Zootopia: Disney's Greatest Movie?

Disney has made a lot of great movies over the years. Whatever a person's opinion on an individual movie, the Disney Animated Canon is so large at this point that I think it's safe to say that everyone has their own personal "gems" from the Disney vaults. Even movies that have had disappointing box office and critical reception upon relese (Ducktales The Movie, Fantasia, The Rescuers Down Under, The Black Cauldron, Treasure Planet) have developed large cult followings over time.

In my personal opinion, Disney has made around at least 30-35 good movies in total. So when I tell you that that the studio's latest feature, Zootopia, is easily one of their best, that is saying A LOT.

Yes, I used ALLCAPS to convey to you that I am 100% serious.

...

Ok, ok, fine, it's a kid's film, 95% serious, tops. But still, yeah, this movie is great. But the greatest? Can I really back that opinion up? Well, let's see.

First, let's deal with a couple of things. This is not the first "talking animal" movie Disney has made, we all know that. This is not the first Disney movie that has tackled complex ideas. This is hardly the first Disney movie with a message behind it (all Disney films have morals, some are less subtle than others, like Pocahontas), this is rguably not even the first talking animal movie to talk about hatred and the cycle of violence; The Fox and the Hound did it long before I was born, way back in 1981.

For non-Disney films, Cats Don't Dance  covered racial segregation in Hollywood's Golden Age using talking animals as a visual allegory in 1997, well after I was born and also the film's target audience

What separates Zootopia from all these predecessors is that it's the first talking animal movie in a fresh and sleek modern setting, and it's very smart in how it tackles the issue of racism, sexism and how fear can tear civilization apart. Avatar wishes it was this smart. Subtlety and nuance was never that movie's strong point. Anywy, let's ignore that controversy and concentrate on this one.

Zootopia  starts off by introducing us to naive small town girl Judy Hopps, a rabbit (er, I mean bunny) with dreams of becoming a police officer in the eponymous city's police department. Not only does she succeed in her training program, she is also has the honor of being the first ever rabbit officer on the force. Moving away from her small farming town (with a population of over 8,000,000, how does it count asa town by that point?!) she sets out for the big city, visions of glory in her head and stars in her eyes.

The movie introduces us the city in the best way possible, by following Judy on a subway ride through the metropolis. We get to see first hand how so many vastly different species can live together in a modern setting. Zootopia is split up into separate areas, each one catering to the needs of several different groups of animals. For example, there's a neighborhood we get a short glimpse of called "Little Rodentia", where everything is built to scale for small rodents. Obviously a lot of thought and care went into the design of the city. Really impressive stuff. But we're just at the tip of the iceberg.

We are soon introduced to our second main lead, Nick Wilde. A smooth-talking, quick-thinking con-man (er, I mean fox), who has made a living by taking advantage of others for years, even though "everyone knows" in Zootopia that you can't trust foxes, they're born thieves and tricksters, apparently the lowest of the low among predator species in the city.

Nick oozes charm and a cocky devil-may-care attitude in almost every line of dialogue he says and movement he makes. Jason Bateman plays the part to perfection; Ginnifer Goodwin is equally superb, managing to be chipper, snarky, vulnerable and earnest in her pursuit of doing the right thing. They're both great characters, and hey play off one another extremely well.

Judy gives us the first big surprise of the movie. Stuck in a thankless role of meter maid and unwittingly becoming a part of Nick's latest scam all on her first day, she bounces back fast and becomes part of a big missing person's case, forcing Nick into helping her, and expertly manipulating her positive PR points to get her boss to  assign to the case.

Judy may be new to the city, and a bit too idealistic for her own good, but she is far from stupid and never ever helpless. She runs from predators several times, but it is a completely understandable reaction. She is shown to be very competent and uses her speed and agility to her best possible advantage.  Never in the movie did I find her to be the least bit annoying or overly saccharine. Not since Tatianna in The Princess and the Frog have I been so impressed by a Disney heroine.

However, she is not immune to doubt or prejudice. When she first sees Nick walking down the street, she becomes immediately suspicious of him  without any proof or reason. In one of the movie's most heartbreaking scenes, when Nick makes threatening gestures at her, snarling in anger, she instinctively reaches for her "fox repellent" spray before she can stop herself. To her credit, a fox bullied her in elementary school and she immediately regretted her actions when she realized she was wrong.

By far the movie's biggest strength, and this cannot be stressed enough, is how nuanced and subtle the portrayal of racism is.

