Film Review of Zootopia

The movie Zootopia directly correlates with the chapter “Purity in America” from the book Sapiens by Yuval Harari. Zootopia clearly shows racism in America’s modern world while staying to its Disney/Kids movie schtick. It explains how racism has changed over the history of the US. A fox, Nick Wilde, who was one of the main characters, is shown as a sly fox that is discriminated against for being a predator.

One way Zootopia represents “Purity in America” is when predators such as Nick Wilde are being assumed as hostile because of their “DNA”. The scientist in Zootopia tried to connect the animals going savage to their DNA, “For whatever reason, they seem to be reverting back to their primitive, savage ways,” which looks like “Purity in America” when it says, “A similar vicious cycle perpetuated the racial hierarchy in modern America,” (Zootopia) (Harari, 143). This paralleled the scientists in real life when they tried to twist information to create a false narrative about African Americans.

Another way Zootopia represents “Purity in America” is when Nick Wilde wants to buy a popsicle from an ice cream store, but the worker won’t let him because he is a predator. The ice cream worker asks Nick, “Aren’t there any ice cream joints in your part of town” which parallels “Purity in America” when it says, “Whites did not want to eat in the same restaurants [as blacks], for fear of diseases” (Zootopia) (Harari, 142). People refused to sell simple things like alcohol, food, and even clothing because of the color of their skin.

One more way Zootopia represents “Purity in America is when Nick is telling Judy a story from his childhood in which he thinks he is getting initiated into the Boy Scouts, but instead he gets muzzled and attacked by the other Boy Scouts. Nick says, “If the world’s only gonna see a fox as shifty and untrustworthy, then what’s the point of trying to be something else,” which represents “Purity in America, when it says, “Those once victimized by history are likely to be victimized yet again. And those whom history has privileged are more likely to be privileged again,” (Zootopia) (Harari, 143). This is saying that Nick’s family comes from a long line of prejudice and discrimination for being foxes, just like black people are still discriminated today for being black. This vicious cycle keeps Nick’s kind from getting the same freedoms as others, and blacks getting the same freedoms as whites.

Therefore, the movie Zootopia cleary shows prejudice and discrimination throughout the movie while sticking to the Disney/Kids schtick. The myths that make blacks inferior to whites are still around today, without anyone being able to do anything about it. In conclusion, the movie Zootopia is an allegory to the real world of prejudice that doesn’t allow people of color to receive the same treatment as whites.

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