The film “Zootopia” was a great way to approach racism so that all age groups understood. With this in mind, they made some great connections to America and society, but there were also a few problem areas when views began to push against the metaphors made. As many reviews have stated, the film centers around the first police rabbit, Judy Hopps, who is continuously underestimated and overlooked. A fox, Nick Wilde, is trying to branch out from the crime community and help Judy solve a case. Judy’s journey into becoming a cop is an excellent correspondence to women in society doing jobs men throughout history said they couldn’t. I loved what Vox said about Judy’s journey, inspiring kids not to let adults try and tear down their dreams. Many moments stick out when we get to the metaphors made about race. The Robert Ebert review spoke on how the film made race and animals as a similarity which was a significant problem. The reason it’s a problem is that when you push past the metaphors made about predator and prey in the film, such as “Only a bunny can call another bunny ‘cute,’” and the fox repellent, the facts made about predators and prey were utterly valid. Though when you try to tie these statements to the topic of racism, they become false.
An example of this is when Judy says predators are biologically violent. That statement is true about predator animals in real life, but it isn’t right about any minority, such as a black person. The film did well to represent institutionalized racism, especially in the backstory of Nick and Judy. In Judy’s past, we can see that her school taught her about predator v.s prey and made the predators seem like villains, similar to how the school system today teaches you a white person’s perspective while making the minorities seem like the villain or the problem. Another connection I made was when the film showed Nick being muzzled, which led to him living to that image of being a predator and working in crime. This is true today because minorities get put into neighborhoods and situations where the only choice for survival is to commit crimes because of institutionalized racism. Suppose you put a black person in a community with no opportunities to get food, a good job, and a stable income. Of course, they will conform to the image of being a criminal like Nick did because that is the only way they can survive.