Judy is our hero. Is she wrong to mistrust all foxes? Yes. Is the root of her mistrust understandable? Yes. Is Nick also in the wrong for embracing his species stereotype and making everyone else's assumptions seem justified? Yes. Do we still like these characters and want to see them succeed despite these above issues? Abso-frickin'-lutely.

It was be so easy to make just one minority in this story the blameless, innocent victims of oppression and bigotry. But hatred and bigotry can go both ways. Everyone and anyone can an oppressor or a victim. Prejudice can still exist even if we think we all live in an "enlightened" society. The movie's portrayal is almost shockingly realistic in this regard (no lynch mobs, but there is a riot scene shown on a news broadcast at the story's darkest point).

Let us not forget that desegregation and mixed marriages remained social taboos long after slavery was abolished.

The movie refuses to oversimplify or exaggerate the problems the characters face (both internal and external), and the plot is constructed so well, filled wit so much symbolism, layers and twists, that I found myself comparing Zootopia, not to other Disney movies, but really good adult films like 48 Hours, L.A Confidential and Selma. The movie is clearly an homage to these movies as well as past Disney films. If it wasn't for the lack of gore or swearing, I would think this was a movie aimed at adults, no children.

As Nick and Jody begin to get involved in a dark conspiracy, the movie kept me guessing most of the way through. Unfortunately, since the last few Disney films have done a big twist in the third act, I knew one was coming. Kudos to the writers to making the villain's plan make disturbing sense, and for using the same Chekov's gun multiple times and have it be equally satisfying each time. Also, they include a Breaking Bad reference in the best way possible.

The only other flaw I can think of is at the very end where Judy basically tells us what we should take away from the story and what she has learned (because of course we need to be sure that the kids "get it"), but besides that minor gripe, I left the theatre feeling very satisfied. The characters had changed over the course of the story, the plot was wrapped up nicely, and there is a ton of room left for sequels (which considering the movie's critical and financial success is almost a certainty at this point),

But is it the best Disney movie ever? Honestly, believe or not, yes, it very well might be.

Great Disney movies of the past like Tangled, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin & Frozen are really good adaptations of timeless stories fused with the imitable Disney magic.  Movies like The Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame are kid friendly versions of very dark and complex classic literature.

Zootopia, by contrast is a (mostly) original, inventive, creative, funny, heartwarming and thought-provoking movie. It is so well constructed, and it's message is so powerful that I think it has a universal appeal that everyone can recognize. Now keep in mind we're talking about Disney here! The fact that it is good should not be a surprise. But the movie goes well beyond what Disney has done in the past.

In the history of animation, this will go down as the Citizen Kane of  animated talking animal movies. This is an experience that should not be missed. If any fans still had any doubts, even after Frozen, this will put them to rest.

The House of Mouse is on top of the world again.

Abbott & Costello Meet My Dad

This post is dedicated to my father, Francesco "Frank" Ciuffreda, who turns 60 today, but sadly is not with us to celebrate it. Much like Lou Costello, a very funny man who left us far too soon.

My dad, like every other dad on the planet, had his likes and dislikes. Also, like (mostly, sad to say) every other dad on the planet, he was determined to share he was passionate about with his kids.

I can remember when I was a little kid, every once in awhile we would go to the library to see what videos they had available. Being a library, they had a lot of older movies on the shelves. Nothing pleased my dad more than wandering around the shelves with me and stumbling across a cult classic  Danny Kaye movie that he watched on TV when he was 10, and somehow could still remember it (I could barely remember anything besides Bugs Bunny and Power Rangers until I was 12).

One of the things my dad loved above all else was comedy. He could go on for hours about the Marx Bros, Red Skelton, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Donald O' Connor (who is criminally underrated, FYI), anything that had Martin & Lewis, Lemmon & Matthau (or maybe Tony Curtis) in it. I think he missed his true calling as a film critic. Dad seemed to love comedy as much as Leonard Maltin loves cartoons.

So yeah, needless to say I watched a lot of funny people growing up. Lord knows they were funnier than my dad (hey dad, c'mon you know it's true!) He loved comedy; doesn't mean he was necessarily great at it. Maybe he could've been; we'll never know.

There were two men in particular that my dad had a special place in his heart for. He waited until he felt I was old enough, but the wait must have been annoying to him.

On Halloween night 1995, after I had made the rounds on my annual neighborhood candy donation drive, he finally took down that VHS tape on which he had copied and saved one of his most favorite movies from the shelf, popped in the VCR, and I saw Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein for the first time.

