Streaming review: 'Zootopia+'
Oh, look, another Zootopia review!
It's been six years since Zootopia was released to theaters. In that time, a lot has happened. America has managed the change to two different presidents. Across the pond in the UK, where the movie was known as Zootropolis, they've managed to beat that turnover rate for heads of state with four new prime ministers, plus a new monarch. That's kind of prescient for a movie where the titular city burns through two mayors over the course of its plot.
In all that time, Zootopia has managed to remain popular with furries. It also, perhaps a bit surprisingly, has managed to remain popular with non-furries. It is one of only three Disney Animated Studio movies to break into the billion dollar club (the other two are both Frozen). It also managed critical and industry awards accolades to go along with the commercial success, giving it the hat trick of movie success criteria. So, a lot of people would probably not be averse to a sequel, right?
Well, how about a series of animated shorts released over half a decade later with little fanfare to a streaming service, instead?
Zootopia+ was announced as a sort of streaming television series, and IMDB still categorizes it as such, but as each "episode" is a little over five minutes, Zootopia+ is more accurately a series of shorts, little different to the Maraschino Ruby short that came with The Bad Guys Blu-ray and/or DVD. It's a nice bonus, but that's about it. If it wasn't bundled with the package, I wouldn't bother. And The Bad Guys physical disc came out two months after the movie's theatrical release, not six years, so this all comes off as a bit anti-climactic.
Of course, there are six shorts on the programme - for the most part they're better than The Maraschino Ruby, anyway. They basically take six supporting characters or pairs of characters and tell a story about them that was essentially happening in the background of the movie. So, in the first short, while movie protagonist Judy Hopps is on the train to Zootopia, her parents try to rescue a younger sibling who's snuck aboard. Subsequent shorts feature Fru Fru, Duke Weaselton, Mr. Big, Officer Clawhauser and DMV sloths Flash and Priscilla.
The shorts are well-animated, in part because they frequently feature actual scenes from the original movie inserted into them — which, once again, is kind of annoying if you wanted something new, but has the upshot of meaning that, in order to not look horrible, the shorts' animation has to be to the theatrical feature's level.
The "series" is easy to marathon, as it has a total run time a little over a half an hour, including credits. The first, featuring the Hopps, is a strong beginning, and the final short, featuring the sloths (but really the only short starring a brand new character, the otter waitress Sam) is a decent finale. However, my favorite shorts ended up being the shrew-centric ones; Mr. Big's strategic mumbling while telling his life story is the best joke in the series. Meanwhile, one of Fru Fru's bridesmaids, Mandy the mouse, is the best new character, despite not actually doing a whole lot. On the other hand, my least favorite of the bunch is the reality talent contest parody featuring Clawhauser. Maybe I just don't like funny animal parodies of talent shows?
It's another case of, if you have a Disney+ subscription, you might as well watch it. As I said earlier, it might not be really worth it if it wasn't part of a bundle, but it's part of a bundle, so that's not a dealbreaker. And, honestly, since original movie director Rich Moore is no longer with Disney, if Zootopia never gets that sequel, I'm fine with just this.
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2cross2affliction (Brendan Kachel) — read stories — contact (login required)a red fox
New teeth. That's weird.
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There is no Zootopia without either an emphasis on cops or Eweish control.
Unfortunately Zootopia plus was another shameful overhyped Disney product pandering to the furry community just to get more support for Disney+, If Disney really wanted to make something good they would make a actual series or a movie instead of this rubbish.
Sincerely yours Hardial and Bianca Johal
Fuck you, disney.
Ha! I gotcha!
Okay, person who has been systematically one-starring every single comment I have made for the last six months ... you missed this one. Hope that helps! You'll get'em all next time! I believe in you! You have fun, now.
Anyway, here's a clip from The Last Unicorn that has no bearing on anything. I just like this clip.
Actually, this is a great place/time to talk about Zootopia 2, which theoretically someone should want to do, but, like you guys are fucking weird sometimes, so I have no clue.
I thought about doing an article, but honestly, I summarized it pretty good in the Newsbyte, because we literally know shit. Like, to steal a line from a harsh review of Lightyear I read last year, this has major investors meeting vibes, except they're not vibes, this was literally announced to make investors do a happy dance (and maybe also distract from a round of layoffs). I even hedged the Newsbyte a little because with the phrase "probably exists" because, for all I know, Eisner just threw out three sequels that sound like they should exist (right?) and no actual creative process has been applied, but, sure, I guess we can get on that now.
