 weeks old leh!! I end up watching Zootopia and hell yeah, it is as great as what the reviews say. With the lack of singing, I don't really get a feeling that this is a Disney's movie. Lol.

As a word play from utopia, Zootopia represents a utopia for various species of animals to be living harmoniously together. This is possible as the animals have evolved enough to overcome their savage-ness. The main character is a rabbit who aims to be a police officer -a job considered not suitable for a rabbit because of its small size. Judy Hopps overcomes all obstacles to become the best cadet in her cohort and finally joins Zootopia police department. Hoping to be a police who makes a difference, Judy is disappointed to be assigned to trafifc duties. When an otter comes for help to look for her missing husband, Judy volunteers herself to solve the case so that she no longer does traffic duties. Seen as a sign of insubordination, Judy is given 48 hours to solve the case or else she has to quit her job. The missing animal case turns out to be just a small part from a large sinister plot for "prey" animals to get rid of the "predators" from Zootopia.

Zootopia is excellent and very well thought off. First thing that blows my mind is the design of the city to cater to a lot of animals: from the big, the small, the tall, the short, the fat, etc. They make the animals do human things like taking subways, going to work, going to restaurang, etc without being lame. The character designs and personalities are believable and like-able too.

However, what really sets apart Zootopia is the theme. I will not say the plot as the story is kinda straight forward but when you replace the animals with humans, the underlying theme of discrimination is really striking. Zootopia is like a metropolitan melting pot city where different species (think about races, nationalities, or religions if we are talking about humans) live together. However, outside Zootopia, there are still other places like Bunnyburrow where Judy comes from and from its name, only bunnies live there. Despite having overcome their savage-ness and the animals are not eating one another, discrimination (like bunnies should not be police officers) and biasness (like foxes cannot be honest) still exist. That perfectly reflects human society: we can live harmoniously on the surface but each of us still holds some prejudices to people who are not like us. And despite everything is peaceful, there will always be some jerks who go back to follow their animal instinct and create trouble.

Zootopia will not be as good without the humour as well. If you have a good laugh, admit that you are a racist. A lot of of the jokes are playing on the stereotypes of the different animals. So think of the animals in Zootopia as humans in real life and that means we are laughing at our racist jokes. However, there is one funny part which is not playing on this stereotyping. That is the part of the nudist club. Animals don't wear clothes. We are not bothered with naked or half-clothed cartoon characters. Therefore, I was surprised that I felt uncomfortable seeing the naked animals in the nudist club. Lol.. Of course the action they do are exaggerated and if you think of the animals here as humans, it is very uncomfortable. Haha..

Compared to the last few Disney's movies I watched such as Wreck-it Ralph, Frozen, or Big Hero 6, Zootopia is definite juggernaut with both the entertainment as well as moral values. It is worth watching, it is worth watching repeatedly, it is worth buying the soft toys BUT, in my honest opinion, it is not as memorable as Frozen. Why? Because Disney's movie does not feel Disney without songs and Zootopia only has 1 song :( I had a high expectations as Shakira sings the theme song but the song is nothing compared to let it go~~~~