Zootopia and the limits of the Obama presidency

Nothing in the promotions for Zootopia suggested that Disney’s latest animated movie planned to tackle the policing and criminal justice issues that have become one of the most significant subjects in American politics. But since the film about a bunny, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), who dreams of becoming a police officer, arrived in cinemas (on March 4 in the United States and March 24 in Hong Kong), it’s made almost US$600 million internationally and sparked vigorous conversations, an impressive performance for an explicitly political movie.

Zootopia follows Judy as she gets her dream job in the big city and makes friends with Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a fox she pops for a scam and then turns into an informant. But when Judy and Nick discover that a number of predator animals have reverted to their hunting ways and are attacking mammals, Judy ends up suggesting that they’re inherently violent, setting off a panic in Zootopia. The characters may be adorable animated animals, but the movie’s metaphor is refreshingly direct.

Demby writes:“In Zootopia, we follow along as our hero, Hopps, hands out hundreds of tickets to overcome workplace discrimination and prove that someone who looks like her can be a valuable member of the force. We’re meant to cheer along as she rolls up her sleeves and really leans into it.

“But this is not some neutral, benign practice in real life. As my colleague Joe Shapiro has reported, the festering tensions between police and residents that exploded in Ferguson [in the US state of Missouri] rested upon a long history of aggressive, racially skewed ticketing and fines as a widely used mechanism for generating city revenue. And it has been pointed out that the practices of ticketing and stopping pedestrians and drivers for minor violations are often used by law enforcement as pretext for more expansive searches….