I feel like I'm being a bit hypocritical here, because now I feel like I'm the one who is being all Debbie Downer about this thing when I was honestly hurt by how fucking cynical and just mean-spirited everyone reacted to my attempts to just enjoy something enjoyable back in 2016. (Seriously, you guys were all kind of assholes about it. Yeah, Patch was the final straw, but what the hell was up with you guys that year?) Add in the absolute hellscape the last seven years have been, I mean, fuck everything, right? But anyway, I guess I should just explain this because I apparently wasn't obvious enough with a joke recently, so I wouldn't be surprised if you're all wondering what the hell The Last Unicorn has to do with anonymous trolls, well, anyway, nothing, actually, the clip is my feelings on Zootopia 2. Like, well, it's here now.
You know, it would be nice if you lashed out in defense of me every once in a while. Maybe I wouldn't be such a cranky bitch. This is easily the nicest thing you've said to me in over a fucking decade, and you still went out of your way to call me a hack and passive aggressively lecture me. Thanks, asshole.
You're welcome - though I'd note the term is used more positively this side of the Atlantic.
As for defense: I spent most of my effort in that area trying to explain and justify the story that started all that - several times - to fans of the artist you went out of your way to disparage by using their name as a derogatory term. (Frankly, I didn't find much to support there, so I didn't try all that hard.)
What you say reflects on you, but also on Flayrah. For some, your comments may be their first impression; it concerns me that they may also be the last. Honestly, it doesn't make much sense when you spend significant time on stories that you presumably want to be read. Going out of your way to denigrate artists does not encourage readers to return.
I don't remember much about 2016, but I guess we might have been a tad cynical about Disney (whose tolerance for its employees interacting with furry fandom had not been great over the years) basically adopting furry concepts about a more mature depiction of anthropomorphic animals once it saw the chance to make a huge pile of money out of it.
Yeah, I get your use of "hack", I've notably used it myself that way, but, like, there were other comments in the same thread that were not using it that way, and context matters.
Not really. I don't find myself writing for Flayrah's "audience" anymore. Like, I've had too many bad first, second, third, fourth and so on impressions of these people to really care anymore about what impression I'm making on them. I'm basically writing for a (probably imaginary) future audience of mainly non-furries who care more about furry as a genre than a group of people. Like, my secret Flayrah goal is to publish enough movie reviews to make a book, and if it doesn't go to mainstream publisher, than I just rather not do it period, even if some furry publisher wants it.
I don't even really like furries, you know. As a group they're pretentious, backstabbing, envious, boring, tasteless, over-sexed, undercooked, lazy, mean-spirited, snotty, uninteresting, uninterested, self-satisfied, and no good in bed! I mean, you remember vaguely bo/PoE. Like, I find myself getting nostalgic for those forums because I honestly miss how nice everyone was. And I was nicer, too, because wasn't constantly surrounded by people attacking me but actually supporting me. Even when I got into a fairly nasty fight later on, like, it never devolved to the point where anyone pettily chased me around the forum downvoting everything I posted. That's just fucking stupid, but it happens all the fucking time here.
And, to be clear, I'm not just complaining about how I'm treated; every regular here (except maybe dronon) has had this happen to them, to the point where complaining about it became Diamond Man's entire personality (and then he'd do it himself, because he's on another level of awful). I just know it's happened to you, hasn't it? Furries are just mean to each other. It's gross.
Maybe everyone else is passive aggressive and I'm more aggressive aggressive, but being passive aggressive doesn't make you morally superior, it just makes you more annoying.
And idiots, too. Look at the idiot commenting on the actual subject of this article, like Disney needs to pander to fucking furries? Some of these idiots actually think Pokemon panders to them; the fucking largest cash cow franchise in the fucking world, and they think Nintendo's all like "oh, dear, if we don't get those furry dollars, we're in trouble!" Fuck! I literally feel the need to explain "that was a joke" after every joke comment now. (While we're here, I haven't actually fucked any furries, I don't know how they are in bed, ending a rant consisting of a list of negatives that way is a common comedy trope, maybe even a little hacky, actually, but that's what that was.)
Also, what kind of idiot reads the comments before the article? That's a bad reader. Fuck them. I don't want them.
