Zootopia

2016

Directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore

Quick synopsis… In the all-animal city of Zootopia, Officer Judy Hopps, the first bunny on the police force, is determined to prove herself. That’s why she jumps at the chance to crack a case, even if it means partnering with scam-artist fox Nick Wilde to solve the mystery.

• Young Judy Hopps puts on a performance at a talent show depicting how predators and prey have evolved to a point where they can all live in harmony.
• Predators have moved beyond their primal urges and no longer hunt the smaller, weaker animals.
• Judy reveals that she wants to be a police officer when she grows up, but her parents want her to follow their footsteps and be a carrot farmer.
• But Judy finds a fox named Gideon picking on some of her friends, lambs, at the fair.
• She stands up for the sheep, and Gideon shoves her down and uses his claws to scratch her face.
• Judy still manages to get the sheep’s carnival tickets back and stands up, exclaiming she doesn’t know when to quit.
• As an adult, she’s determined to be the first rabbit to become a cop, making it through the Zootopia Police Academy.
• The mayor of Zootopia, a lion, makes a big deal about Officer Hopps graduating top of her class and assigns her to Precinct One in Zootopia.
• Judy’s whole family sees her off at the train station.
• This amounts to approximately 429 rabbits.
• The train takes its route through Zootopia’s different ecosystems, which is kind of fascinating.
• Judy’s excited for her first day and seems extremely out of place among the other officers, who are all huge.
• She’s disheartened to discover her first assignment is parking duty.
• Judy would much rather take on one of the many missing animal cases, but decides to do the meter maid deal to the best of her ability.
• While performing her duties, she notices a suspicious looking fox being shifty as he enters an elephant ice cream store.
• She follows him inside and discovers that the fox is just wanting to get a jumbo pop for his son.
• But the elephants are being discriminatory toward the smaller mammals.
• Judy hears this part and stands up for the foxes, even offering to buy the jumbo pop for the foxes.
• The fox is grateful and introduces himself to Officer Hopps as Nick Wilde.
• Not long after, Judy comes across Nick and his “son” melting down the giant popsicle and refreezing the juice into smaller popsicles that they sell for a profit in the tiny mammal part of town.
• Oh, and he sells the popsicle sticks as lumber to the tiny mammal construction workers.
• Judy follows and calls him out on it, but he’s ready for her and, being the clever fox that he is, pretty much has her life story pegged.
• Which causes a slight existential crisis for Officer Hopps.
• Judy continues working parking detail, which she’s still unhappy with, but is interrupted when a pig florist is robbed by a weasel.
• She’s in hot pursuit through the mouse borough and saves a mouse while shopping, arresting the weasel in the process.
• Chief Bogo yells at Judy for abandoning her post, but that meeting is interrupted by an otter who has repeatedly asked for help finding her missing husband.
• Judy volunteers to find Emmitt Otterton, but Bogo immediately fires Judy for insubordination.
• When he reopens his office door, he sees the assistant mayor, Bellwether, excited that Hopps has taken the case.
• Bogo has no choice but to give Judy the case, but gives her 48 hours.
• If she fails, she has to resign.
• Judy finds that the otter’s last known sighting was going to get a familiar popsicle.
• Nick Wilde was the last animal to see Emmitt before he disappeared.
• He’s less than helpful.
• But then she threatens to take him in for federal tax evasion unless he helps.
• The mystery deepens and then unravels and it’s actually a pretty hilarious movie.
• Pretty sure my favorite part is when they go to run a plate at the DMV.
• Those sloths crack me up.
• Everything gets pretty crazy and there’s a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top of Zootopia.
• Well… just below the top.
• But, again, being a movie that’s less than five years old, I won’t spoil the ending or the twist.

Thanks for coming along on this A to Z Challenge journey with me this month! Can’t say I enjoyed every single movie I watched for this year’s challenge, but most of them were worth the time spent. I think for next year’s challenge I’ll move away from movies and do something a little different. I’ve got 11 months to think about that, though. For now, I’ll just plan on getting back to my normal posts. Tomorrow I’ll get back to one of the writing challenges that folks left for me back in March. Saturday I’ll probably do an A to Z Challenge reflection. And then Sunday will be the usual Question of the Week. I hope you can keep finding something to enjoy here at The Confusing Middle!