Zootropolis (Film) Critique 4/5

*****SPOILERS*****

 
Favourite Humour
 
My three favourite funny moments from this film get me giggling every time.

Nick wonders if Bellwether (a sheep) counts herself when she goes to sleep. Playing on the idea of kids doing just that.

During Judy’s childhood play, a tiger says he wants to “hunt for tax exemptions.”

Judy lists everything wrong about her new flat. Yet she still declares her love for it! This is a funny dissonance.
 
Judy as a ‘metre maid’ gives these little pops of joy.

Judy gives a hippo a ticket and her child says, “My mummy says she wishes you were dead.” To hear those words come out of an innocent voice was hilarious.

As her car’s time has expired, Judy even writes herself a ticket.

When Judy talks to Nick, she puts a clamp on the buggy.

After Judy’s first day on the job, you can see how disappointed she is. Judy’s dad sees she’s a metre maid and he celebrates, “She’s not a real cop!” Her neighbour shouts, “Shut up! Can’t you tell she feels like a failure?” Later, Judy whispers, “Tomorrow’s another day,” to which the neighbour says, “But it might be worse.” All this just rubs in how devastated she is by her police experience.
 
This film uses slow sloth speed to great effect. Even though many jokes are based on this one idea, it didn’t feel milked or overdone. To achieve this was fantastic.

The film ends with Judy pulling over a speeding car, and inside is Flash. The fact that a sloth goes that fast is hilarious. But even more funny? If Flash has the reaction speed to drive that fast, that meant he was going slow at the driving place on purpose, not because he needs too!

At the driving place, someone facepalms themselves because the sloth does the forms so slowly.

Nick calls a slow sloth ‘Flash the one-hundred yard dash’. Naming someone slow ‘Flash’ is like naming an atheist ‘Faith’.

Flash has a mug that reads, ‘You want it when?’ With sloths being slow, of course deadlines would be an issue for them.

Flash’s mouth opens so slowly, beaming with happiness, giving the slowest chuckle ever. Brilliant.
 
Zootropolis is portrayed as a place of harmony between all mammals. Judy buys into this so hard, as seen during her childhood play when she says in Zootropolis, ‘anyone can be anything’.

Nick jokes about this idea that people in Zootropolis get along and sing kumbaya. At every opportunity he gets, he teases Judy’s positive perception.

Judy is uncomfortable, seeing all the yoga animals naked. Nick says to her, “In Zootropolis, anyone can be anything. And these people? They be naked.” Not only is he turning Judy’s expectations on their heads, but choosing to say ‘they be naked’ instead of ‘they are naked’ just to match the tagline was clever.

Nick says to Judy, “Are you saying a sloth can’t be fast? Anyone can be anything in Zootropolis.” Not only is it funny because it fits with the recuring line, but also because at the end of the film Flash breaks the speed limit. So sloths can be fast: Nick isn’t just being facetious.
 
Judy and Nick often turn what the other one said against them.

Judy interrupt Nick’s day, saying his “ten dollars of popsicles can wait.” Nick then brags it’s been two-hundred dollars every day since he was twelve. So Judy figures out how much money Nick’s ever made. She then says, “But what do I know? I’m just a dumb bunny,” something Nick says often to her.

When Judy replays Nick’s confession of never paying tax, she says, “It’s called a hustle, sweetheart.” He said this to Judy earlier when she challenged him on work permits and selling ‘red wood’.

Nick records Judy saying she was a ‘dumb bunny’. Nick records this and says he’ll give the pen-recorder back in forty-eight hours, the exact same deal Judy gave Nick when she recorded his confession.
 
 
Other Humour
 
With the main character being a rabbit, the filmmakers limited the ‘breeding like rabbits’ to two incidents only.

When she figures out Nick’s income over many years. Then she adds, “Mind you, we are good at multiplying.” Word play of multiplying, both rabbit breeding and mathematics, is fun.

The population of Bunnyburrow is written on its village sign. It keeps on increasing which kept me laughing. Breeding like rabbits for sure!
 
Police personnel provide a lot of humour.

Whilst Judy’s at the police academy, we see her training montage. They include the various environments (tundra, desert etc), boxing, falling into the toilet. At every opportunity, the polar bear instructor keeps yelling, “Dead, dead, dead, you’re dead.”

Clawhauser doesn’t like to be stereotyped as a doughnut-eating cop. But then we see a doughnut between his collar and neck. This humour was enhanced when Clawhauser tells the doughnut, “There you are, you little Dickens.”

On Judy’s first day, Chief Bogo says, “There are new recruits I should introduce, but I won’t because I don’t care.”

Chief Bogo says, “Life isn’t a musical where you can sing a song and your dreams come true.” A Disney character making light of a Disney convention is brilliant.

Clawhauser sees Mr Otterton holding a popsicle and he gasps, “The murder weapon.”
 
The weasel Weaseltown has a few funny moments, too.

When Judy catches the weasel, she references a real-life nursery rhyme by saying, “I popped the weasel.”

Weaseltown calls Judy, “Flopsy the copsy.” Adding -ie sound at the end also worked for Nick who said earlier, “Whoopsie number threesie.”

Judy calls the weasel ‘Duke Weselton’. He corrects her to ‘Weaseltown’. This is the backwards joke of Frozen’s Duke Weselton.

Weaseltown says, “They offered me something I couldn’t refuse. Money.”
 
The yoga place was a laugh trap.

Judy keeps trying to talk to the yoga yak at the desk. But the yak just hums louder and louder to block out Judy’s voice.

The yoga elephant remembers nothing. For something that ‘remembers everything’, this reversal was brilliant. Then the yoga yak wishes he had the memory of an elephant, even though she remembered nothing, so he wants what she doesn’t have. Even if he wanted the ideal elephant memory, the yoga yak remembered everything anyway, so he wants what he already has.
 
Visuals are used to great comedic effect.

Judy and Nick are captured and taken to a room. Each polar bear entering the room gets bigger and bigger. Each time, Judy asks if this one is Mr Big. The suspense and anticipation is built so well, only for the surprising twist of Mr Big being a teeny tiny shrew.

Watching Nick drink from the tiny shrew teacup was gold.

The mayor got a Bellwether a ‘world’s greatest dad’ mug, with the ‘dad’ scribbled out and ‘assistant mayor’ scrawled above it. Such lazy efforts of nice gestures are insulting, but that makes sense considering the mayor’s opinions and behaviour.
 
Audio is another useful tool for comedy.

Bellwether uses ‘mutton chops’ as a swear. So hilarious.

Judy pretends to howl to distract the wolves. One wolf joins in and another wolf covers this one’s mouth, only for him to join in, too. First wolf cocked head when first howl heard, making it a multi-media experience.

The train cart rushes past a sheep who presses themselves against the tunnel wall. There’s a sheering noise and, when the train has passed, the sheep has a naked belly.