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I’m watching zootopia for the second time and I’m seeing so much more social justice nuance. I’m gonna live blog it

First I know that TONS of people have already pointed this out, but I’m distinctly uncomfortable with the POC as predators narrative. I get how it works for this story and environment and how it’s a great metaphor for children beginning to learn about social inequality.

But in America tbh, a more accurate metaphor would be if the predators used the prey for stuff for ages, and then put restrictions on their freedom because there were way more prey than predators and they had the numbers to enact some sort of mass revolt but weren’t doing that for some reason. So the predators lived in fear of that one day happening. And then, ashamed for feeling fear towards a group that isn’t a direct threat to their survival, the predators lash out even harder towards the prey. On top of the structural disenfranchisement. Then it becomes the prey’s job to prove they’re not dangerous and just want to live in peace and create a society that one day becomes the city of Zootopia.

But that’s wAYYYYYYY too dark for a kids movie. So imo it’s good the way it is.

The bunny’s parents are so accurate from the whole “don’t be what you’re not supposed to be” and “yeah not all foxes are bad but SOMETIMES THEY ARE LOL” passive aggressive warped by worry and misappropriated kindness flavor of racism that so many of my white friends from conservative backgrounds have had to fight through. Like “I know you’re open minded but let us know when that door you opened hits you on the back now here’s a tazer!”
Salute a real one whoever put that scene in the movie. Someone is probably having bad thanksgivings with relatives irl.

I love the coded gay couple that Judy lives next to. I don’t think anyone mentioned them in any of the Discourse I’ve seen but I’m about it. They didn’t have to be in the movie at all, so shout out to the person who got that past the cuttingroom floor.

The whole “I’m going to give you an unreasonable standard to meet and if you fail it you’ll amount to nothing” (find otterton with no sources or leads or you gotta resign) is so real for so many marginalized people who are given opportunities to get ahead. That whole “you’ve gotta be twice as good to get half what they got” speech is so real.

The DMV scene is by far the most accurate thing about this whole movie. I’d rather be dead than spend a half hour in a DMV.

The whole police coercion angle (I’m going to hold a carrot over someone’shead while manipulating someone with disregard of their own risk or the complex matrix of oppression due to our difference of status) being met with the fox’s(nick???) complete dislike towards police and apathy about police success is an incredibly nuanced structure to place in a kids movie.

A jaguar running on all fours while wearing a tank top: unintentionally hilarious.

The parallels between this and the crack epidemic from the regan era are absolutely direct. When this film came out I read this incredibly high quality article about the parallels between the two. If I find it, I’ll link to it.

There is also a great discussion about microaggressions and how they compound over time to influence people’s self esteem, perception of themselves, and all too often–the trajectory they place their lives on due to these associations (Nick’s confession about why he became a criminal, next to Buffalo Idris Elba’s refusal to trust a fox, and also the bunny backstory)

There is also an interesting demi hierarchy within these animals. Larger prey (elephants, buffalo, giraffe) are placed in positions of power that smaller prey are ridiculed for attempting. They also tend to behave with authority like other large predators.

On the flip side, the general disregard towards smaller predators (mister otter, large rodents, shrew) is similar to the disregard towards smaller prey.

And it’s worth mentioning that while these inequalities are held up in the world of law abiding citizens, they are shown to be much looser in the criminal underbelly (i.e.: you can be whoever you wanna be when you do work in criminal enterprises!)

So in zootopia, it seems that systematic issues of oppression have just been replaced with a different but identical structure that exists with less obvious physical violence and more indirect social violence. Example: Jim Crow vs Now.

“Look at you junior detective, I think you’d make a good cop!” Judy to Nick

An interesting nod towards the fact that mostly everyone who spends enough time doing many different types of urbane crime would likely do really well as a cop.

Organizational skills, problem solving skills, resource and connections, business acumen and structure, etc.

The whole scene where Judy says a bunch of (read:unintentionally racist) stuff to the press and ruins her relationship with nick was heartbreaking.

It really brings back that part earlier in the movie with her parents. Regarding being raised with prejudices and about how even if you try to subvert them in your everyday life, when it comes to situations regarding fear, a lot of the time people tend to leap back towards old prejudices for defense or comfort.

So even though Judy can subvert these prejudices about bunnies in her everyday life, and connect emotionally with Nick, she often employs microagressions and prejudiced reactions towards him (fox repellant scene) in moments where she needs defense.

And while Judy is the best type of person in this movie to enact dynamic change towards the marginalized group, it was very important and kind of groundbreaking that they chose to showcase that disparity within many people (irl example:a lot of islamaphobia and xenophobia towards Mexican people)

The personal interactions between the parents and Gideon (the other fox) in which her parents are indirectly impacted by Judy’s open mindedness and decide to slowly become more open minded themselves and strike up a beneficial business relationship is such a powerful thing to show to children.

The final stand when they realize who is in charge of what’s happening is absolutely fascinating.

The whole film is all about racial tension we know that, etc.But when Judy and nick look up at the new mayor, it is clear to the both of them that they aren’t fighting race issues anymore, they are subverting what appears to be impending fascism.

As the mayor comes at Judy talking about how they have all this stuff in common and that they outnumber predators, it honestly reminds me a lot of Alt-Right/Neo-Nazi speeches.

And it’s very clear that regardless the giant case they just cracked, what they just subverted could have been a MUCH more terrifying future for everyone. Plus, considering what i said about the demi hierarchy within both predator and prey groups–just like real life fascism, it would have been bad for groups within the prey category as well.

I’m going to finish this off by commenting on the Shakira llama.

Earlier in the movie when stuff was getting really bad, she held some protest thing and made some speech. In the speech she said some weird stuff about how “my zootopia is not like this, make my zootopia the way it was before all this strife,etc.”

BUT, as the movie is more than half over at this point, we have been showcased how zootopia IS “like this.” We just sat through a fuckton of microaggressions, economic hardship within the Demi hierarchy (economic oppression, all smaller predators were involved in crime), employment inequality and popular sentiment that supports it, and social behavior and rampant hate speech and this random celebrity llama is going to come at us with “Zootopia isn’t ~like this~”

Idk it just reminded me of how many celebrities, who are far removed from so much everyday social strife due to economic reasons, decide to give half baked social statements calling for love and compassion instead of actual structural change and protection for marginalized groups. Who have good intentions but come off as kind of bland and unintentionally dense.

okay

so

this is a really solid set of analysis and discussion

but

did you just

did you just think that a gazelle called ‘gazelle’ was a llamma

I did

im so sorry

i saw that like twenty minutes after i posted it and was like “i have made my bed of failure and will now lie in it”