Another good movie

We've had a pretty good run of movies lately. Last week-end, we went to see Zootopia. Even though we'd seen the trailers before the earlier movies, I wasn't really sure what we were getting into. The part we saw before, the main characters need to get information at the registry of motor vehicles where all of the workers are sloths and they move and talk very slowly. This is especially funny because the person needing their help is a rabbit who is in a hurry. It was really well done and we all enjoyed that scene. But you always worry that maybe you've seen the best part of the movie.

Well, we were happy to find out that we hadn't seen the best part of the movie. It was a delightful mix of an interesting story (most of it is a mystery), wonderfully intricate animation (you'll have a hard time seeing all the jokes in the background the first time you watch this) and really good voice acting. The voices were one of the things I was worried about. I knew that a lot of famous actors were doing the voices and I find that doesn't usually work very well. But this time, it worked. I thought the voices matched the characters very well.

They were very careful to keep all of the animals in character. The main story line is introduced at the beginning of the movie in a school play where they point out that now, predators and prey live peacefully together. But it is never quite that simple and we also learn right away that the predators can still be dangerous and they prey must be careful. The big mystery starts when a number of predators go missing. But just before they disappear, it seems that they have reverted to their age-old instinct for predation. It's up to the main characters to figure out what is going on. There are a few misleading clues and they think they've found the answer but it turns out that there is more to it. All the while, we meet a fascinating mix of characters and situations. The time flew by. The themes are not as simple as you may often see in an animated movie whose main audience will be young children. I think they aimed higher with this movie. We all enjoyed it.