That movie is one of the all time  greats, ironically because at the time it was arguably a groundbreaking spoof of  the iconic Universal  Horror franchise. So technically, the monsters brought people to the theatres as much as the comedians probably did. Avengers gets props for being the first mega-crossover film. Abbott & Costello had Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and the Wolfman in one movie all the way back in 1948! This film helped pave the  way for everything from Monster Squad, Young Frankenstein and probably other awesome horror-comedy films like Ghostbusters.

It's also the movie that inspired Quentin Tarantino to go into filmmaking. If that doesn't make you watch this, nothing will. It's one of those films that not only stays with you because of seeing all these monsters together, but the jokes are timeless. The only things that really date the movie is the lack of crassness and color, but the jokes will make you laugh every single time. Here's one of the film's highlights, just to give you a taste, in case I haven't piqued your curiosity enough by now.

Of course, these two guys did not have just one hit under their belts, so let's dig a little deeper into their filmography. Between their big screen debut in 1940 and their final showing in 1956, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello made a total of 30 films, and while most of these are fairly mediocre (every plot centred around a young couple getting together when the boys weren't doing their thing, because apparently every light-hearted movie needs romance) there are definitely a few gems in their filmography. Buck Privates is a great wartime film where the boys unwittingly enlist in the army and try to make it through boot camp without accidentally killing themselves. Never has American propaganda been so hilarious. Also, the Andrews Sisters show up to sing one of their most iconic hits, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" They would have cameos in several other Abbott & Costello films over the next few years:

The list goes on. Meet the Invisible Man (1951) is a solid follow-up to Meet Frankenstein, Meet the Killer (1949) features Boris Karloff being his usual "cold-blooded" self while Costello manages to trip him up without even trying; The Time of Their Lives (1946) is an interesting ghost story with a surprisingly dark opening for a comedy and, last but not least, The Naughty Nineties (No, sorry, it's not a porno) which includes possibly their most famous contribution to the history of comedy, the Who's on First? routine.

Who's on First highlights their biggest strength as a team. Abbott was the put upon straight man who was constantly frustrated and annoyed by his partner's antics. You couldn't find a better bumbling idiot than Costello, and that's high praise indeed.

The guy could do a spit take or double take like no one else. He was basically the Jim Carrey of his time, a master of physical comedy and exaggerated expressions. Costello was possibly the closest you can get to a cartoon character in live action. These guys never, ever, strayed from their dynamic.

Costello was always the oblivious sweet-natured man who was suckered into whatever scheme Abbott came up with from film to film, switching from a dirty greedy coward to an outright villain depending on the plot of each. Costello would inevitably cause a mess of things, and Abbott woukd always  get hit with the collateral damage. While you would think that repeating the same schtick would get stale after the 10th time, let alone the 30th, they were so good at playing off one another, at playing their respective roles, that you would come back to watch them again and again. You watch an Abbott and Costello movie, you know exactly what you're in for.

To be fair, it's not like they reused the exact same material over and over. They knew exactly what they could do as entertainers and who they were doing it for. No shame in doing what you're good at.

There's another scene from The Naughty Nineties that showcases their formula and how they changed it up from scene to scene. Bud is always the straight man, Costello, being the eternal clumsy lovable idiot, always does the wackier bits of their routines. When their dynamic is given a different spin, it is always hilarious.

Sadly, over the course of their film careers they suffered through several tragedies. Costello's infant son drowned in the family pool in 1943;  Costello was never the same again, the grief and anger he felt probably made it difficult to be himself. Abbott suffered from epilepsy in later years and became an alcoholic while struggling and deal with the chronic pain.

The two had a falling out in 1945 and refused to speak to each other off the set afterwards. Lou Costello passed away suddenly at the the age of 53 in 1959  after suffering a massive heart attack, ending any chance of reconciliation between the two. After his partner died, Bud Abbott' career became a shadow of it's former self.  Without Lou, the comedy magic was gone. By the late 1950's audiences already were moving on to watching Martin & Lewis and other younger comedians.

People whose job it is to make other people laugh seem to be cursed to suffer. It's a sad paradox that seems almost seems intentional a this point. Either way, even though their stardom was relatively brief, their legacy is the stuff of legend and biopics.

I only hope that somewhere much brighter and beautiful than here, where men and women and children are free to live without pain or sadness, Abbott and Costello have just finished another one of their umpteenth fine performances, the same they've always done, what they were perhaps always meant to do. 

And maybe my dad is somewhere in the audience, with my grandfather sitting beside him, laughing as loud and as long as I remember from my childhood.

All of Abbott and Costello's films are available on separate DVD collections. You can find them all here