‘Zootopia’: A delightful menagerie, with a worthwhile message

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Sly fox Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman) works with new police recruit Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) as they investigate a missing otter case in Disney’s “Zootopia.” (Walt Disney Animation )

Using animals to tell kid-friendly stories that dispense important life lessons is a practice as old as Aesop. But with “Zootopia,” a thoroughly engaging new film from Walt Disney Animation — a studio that knows a thing or two about cuddly, anthropomorphic critters — this familiar narrative approach gets a jolt of new, culturally relevant life. The idea that a cartoon starring an adorable bunny, a slippery fox and a shrew that does a halfway decent Marlon Brando impression might have something meaningful to say about race relations, especially in #BlackLivesMatter America, sounds pretty ridiculous.But it’s true.

The determined rabbit-protagonist of “Zootopia” is Judy Hopps (enthusiastically voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin of “Once Upon a Time”). Having longed to be a police officer, Judy finally gets the chance, thanks to a “mammal-inclusion effort” focused on recruiting cops of diverse backgrounds. After she is assigned to the downtown precinct in Zootopia, a vibrantly realized metropolis whose neighborhoods range from the miniaturized Little Rodentia to the lush Rainforest District, Judy shows up for work bright-eyed, quite literally bushy-tailed and ready to start upholding the law. But when she’s stuck in a demoralizing stint issuing parking tickets, she realizes that being an officer is going to be more messy than imagined. Among other things, she’ll have to overcome unfair preconceptions about her abilities, forge a tentative partnership with that untrustworthy fox (voiced, with perfect slyness, by Jason Bateman) and investigate a missing-otter case that uncovers the institutional biases and political corruption lurking beneath Zootopia’s surface.

The genius of “Zootopia” is that it works on two levels: It’s a timely and clever examination of the prejudices endemic to society, and also an entertaining, funny adventure about furry creatures engaged in solving a mystery. The adults in the audience may see connections between Judy’s initial belief that predators are genetically designed to turn savage and the misguided assumptions some human cops make in real life. Younger audience members, on the other hand, will be busy giggling and gawking at the rich, colorful animalscape that directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore, along with their co-director Jared Bush, have brought to the screen.

From the flotilla of tiny financial experts who stream out of Lemming Brothers Bank to the eye-popping train ride through the terrains of Zootopia to that mob-boss shrew (who looks and sounds a lot like the title character in “The Godfather”), there’s an attention to inspired detail here that’s very much in keeping with the standards set by Disney and its cousin, Pixar. Some of the set pieces — most notably a visit to a DMV staffed entirely by slow-moving sloths — are as hilarious and deftly paced as anything you might find in a live-action comedy.

In short, “Zootopia” is the best animated film of the year, as well as one that conveys a message rarely heard in movies for children: Getting exactly what you hoped for isn’t the end of the journey. It’s just the beginning of the hard work of becoming the best, most open-minded bunny you can be.

PG. At area theaters. Contains rude humor, action and some mature thematic elements. 109 minutes.

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Epcot: Landscaping

Epcot: Landscaping

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Morgan “Bill” Evans was the original landscape architect for both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom (and the surrounding resort area). About landscaping Epcot, he stated:

Epcot Center is going to be a tougher assignment than the Magic Kingdom. We’re trying to create a typical landscape from foreign nations. We’re trying to show trees typical of Japan, Canada, Mexico, and China. We have France, England, Italy, and Germany.

Japan and China are particularly fascinating. There will be Chianthus Petusa, a Chinese fringe tree that is covered with white blossoms; the Japanese pagoda tree; the Chinese scholar tree; and the Japanese black pine, which looks like a giant Bonsai.

For the China Pavilion, Tony Virginia, the director of horticulture for Walt Disney World, acquired a hundred-year-old weeping mulberry he had found in New Jersey. The tree was fifteen-feet tall and very wide and distorted—the “look” sought for the area.

The tree was prepared for the long trip south using a procedure known as B & B, or ball and burlap. The root ball was held together with burlap. The tree was laid on its side aboard a flat-bed trailer. Trees as large as twenty-five-foot flowering pears from New Jersey had already been moved to Walt Disney World.

Some of the largest trees at Epcot (30–35 foot oaks) had to be transported vertically, aboard flat-bed trailers at Preview Boulevard at Lake Buena Vista (where they had been grown from saplings) and moved to a temporary holding area in the Epcot Center parking lot.

Routes were selected to avoid overhead wires, highway overpasses, and monorail beams (generally sixteen to eighteen feet above the ground on the route originally planned to move the trees). A permanent road avoiding the monorail was built.

While attempts were made to use trees authentic to the different countries, sometimes “look-alikes” had to be used to achieve the right appearance. Hemlock is a tree common to Canada and would be necessary to create an authentic landscape, but hemlocks would not survive in central Florida. “They need cold, cold winter weather, and they don’t like humidity,” stated Virginia.

Instead, Disney substituted Cedrus Deodora, a cedar native to the Himalayas that looked similar to the hemlock, but had the advantage of being able to thrive in central Florida.

Roughly 12,500 trees representing 125 species, over 100,000 shrubs of 250 species, 14 acres of Emerald Zoysia grass, and over three acres of annual flowers were planted for the opening of Epcot Center.

“And I won’t tell you how much Argentina Bahia sod,” said Virginia. That drought-resistant grass was used extensively “wherever we haven’t installed irrigation”.

Annuals, which normally last 45 days before replacement, began to be planted during mid-September 1982. Most of the annuals were planted in Future World, including 40,000 square feet of hillside beds at the Land pavilion. In total, 3.5 acres of annuals (over 40,000 plants) were planted before the park opened.

In the World Showcase Lagoon, on what was then known as “the islands of the world”, slash pines predominated among a half-dozen island tree varieties so that it would “look like Florida woods—like we just carved it out”, stated Bill Coan, the project landscape architect.

Morgan Evans recalled:

It doesn’t make any difference how carefully you contrive the planning or how good the material is or how efficiently it is all installed. The whole thing depends on maintenance and Walt Disney World is doing a first-class job. Walt Disney believed people would know the difference between good landscaping and bad landscaping and [Disney] is the best.