Zootopia Analysis

Zootopia brings to light a mature message throughout its screen time. The city of Zootopia is supposed to be a utopia in which all animals, whether they are predator or prey, can live in harmony. Judy Hopps, the rabbit main protagonist of the movie, describes her view of Zootopia as a place where “anybody can be anything”, and the song “Try Everything” tells its listeners to never give up and to try even though they might fail. Zootopia is a place where animals are given the opportunity to do anything they would like to do, and while this may be the ideal situation, the issue preventing this to be true is the distrust between predator and prey. Throughout the movie, predators discriminated against by the majority of the city, as “prey outnumber predators ten to one”. The first time the viewers see this discrimination is when Judy profiles Nick Wilde, the movie’s fox protagonist, as suspicious due to his species and the fact that he seemed to be skulking around. Right after, Nick is denied purchase of a Popsicle due to the fact that he is a predator, and that the owner has the right to do deny this of him. Nick later on in the movie explains that he wanted to be a scout when he was little, but was muzzled and completely humiliated by the other scouts present exclaiming that they would never let a fox be a scout. The uneasiness of Zootopia’s citizens grows to new heights when predators seemingly revert back into a “savage” state of mind. This causes the prey of the city to fear predators greatly. This can be seen in a scene in which a predator sits down on a train next to a mother and child who are prey, and the mother looks very uncomfortable and fearful of the predator. The mother grabs her child and holds them close to keep them away from the predator who may “go savage” at any point from their point of view. Another point in which Clawhauser, a leopard who attends the front desk of the police department, is moved away from sight as the department did not want someone’s first view entering the department to be a predator. Zootopia seems like the perfect utopia in which everyone has a chance to chase their dreams from the outside, but below the surface lies the fact that the schism between prey and predator still remains open no matter how many times they say that they have evolved and left those times behind.