The craziness of Zootopia

Some people say zootopia is --

Adults see political satire and class prejudice. Young people see chasing their dreams. Children see cute animals.

But I think there is one more thing that fans and filmmakers can also see the quality of the film industry and the beauty of animated films.

The title Zootopia is derived from Zoo and Utopia. I prefer to translate it into Zootopia. However, the translation of Zootopia makes people wonder: what's so crazy about Zootopia?

It's no exaggeration to say that Zootopia may leave a mark in the history of animated films.

1. The biggest characteristic of animated films is that they have many parts that live action films cannot do.

Once an animated film plays a more obvious advantage in this regard, the higher the quality becomes to some extent. The greatest charm of animated film is that it allows the release of human imagination to be realized to a greater extent.

In 2015, Pixar's Inside Out won an Oscar for setting up a fantasy adventure world filled with metaphors and showcasing the team's imagination and execution.

What's crazy about Zootopia, though, is that it's definitely more imaginative than Inside Out.

George Orwell once wrote a famous novel Animal Farm, in which he expressed his judgment and reflection on the nature of the Soviet Union under Stalin's rule through his own experience and understanding of a series of events such as the great purge of the Soviet Union through the brewing, rise and final transformation of an "animalist" revolution.

Since the book's publication, there has been a steady stream of works of art that use animals as references to humans.

"Zootopia" has the same form of expression, but the direction of "Animal Farm" is the opposite, "Animal Farm" is looking back to the past, while "Zootopia" is looking to the future. In addition, Animal Farm alluded to human beings in a degraded form, while Zootopia made an upgrade on this point. The structure of Zootopia is a world in which animals have evolved to a high civilization, and the important thing is that the civilization is higher than the human society in reality. This is very rare in anthropomorphic works of the past.

The height of world civilization in the film is first reflected in the degree of racial integration. There are more than 300 kinds of animals in the film, and the differences in appearance, body shape and living habits among them are so great that the differences between humans in real life are incomparable.

But even under such huge differences, the world can operate reasonably according to its rules, and the scariest thing is that the film is extremely persuasive while pushing the imagination to the limit.

From a macro perspective of the city, not only build the rabbit in the film area, grassland center, glacier, desert square area, rain forest, the town of small rodents six ecotope, more underground tunnels, DAMS, museum, elements such as farmland, commercial street, the whole city system is very complex, but the more complex, the higher the credibility.

From the micro point of view, the development of the whole city has been nearly perfect, and the operation mode of the city has used the method of "private customization" to perfectly integrate every animal into the same lifestyle.

In one of the most basic animal (human) activities, the purchase of goods is adjusted according to the needs of the animals. For example, the giraffe's food purchase export is higher.

Space is the first element of animal (human) activities, and in urban space design, the personalized design in the film can be seen. For example, animals have different entrances and exits on vehicles according to their size, and ingenious diversion is adopted in the design of circulation inside the building -- small rodents carry out traffic activities through pipes.

Traffic is not only distinguishable according to the body shape, but also according to the living habits of animals - aquatic animal hippopotamus through the waterway traffic, and in the traffic exit is also set up air dryer.

However, all these do not make you so surprised in the process of watching the film, because the personalized design of the world in the film has been thorough in every detail, all of which is to make the world of the architecture invisible to convince you completely. That's why it's so awkward to look at naked animals after Nick the Fox and Judy the Rabbit enter a yoga studio -- but that's what they look like in real life. That's because we believe in the worldview.

In addition, culturally, not only do animals work and leave their jobs in the city, but certain species occupy certain occupations -- police departments, for example, are mostly strong animals -- and other occupations, like the sloths at the transportation department, Some kind of rats at the bank (again, a stereotype).

Entertainers, posters and commercials also give us a glimpse of animals' rich lives outside of work.

Furthermore, the world is divided into the city center (Zootopia) and the outside area (let's call it suburb), which has carried on the preliminary class division with the region, and then refined again in the urban area -- even in the downtown, not everyone is above the working class, among which there is our protagonist Fox Nick, who is a opportunist.

