Zootopia is currently one of the animated movies in theaters today. The central theme is pretty clear, "Predators vs. Prey" and why fear of differences begets hate. The film focuses on a fox and a bunny, two natural enemies. The different species, however, serves as a replacement of different races. Throughout the film the bunny's family discusses their ideologies as "foxist." They hate foxes because they fear them. After realizing that the fear was implemented through pop. culture as well as government conspiracies, the bunnies open their minds and learn to work with and love the foxes. This representation, targeted towards children, reminds viewers that hate and fear of others is learned behavior. Through conditioning children are taught to fear what is different. The initial misconception of the bunnies that foxes are manipulative, scary, and harmful remind the viewer of the constant misconceptions presented of races throughout the media. This film, and hopefully there will be more like it to follow, teach America's children that hatred and fear of others based on physical differences is silly and learned. It is time to be like the bunnies and open our minds to create new accurate media portrayals of those different than ourselves.
I don't think Disney has ever made a direct social commentary about a current issue like this before. And I loved it. This movie was incredibly well constructed as a commentary on what is going on between different social groups in America right now.
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ReplyDeleteI love the fact that Disney is now teaching children to be open-minded and accepting. A lot of media outlets are focused on priming and framing the audiences and forcing stereotypes on them. This movie seems to be doing the opposite, which is great!
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