ZOOTOPIA hits the Chinese theatres on March 4, 2016 and has reeled in 0.15 billion RMB for less than two weeks.
“ZOOTOPIA” is formed of “ZOO” and “UTOPIA”, which clearly demonstrates the idea of the scriptwriter that in the ZOOTOPIA, mammals of all shapes, sizes and dietary preferences are living in harmony, and this city, where differences of race and species serve no obstacle to either acceptance or success. It encourages everyone to try everything and become whatever they want. It is this idea induced the main character, a rabbit named Judy Hopps to realize her dream for being a top cop in the city.
Whilst, the movie implicitly talks about bias, something exists everywhere no matter we want to admit it or not. For example, at the beginning of the story, even if Judy graduated at the top of her class from the PTS, the Captain Bogo in the police office, a muscle nerd buffalo disregards to introduce her to her classmates on her first day work and restricts her from undertaking important cases. Obviously, Bogo should have buried in his mind that the little poor bunny may not be competent to deal with big cases which might be easily solved by the stronger mammals like elephant, rhinoceros, or himself.
Many other examples could be found out from the movie, like the first name of Judy’s father, Mr. Stu Hopps, one may easily think of the word “Stew” which is a kind of popular soup made of rabbit, and it directly shows the rank of rabbits in the food chain; the name of the other main character, the red fox named Nick Wilde, his family name shared the same pronunciation with the word “wild”, which manifests the “inherent differences” between the fox and the bunny; the sign of “Pred Pride” holding by mammals during the protest implies the “Black Pride” taking place in the real society, and the dirty words expressed by a pig towards a leopard that inferred from the reality of anti immigration.
To some extent, the scenario reflects the current situation in China, where we call for a harmonious society, but we still cannot resist lots of problems like gender discrimination, class consciousness, polarization between the rich and poor, etc.
Chinese Constitution sets forth general regulations pertinent to right of equality to ensure every citizen, regardless of ethnic status, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious beliefs, level of education, property situation, or length of residence, enjoys equal rights. Apart from the Constitution, the State promulgated the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women, the Marriage Law, the Law on Protection of Minors and so many other laws and regulations to make every effort to eliminate any existing discrimination. However, those laws and regulations are too “theoretical” to be implemented on specific case during the daily practice.
Like the fabulous moral built up by the ZOOTOPIA, we are all dreaming of and are looking forward to that kind of wonderful, peaceful and harmonious world. If we cannot control the implementation of policies, laws or regulations at this moment, at least, we may control ourselves. Even though we could fail, just try everything and become the best us. Someday, dreams may come true.