There are Zootopia spoilers ahoy, so be forewarned.
In my review, I commented that I had issues with the movie’s subtext. Against my better judgment, I’m going to hash it out here. I frequently make the point that I want to avoid politics on the site. Not because I lack confidence in my convictions or that I’m ashamed of my beliefs but rather that the purpose of the site is entertainment and I don’t want any extraneous issues to take away from that. However, this blog is a space where I get some thoughts out of my head and some of those thoughts may be used as fodder for a healthy discussion. To sidestep the real-world side of things a bit, I’m going to be avoiding specific labels. It’s a flimsy defense, but I’ll at least hold up that fig leaf.
Issues of racism, prejudice, discrimination, and fear form one of the central themes of Zootopia, which is pretty heavy stuff for a Disney animated feature. Our modern-day programming is pretty simple. Racism bad. Prejudice bad. Discrimination bad. Fear bad. Labels of “racist”, “bigot” and such are to be feared as much as “heretic” in ages past. These labels can be used as a hammer to pummel people into submission. It’s called social engineering for a reason, after all. Now, I’m not talking about coarse caricatures like the Klan or the Westboro bunch here. I’m talking about ordinary folks who don’t toe the line to the satisfaction of the opinion-setters. There was a time when I was eager to be seen as righteous in the eyes of such people, to the point of great (virtual) self-flagellation to prove my bonafides. A little mugging by reality broke me of that and you might toss some of those nasty and fearful labels my way if I aired my unvarnished opinions, but I’m past the point of being moved by them. If I must be a heretic, then let me burn.
Let’s lay down some basics so I’m not misunderstood. Racism–genuine racism, that is (since the term gets thrown around rather freely these days)–has little justification. I say little because there may actually be some degree of a genetic factor at work, but I consider it to be largely negligible. I believe socialization is the main driving force of undesirable group behavior. There are trends and averages in cultures and I’m not a relativist who thinks it all okay whatever people do. Does this count as prejudice? Yes. My guiding principle to keep myself in check is that whatever I think about any given group based on my observations, I’ll give any individual their fair shake to show their measure. I might be a little more standoffish around some than others, but I do my bit to remain civil. That’s what tolerance is all about. Tolerance isn’t acceptance, though, and a lot of times that gets confused. To touch on the last leg of the tripod, illegal discrimination is just that, illegal. That’s discrimination of action. Mental discrimination isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however. It’s how we distinguish and separate one thing from another. For now, at least, we remain free within the confines of our own skulls, but when we act on our thoughts, that’s when we can get ourselves into trouble.
Rather than light a match and drop it on dry tinder by bringing in real-world examples, let’s focus on the scenario presented in the movie. We have predators and prey who have theoretically evolved past their natural instincts and live in unsteady harmony. Judy’s parents are portrayed as well-meaning bigots for being afraid of foxes and Judy herself is presented as something of one herself for trying to show off her nondiscriminatory bonafides to Nick during their first encounter. (People with long enough memories will catch the “articulate” bit.) Nevermind foxes’ traditional predation on rabbits. The past doesn’t matter. Until it does. Going into the second act, we learn that the spate of missing mammals are all predators who have gone feral (or “savage” as they say). Judy gets cornered in a press conference after the big bust which this causes a falling out between her and Nick and kicks off a larger spike of tensions in the city. Here’s the thing, though. We’re meant to think she’s wrong somehow. She’s meant to think she’s wrong. In fact, she’s so guilt-racked that she quits the force and goes back home until things turn around for the third act. However, she’s not wrong. Not at all. The outbreak did only affect predators. It did have a biological component. It did cause them to revert to their “primitive, savage ways”. Would more diplomatic language have helped manage public reactions? Sure. But that was the whole point. She was set up to trigger a panic. Judy was a first-hand witness, having nearly been killed by a feral herself. She heard the doctor’s assessment, is smart enough to put it all together, honest and unfiltered enough to tell it straight, and naive enough to not realize the larger implications of her revelations. I get where Nick’s coming from, but he’s not really being fair to her. It’s a shame that the tearful apology comes entirely from her end, but it all ties into the message the film is pushing, which I find naive and dangerous when applied to the real world.
Here’s the situation. We’ve got one population that has a history of violence against another. Things have been stable for years, but all that’s going out the window. There’s no apparent pattern. Any predator could go feral and the vast majority of the prey species are completely defenseless. Traditional defense behaviors like herd movement and such have been abandoned, as mentioned in the expository school play at the beginning of the movie. We start to see attacks and it’s only a matter of time before fatalities start piling up. Yeah, we feel bad seeing lovable butterball Clawhauser getting rotated from front desk to Records just because he’s a pred, but as we don’t know what triggers the feral reversion yet, even he could pose a threat (though less likely in the police station where all the prey species in uniform [sans Judy] are the burly sort who can take care of themselves). The people don’t know the source of the reversions and to simply pretend everything’s fine would be madness. However, we have pop star Gazelle holding her peace rally and spilling out platitudes. She tells us they can’t give in to fear, but she doesn’t give us any alternative besides “celebrating our differences”. The thing about fear is that it’s a survival mechanism. When fear is irrational, it does more harm than good, but when it has justification, you ignore the warning at your peril. It’s one thing to risk your own neck for your ideals but risking the lives of others for the sake of your ideals is reprehensible.
The movie gives us an easy solution to the situation. We discover that the feral reversions are chemically induced, part of a bid by Bellweather to assert prey dominance and rule by fear, a treatment is quickly developed and it’s a happy ending for one and all. But what would happen if it wasn’t that simple? What would the solution be then? The only way to ensure the safety of prey species would be separation, but you sure wouldn’t see that show up. Would there be increased surveillance? More extensive intelligence gathering to try to interdict reversions before they become a problem? Or would we see business as usual, the casualties from attacks seen as a necessary sacrifice to preserve “who we are”? Would concerned prey be browbeaten into signing on for the suicide pact? Well, obviously the filmmakers couldn’t explore these possibilities. They don’t even do it in fare for adults. Heck, you don’t even get an honest discussion in the real world.
You might think I’m on to something and you might think I’m some kind of monster, but at very least, I hope you can see why I found the handling of themes to be problematic. There’s no way a major motion picture coming out of Hollywood would tell it to you any differently. That’s just how it is. I just worry about instilling kids with ideals that sound pretty on paper but could get them killed. I know there have already been heaps of corpses sacrificed on the altar of political correctness, the Moloch of our era. I guess if someone would rather die than bear the modern brand of heresy, that’s their business, but I take issue with everyone else getting dragged along for the ride. There are no easy solutions and whatever course is taken, there will be ugly results. That, sadly, is the world and humanity. Funny that movie about a fluffy bunny would get me to stew so much on the subject, but there you go. Whatever issues I take with Zootopia‘s message, I’ll give them credit for making me think. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
