ANI-MOVIES, *Zootopia

For their next original animated film after Big Hero 6, Disney decided to make an all-anthropomorphic animal film several months before the recent Sing theatrical release. Helmed by Disney regular Bryan Howard, and Simpsons alumni Rich Moore, Zootopia is similar Disney's regular habit of making the entire cast be talking animals, but this is one of the first ones where the entire cast is sentient mammals living in a modern day society.

Judy Hopps is an energetic young rabbit from the country who becomes the first bunny to join the police force of the capitol city of Zootopia, which is in a world where animals have "evolved" to the point where predators and prey can live together in harmony. On her first day, Judy is assigned with being a meter maid, but comes across a con artist fox Nick. This is shoved aside though as the police chief gets railroaded into giving her the task of finding one of several predators that have gone missing, but Judy has to solve it in 2 days or give up her badge. Judy cons Nick into helping her find the missing predators, and their investigation leads to them meeting with the local mafia, along with several other comedic misadventures. The unlikely duo seemingly find that the whole scheme was fronted by the mayor, and Judy is praised for her work, but she ultimately quits as she thinks there is something more sinister going on. After spending some time with her family back in the country, Judy realizes what the real cause behind the crimes was, and heads back to Zootopia to team up with Nick to catch the true culprits.

Disney seriously went out of there way to make this a diverse cast and metropolitan background with all the eclectic animal characters. The 3-D animation really works incredibly well, and provides a tangible amount of realism for the otherwise cartoonish critters. Very similar to the Blacksad European comics, but set in present day. Magnificent fun for kids and anthro-enthusiasts alike!