Date: January 20, 2021
Music Video of the Day:
Interstellar News: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were inaugurated today as our new President and Vice President, respectively. I taught my first online synchronous class with only one minor technical glitch. However, our TV was acting up tonight and I didn’t get any Trek or Sports Night watched. I did, however, watch Zootopia with a dear friend on Sunday and wanted to write about it tonight.
TL;DR: The world is made up of animals who are civilized, they talk and wear clothes. Judy Hopps is a rabbit who dreams of being a police officer and, despite everyone in her life doubting her, she makes it through the Academy and is assigned to the city of Zootopia. She’s assigned the relatively safe position of meter maid while the other cops search for 14 missing mammals, and she meets Nick the fox… a con artist. She’s give 48 hours to find a missing otter and she blackmails Nick to help her. They figure out someone is causing predatory animals to “go savage”, but Judy jumps to conclusions and she and Nick have a fight. She quits the force and heads back home to farm carrots with her family when she realizes what caused the damage, she and Nick realize it was a ruse by the prey Assistant Mayor who wanted prey to take control of the city, and they save the day. Nick becomes the first fox cop and the city begins to heal while everyone attends a Shakira concert.
Favorite Quote:
“The more we try to understand one another, the more exceptional each of us will be.”
“Life is a little bit messy. We all make mistakes. No matter what type of
Officer Judy Hoppsanimal(person) you are, change starts with you.”
“This is Zootopia, where anyone could be anything.”: I absolutely adore this movie. It’s very obviously an analogue for racism and how it doesn’t matter what’s in our background but in our actions. I love Judy’s optimism, naivete, passion, and sass. Nick is her perfect opposite as he’s lived on “the streets” and had to learn to take of himself at an early age… plus there’s the whole bit about the fox from Judy’s youth and her parents insisting she take fox repellent. I mean the existence of “fox” repellent as opposed to just a pepper spray or something is horrifying in a supposedly advanced society.
The world that was created, was created with care. The different areas for the different animals was so well done, especially when all of the big, tough polar bears were working for a tiny godfather rat… just superb. The villain being the timid little assistant mayor was also fantastic and the use of the recording carrot pen, just wonderful. It never got old. The moment where Judy reaches for the fox repellent and she crushes both Nick and herself is, well, absolutely crushing. She realizes that no matter how much time they had spent together and how much she believed that anyone could be anything, she had been taught hate and fear that reared its ugly head when the chips were down.
It’s something we all have to understand about ourselves… it’s there. When I am walking alone at night, I am weary of absolutely everyone. A man of any color might hurt or rape me, a woman or any color might lure me to be kidnapped by sex traffickers, and folks who drive are never paying attention. I want to live in a country, in a world, where a woman can have the same opportunities as a man, where who you love and how you dress does not influence how people treat you, and where we all respect each other and treat each other with kindness. Today, I have more hope than yesterday… but we all need to get on board. Let go of old grudges, let the past be the past, let’s all move forward together and truly make the world a wonderful place for everyone to live in… including the animals. TOOT TOOT.
TA Out!
To Boldly Go Where Everyone Has Gone Before 