Zootopia (2016)

  I had really high hopes for this movie and it just did not live up to my expectations.

Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) has had one goal her entire life:  leave her parents' carrot farm and become a cop in the sprawling metropolis of Zootopia.  She works her fluffy cottontail off and graduates from the academy first in her class but is soon relegated to meter maid by an incensed police chief (Idris Elba) resentful at being forced to hire a token prey animal.  Judy still believes she has a place on the force and seizes her opportunities where she can, which brings her into association with Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a slick con artist out for himself.  The two must overcome instilled prejudices of their differing species and work together to figure out why formerly law-abiding predators have suddenly turned savage.

There were a lot of really cute moments in this film.  It is a Disney movie, after all.  Unfortunately, they were overshadowed by a tone-deaf script with more jokes and themes for adults than for kids.  Racism is an extremely complex and important issue and absolutely should be something parents talk about with their children.  I just don't think this is the right movie for that talk.  I think kids will get the overall points (don't judge people based on appearances, stereotyping is bad, fear can be used to effectively control a population) but there are smoother ways to go about it.

Also, I had yet another abysmal theater experience where people could not or would not control their small children with one mother actually taking selfies with her kids during the movie.  What is wrong with people?  These were two different theaters in two different cities so it's not a particular chain or area that is the problem.  People just do not know how to behave at the theater anymore.  It's actually really depressing because that was one of my absolute favorite things to do and I've just been soured on it.