But, anyway, you did just kind of call me a bitch, Green Reaper. That's new. Going the other, way, this is probably the meanest you've been. I guess I got the impression you at least did kind of regret how the entire 2014-2016 Flayrah versus Inkbunny thing went down, but, like, I hope it's more about "I kind of left them on their own for a while" and not "I kind of left them on their own for a while in the care of an unstable asshole".
I do see that I totally sabotaged your attempts at diplomacy. Oops. But, like I'm saying here, even when I do play nice, people are still assholes to me, you, and Flayrah as a whole. That's what I'm bitching about with the Zootopia stuff. When I get the exact same reaction to "let's have some fun, guys" as "crossie cranky", it's a bit beside the point. I've defaulted to the first in my articles and the second in my comments, and that's the best you're probably going to get from me.
Because I literally said, hey, let's have some fun and talk about an upcoming movie that might be fun, and your response was to call me a bitch.
I'm just tired, man.
Huh? I posted an image that popped into my mind about someone not able to feel something based on the quoted text. If anything I would've thought that applied to the people you were talking about (Kratos himself is well-known for letting his feelings show).
You brought up this 'bitch' thing and I don't get why, though I guess you weren't happy about the linked comment. If I'd wanted to call you that, I'd have used this video instead.
If you're tired, take a rest. That's what the weekend is for, in theory, although that might not apply to your work (and sadly, it usually just means more work for websites).
As for 2013-15: it wasn't just IB, though that was a big part of it - I was moving back to the UK, which was decidedly non-trivial after a decade in the US, and getting harassed by activists. Keeping Flayrah up was what I could manage.
Okay, once again, context matters Green Reaper, but I forgive you. It didn't seem very you, or at least hypocritical of you, anyway, to just, even sneakily, call someone a bitch.
And I've also forgiven you for that time period, it was not your fault. Things happened, we're all muddling along as best we can, and we're all fine now. Totally fine. It's fine. Everything's fine. Fine.
Well, the section of the rant about nobody getting jokes aged very poorly very quickly. I've never owned a Playstation, so I recognized Kratos, but I don't anything about him other than he's ... well, kind of angry all the time. Not sure what bearing that has on anything ...
I meant tired metaphorically, like "tired of it", but being back in the UK you probably don't realize what weekend it is. So, rest is out.
Also, lot of great Zootopia 2 discussion going on here, I see.
Edit: Also, I did not realize that the phrase "pulled a Garrison" caused so much problems, because that comment was me not being an asshole, at least not on purpose, unlike the first time. It was not meant to be disparaging or a synonym for cheating (though it is obviously in hindsight really goddamn insensitive). Like, most of that thread was "sorry, not sorry, I said what I said" but that was an unfortunate accident, so actually sorry about that now. I don't know if this apology needs to reach her or if its best to just let sleeping dogs lie at this point, though.
We actually get a fair bit of that Bowl stuff because the BBC bought some rights to it (probably because it got priced out of the market for everything else) and tries to get some mileage out of it. Got a PC build planned for tomorrow, though, so I'll just catch highlights as usual.
Never had a PS myself but I caught a stream of the latest game, and it's on PC now as well.
Not sure about the fine, but I'll probably feel a lot better once I get that new drug I'm being prescribed. Been hard to edit with a shaky hand, let alone write anything.
Have you tried enjoying something today? Enjoying something is probably seen as offensive to those with depression.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Yeah that is dismal Disney, And to top it off we have Antman 3 (The over hyped Introduction to phase 5) Failing in the box-office which is very bad news for Marvel and possibly a bad sign to other Marvel/Disney products.
Sincerely yours Hardial and Bianca Johal
Well, anyway, since we've got a release date on Zootopia 2 (Nov. 26, 2025), and given other recent announcements, looks like the UK is going to have at least one more monarch before it's release.
Man, that must be a long wait for y'all
Have to wait until 2025 for new stuff to fap to
No, your mom's onlyfans is still updating regularly.
Mother is dead... dumbass
Oh, that would explain why she was so quiet last night ...
Well you're the dumbass trying to listen for someone who has been dead 15 years. Idiot!
Makes sense why you look for attention here.
If I wanted to seek attention I would do it differently. For example, your kind are the pinnacle of attention seeking.
It is implicit in the whole idea of dressing up like the football team mascot, because that gets all the kind of attention one could want.
I don't want attention. Nah, give me money instead! Cash yo!
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