Alright, I changed the whole "movie review" rule on one-sentence chapters for this story, but I'm not gonna bother deleting this.
Anyhowsen, I've decided for this story's first review to be for Disney's most recent 3D animated film Zootopia, which stars Patrick Bateman and Gennifer Goodwin.
The first thing I can say is that I think it's Disney's best looking computer generated movie up to date. I saw this movie twice in theaters, and even without 3D glasses, you can still feel the insane attention of detail the animators put into the final product, down to every individual strand of fur the animals have, and with the way it's shot, written, and rendered, you always feel like there's a world that'd been created outside of the walls.
I also give them credit for putting the buddy cop gimmick to good use. I was iffy about the film at first when I first found out it was going to be an crime action film, but the script actually takes advantage of it being a means to explore the customs and architecture of the city. It also handles the mystery element of the story well, doing a great job of using misdirection to keep us guessing the exact truths until the very end.
All that being said, though, I felt like the movie's biggest falling point was the dialogue. The actors are all cast perfectly for their roles, and put on great performances with what they're given, but all the lines they're given constantly fall into the habit of spelling everything out or what they're trying to get across, rather than let everything express itself in a visual way, or make its themes much more subtle. The movie's take on prejudices in modern society is actually pretty complex and relevant, delving into the social boundaries that make it a really complex issue with no solve-all answer, but I still felt like there was a lack of subtlety that painted it the same way more animated films tried to tackle the concept of racism. Especially by the end, with the main reveal.
That's not to say the movie completely fails in that effort. There's still enough motivations fleshed out to understand most of the characters' decisions, and we can see the effort they take to reconnect when they take things too far. Even if the movie tends to flow in the traditional Disney formula, it still makes up for a lot of relevance in the way it frames society and its issues.
All that being said, though, I thought Zootopia was worth both the money, and walking across a parking structure at midnight o leave the shopping mall.
I give Zootopia 7.5 stars out of 10.