Stereotypes In The Movie Zootopia

Think about how America began, it was foreign individuals coming to escape previous hellish lives in their countries. When people began migrating to America the key dream was to start a new life and become what you wanted to pursue. The film Zootopia adopted the concept of early America in a sense of how they brought different species of animals together from a lion down to the smallest mouse, all working together to live up to their highest potential. Zootopia also had a key motto/dream of being whatever one wanted to be. Living that dream Judy Zootopia’s first rabbit police officer hops her way through the dangers of her first case with the help of a fox known for hustling. The film Zootopia was produced beautifully by using animals and their natural behaviors to help develop some
of the major characters. Behind the comedy and the mystery of the film, Zootopia touched base on life lessons that would stay in the mind of the audience and hopefully influenced actions. These were some of the few factors that helped make Zootopia the success it is today. The way animals naturally portray themselves and naturally symbolize a personality or way of life helped develop a few of the main characters. To begin, the two main characters were Judy the rabbit and Nick the fox, as many know rabbits and foxes don’t have a good history. The film hints at rabbits own experiences with foxes when Judy’s parents set up a whole bag of “fox repellent” equipment to keep her safe. Being the first Rabbit to be a part of Zootopia’s Z.P.D. (Zootopia police department), Judy’s parents brought these things together out of fear, since Judy is now venturing away from her calm country town to a big city. As Judy starts her first day she meets many ionic animal symbols that the director, Byron Howard, uses to base their position in the movie. For example, when walking into the Zootopia police department the room is filled with strong bulky animals that can clearly defend themselves through danger. This emphasized how small Judy really was, it made it clear to the audience why there was such great surprise a rabbit made it into a strong police force. With prior knowledge lions usually symbolize a king, as in this film the mayor was a lion, the animal that both predator and prey looked up to. In difference with the mayor she meets a tiger and the Mob Boss mouse did not represent their natural symbol, this helped show that animals did decide how they carried themselves in the metropolis of animals. A little further into the film Judy runs into a fox, this character was as a sneaky con artist hustling other animals to make money; ironically he became Judy’s partner, helping her solve her first job threatening case. The few examples of the characters that fit their natural symbol helped the Director develop a few of the leading characters. Along with the characters that did represent their natural symbol, the characters that didn’t helped on emphasizing motto and unity of Zootopia. Although, many people argue that this film was merely for children, the comedy and mystery caught the attention and interest on a wider range of audience. Given the fact that the majority of movies now and days have a comical appeal, Zootopia also shared with the audience life lessons. A major part of the film was unity, all different kinds of animal species predator and prey, big or small working together to make the city of Zootopia a place where anyone can be anything they wanted to be. Furthermore, Zootopia incorporates life lessons in the film. In the beginning of the film it emphasizes the determination Judy the rabbit had to go through while trying to reach her goal. There was a sequence of scenes showing the times she failed while training, although the scenes showed her failure they also showed how she became stronger and overcame her failures and succeeded. This part of the film taught the audience that even though you fail at first make that failure a motive for success, instead of giving up. As mentioned earlier the major idea for this film was unity. In order to have succeeded in unity all species of animals had to work together, predator and prey, putting aside stereotypes from the past. The stereotype played in this movie was the division on predator and prey, inferring that predators were savage and can still turn and live back to their savage ways, symbolizing with today’s racial and ethical stereotypes. Though many people argue that if the movie was really teaching a lesson on stereotypes why would the group of animals that classified as prey turn against predators once there is a suspicious outbreak on savage actions by predators.
The film shows that the pray was acting on pure instinct and fear, relying on survival mode because of the thought of predators tuning back into their old ways. Later on the film shows that it was all planned out and predators were targeted and infused with a chemical that can turn ANYONE into a savage. This taught that stereotypes are not always true, and that anyone can be evil or do harm, not only certain groups of people. Having these lessons in the film did not only make the film pleasing, it interested a wider audience, and left them with a positive example that can follow the audience through life. Zootopia succeeded not only through the great way director Byron Howard decided to develop the characters. Along with the comedy and mystery that generated the movie, the overall lesson taught wrapped up the movie beautifully. Touching the hearts of the audience, younger and older, giving them something to take with them on their future
endeavors.