Zootopia

Disney's Black People are Different.

48 Hours as rewritten by the social justice department of tumblr. The adult in me was disappointed by a movie (complete with key words such as "ignorant" and "small-minded") about as subtle as Paul Haggis' Crash. The parent in me was faced with a film that is PREACHING tolerance to my son, which is in no way bad. I guess I'm just more accustomed to less obvious brainwashing, but I'm also American, so...Go Trump! My real complaint is too Ted-like: who has time for funny when plot plot plot?

Definitely overrated, but still pretty good if you can believe that all the carnivores in the world spontaneously went vegan. (This is never explained.)

Zootopia is a meaningful message movie about anthropomorphic animals made by Disney. Who saw that coming? You can expect the "be yourself" message, which is here, but a film using its animals allegorically to talk about racism and sexism? Well, it worked. Zootopia is a fantastic film not just because of how effectively it delivers its important message, but because of how it combines that with its great animation, fantastic voice work, intriguing film noir plot, and hysterical sense of humor.

Did Disney of all studios just make a shockingly clever allegorical film about racism? Yes, yes they did. But seriously, Zootopia is clever, funny and meaningful in more ways than I expected, this is the very definition of a pleasant surprise.