Also, a world has not only a set of rules on the surface, but also a set of rules underground. Mr.Big's gang (which I have to say here is a surprise because the Mandarin version of Mr.Big's voice still talks like Marlon Brando) represents the dark side of the city, while also using contrast to show the fearsome dominance of the gang -- the polar bear is huge, Only tiny shrews take orders.

Finally, while Zootopia is infinitely closer to the real world, it is also moving away from the human element. You can see that there are no primates, and there are no cats or dogs, because primates are more closely related to human origins, and cats and dogs are the products of human domestication, and they're both kind of human beings. The animal world in Zootopia becomes more pure because of this.

Zootopia has as much detail as the animal hair -- too much. In fact, it makes Zootopia feel more like a science fiction movie than an adventure movie.

2. Generally speaking, the most important thing about a movie is to make a point. The greatest ability of a director is to carry the idea to the final destination of the film -- the audience. Point of view is the center of gravity of a movie.

What's also crazy about Menagerie is that it throws up more than one idea at a time.

Personally, I think this result is due to the co-director system of Disney Animation. "Zootopia" was co-directed by Byron Howard, Ricky Moore, and Gerald Bush, with John Lester in charge.

In fact, the film that Byron Howard pitched to his boss John Lester was not the one we see today, but a spy story that later morphed into a detective story.

Byron Howard started his work by positioning carnivores as a more vulnerable group (they would be collared), and thus came up with the first idea that carnivores have a right to live in harmony with herbivores. (The positions were switched later).

Then, In a flash of inspiration, Ricky Moore suggested that the creation of the film should change a little direction and let Judy rabbit become the protagonist, giving her a process of discovering herself and finding answers. This is exactly the second point of view: what kind of attitude and action should we use to explore ourselves.

These two viewpoints are connected by Judy rabbit's pursuit of her dream of becoming a police officer, and are skillfully separated in the later part of the story -- the capture of mayor Lion symbolizes the realization of Judy's dream, and the plot of Judy and Nick jointly destroying deputy Mayor Sheep completes the discussion on the theme of race.

3. The dual lead mode of Judy rabbit and Nick Fox restricts the two characters from each other, which is reflected in the personalities of the two characters in the film.

Judy rabbit and Nick Fox can respectively represent two types of Typical Americans. Judy Rabbit is educated by tradition, has a positive personality, is a little blindly confident, and has the spirit of idealism. And Fox Nick is also very smart, his logical thinking, critical thinking, flexibility and eloquence are outstanding, but is a native of the "street smart".

The two seem to be at war with each other, but both hide their similarities: Judy uses a turnip recorder to force Nick to help her, which seems to be the result of Nick's cunning. Fox Nick in get along slowly revealed his other side - also had a dream, want to join the Boy Scouts, but because of racial prejudice but fell in failure.

To later, Rabbit Judy will apologize with fox Nick to solve the case together, fox Nick pretended not to accept the fact is a joke, still willing to continue to pursue with Rabbit Judy.

They both had bad experiences with stereotypes, one trying to prove it, the other giving up on themselves, but in the end they gradually got over their childhood, made some kind of concession, made a confession to their former selves.

Other characters, such as the fennec fox next to Nick in an elephant suit, must be "useful", not just a passing sight, but in later episodes.

The animals in the film, such as the sloth, are used to make the characters shine and make the jokes. Compared with the domestic movies, the humor is much better than the connotation, the quadratic element, the language and the fragmentation of the body.

The arrangement of various characters makes the subsequent plot development very natural, and also expresses the theme of the film: animals of different races actually have something in common. Even foxes and rabbits that are natural enemies in the real world, Zootopia is a place where they can overcome the barriers between different races and become friends through thick and thin.

Such a society against all kinds of prejudice, almost utopian existence. The film uses the differences between animals to compare the differences between people. But even if there are differences, can also live together as equals and friendly, dreams are possible to become a reality.

After watching the film, audiences of all ages in different countries have the impulse to aspire to live in such an equal world. The director quietly sows the seeds of elimination of discrimination for the audience.