How Is Judy Portrayed In Zootopia

Children’s films have really progressed over the years to contain many layers of meaning and symbolism, in order to entertain and interest not only the kids, but also the parents. Zootopia definitely follows this trend, through its parallels to racism, gender inequality, and other forms of ostracisation which would be unlikely for young children to understand.
The messages shown in Zootopia are largely generalised, and can be used to represent a number of different things. The film was clearly based on racism, and the writers then built on that. There aren’t really any set racial groups defined for the entirity of the film, as both the “predators” and “prey” are targetted for belonging to their groups. In the beginning of the film, we see that Judy, the protagonist of the film, is a bunny who dreams of being in the police force. She presents this in a school production, and following this, another child, a fox (one of the predators), bullies Judy because she’s prey, and they are typically portrayed as being weak and timid. It is

This is where the film starts to become confusing, and loses its stong metaphorical link. It switches its dominant group, and it now appears that the prey are largely in control, with 90% of Zootopia’s population being prey. This is a massive turn around. The opressor from the previous scene is actually shown to be part of the minority group. This is the point at which I was beginning to feel as if the writers were clutching at straws a little. It would have made a lot more sense if they had simply chosen one opressed group, and one privileged group. I got the feeling that the writers were focussing more on their attempts to relate the movie to racism, than they were on making sure that they stayed consistent with their group in power. It is difficult to tell which group is being steretyped, mocked and