Many aspects make the Zootopia movies perfect for the whole family to enjoy, from their clever blending of commonly known animal characteristics with authentic urban themes to their honest commentary on challenging real-world topics like prejudice and systemic corruption. Of course, there are probably many older audiences who appreciate them as buddy cop movies.
Indeed, Ginnifer Goodwin’s Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, voiced by Jason Bateman, do boast a charmingly mismatched dynamic on par with Lethal Weapon‘s Riggs and Murtaugh or the titular duo from Tango & Cash. Lucky for fans of buddy cop movies who also happen to be parents, Zootopia and Zootopia 2 are not the only family-friendly films streaming on Disney+ that qualify for that category.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit Is Zootopia’s Toon Noir Ancestor
Zootopia first introduces Judy Hopps as a chipper young rabbit who takes her law enforcement aspirations very seriously, and Nick Wilde as a cunning fox who rarely takes anything seriously. Advance those defining characteristics by a few years, and the result is, essentially, the main pairing from 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Director Robert Zemeckis’ game-changing film noir throwback, set in an alternate 1947 in which humans and animated characters co-exist, stars Bob Hoskins as jaded private eye Eddie Valiant, who becomes the eponymous toon’s (Charles Fleischer) only hope to prove his innocence in a murder case. Along the way, the unlikely pair uncovers a deadly Hollywood conspiracy, similar to Judy and Nick’s adventures.
The Great Mouse Detective Is The 80s’ Precursor To Zootopia
Zootopia can be seen as a throwback to the kind of animated adventure films that Disney used to make decades ago, which were brimming with engaging mysteries and high-stakes thrills. A prime example of this from the 1980s is The Great Mouse Detective.
The 1986 favorite is heavily inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s seminal detective stories, with the roguish Basil of Baker Street (Barrie Ingham) serving as the rodent counterpart to Sherlock Holmes and Val Bettin’s Dr. David Dawson, who also narrates the film, filling the part of his John Watson. Retroactively, the exciting mystery perfectly encapsulates Zootopia‘s definitive themes and tone, but in a Victorian setting.
The Rescuers Movies Center On A Strong, Male-Female Dynamic
Nick and Judy form a strong, platonic bond throughout the course of their investigation in the first film, while Zootopia 2 hints at their professional partnership blossoming into something more. Disney previously perfected this will-they-won’t-they dynamic in the Rescuers movies.The Rescuers from 1977 and the 1990s, The Rescuers Down Under follow Bernard (Bob Newhart) and Miss Bianca (Eva Gabor), mice who serve theRescue Aid Society. Their relationship matches the tone of Nick and Judy’s chemistry perfectly, but one aspect that these films have over Zootopia is the adventures that take their heroes all around the world instead of focusing on one fixed location.
Big Hero 6 Is A Procedural Mystery Disguised As A Superhero Movie
Upon deeper reflection, Disney never really stopped making animated mystery adventure flicks, but they were often more discreet about it before coming out with Zootopia. For instance, the 2016 favorite boasts quite a few similarities to the underrated Marvel flick, Big Hero 6, from two years earlier.
The heart of the Oscar winner, following the formation of a team of vigilantes empowered with high-tech suits, is the relationship between the prodigious teen Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) and his inflatable robotic friend, Baymax (Scott Adsit), who, like Judy and Nick, make a conspiratorial discovery while looking into a tragedy that affects them personally. Not to mention, the duo has a “mentor/student” dynamic that ends up getting flipped on its head in ways that fans of the Zootopia protagonists will love.
Bolt Is A Non-Anthropomorphic Animal Adventure
The pulse of the original Zootopia is driven largely by Judy’s naive optimism and how it differs from Nick’s more cynical street smarts, resulting in an endlessly charming dynamic. A quiet precursor to that is another animated Disney favorite featuring animals that do not walk upright, called Bolt.
John Travolta voices the titular White Swiss Shepherd, who is convinced that he is really the super-powered canine he plays on TV, until he becomes lost in New York and meets a stray cat named Mittens (Susie Essman). Before she snaps Bolt out of his delusion, their contrasting energies carry the 2008 Oscar nominee much like Nick and Judy carry Zootopia.
Monsters, Inc. Is A Classic Conspiracy Drama
The conspiracy thriller angle in Zootopia may have seemed like a cutting-edge idea for a family film at the time. However, it is actually a recurring staple of classic animated Disney movies, as well as Pixar movies like the film John Goodman is most often recognized for, Monsters Inc.
In the 2001 hit, Goodman voices legendary scarer James P. “Sulley” Sullivan alongside Billy Crystal as his friend and colleague Mike Wazowski, who discover some shady secrets about the eponymous company when they try to safely return a missing child to her world. On top of that, the cuddly blue beast and the spherical one-eyed creature served as Disney’s gold standard for “workplace buddies” before Nick and Judy.
101 Dalmatians Is An Urban Crime Thriller
By focusing on anthropomorphic animals in a non-human world, Zootopia feels like the kind of crime drama that David Fincher could have made… if the Se7en and Zodiac director significantly dialed back on his signature dark tone. Yet, who says that an animated film’s animal characters need to stand upright to be an exciting thriller of that kind?
Just look at 101 Dalmatians, the original 1961 adaptation of Dodie Smith’s novel about a family of dogs racing to rescue their young and other spotted puppies from the vile fashionista, Cruella de Vil. It does not hold back in its depiction of London’s seedy underbelly, and one might say the “Twilight Bark” is the predecessor to Zootopia’s animal information network.
Turner & Hooch Is The First Great Buddy Cop Movie With An Animal Star
There is a special subcategory of the buddy cop movie genre reserved for films that pair human law enforcement officers with animal partners. The premiere example of this is the 1989 dramedy, Turner & Hooch.
Future Academy Award winner Tom Hanks stars as the latter half of the titular duo, a straight-laced detective who reluctantly forms a team with a wild card French Mastiff. Take away the fact that these partners cannot verbally communicate with each other, and this iconic pairing is a perfect match with Judy and Nick.
Mulan Is A Boundary-Pushing Trailblazer
When Zootopia first came out, Judy Hopps immediately became an aspirational feminist icon for her determination to prove her worth in the male-dominated ZPD office. Of course, her inspirational story owes a lot to Mulan.
Based on a real Chinese legend, the trailblazing 1998 classic stars Ming Na as the eponymous young woman who infiltrates her country’s feudal military to defend her home and protect her elderly father. Aiding Mulan in her quest, not just to pose as a man but to prove that a great fighter is not defined by gender, is a dragon voiced by Eddie Murphy called Mushu, whose sly and hilarious demeanor calls to mind Nick quite often.
- Release Date
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March 4, 2016
- Runtime
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108 Minutes
- Director
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Jared Bush, Rich Moore, Byron Howard
