[YMS] So I just saw the furry movie, I mean "Fruitopia" and it was decent.
Fun fact, there is a furry convention happening in my city right now, so the audience for the opening night showing was, like, 100% furry.
A few people started barking when the trailers were over, at which point my friend and I looked at each other and said: "This is happening."
To my surprise, there was only one other point in the film where anything like that happened.
There were two wolf characters and one of them started howling and the other one was like:
[clip] Quit it. You're gonna start a howl.
[howling]
[YMS] And then, like, six people in the theater started howling.
And honestly, I kind of expected more shit like that to be happening during the movie, but that was about it.
So an audience full of furries seeing "Zootopia" on opening night
was actually significantly less disruptive than the opening night showing for "Star Wars". Hilarious.
As for the movie, it was decent. It's like every computer animated Disney movie made in the past ten years,
except everyone's an animal and they're all racist. I like that a constant element of the film was the size differences between species.
It was entertaining to see different scenarios where they had to invent practical workarounds
in order for these species to coexist in a modern setting.
Like, the super small rodent animals would essentially have kind of a bike lane so that they're not a part of regular traffic.
Little things like that where you can tell they put some thought into the practicality of this universe were kind of nice to see.
The voice acting was pretty good, although the entire time Jason Bateman sounded as though he was trying really had to sound like George Clooney.
I guess that's just maybe what they decided foxes would sound like, 'cause it worked out well before, so why not, I guess.
I kinda wish they put a bit more effort into the audio mixing and editing for the dialogue.
Every single character sounds the exact same the entire movie, no matter what room or environment they're in,
no matter how far away from the camera they are, etcetera. Their volumes never change and it all just sounds so fake.
Once you notice it, it's difficult to get the image out of your head that they're just actors talking into microphones.
I mean, I guess it's fine, because kids won't notice and 99.9% of adults won't notice,
but when a film like "Fantastic Mr. Fox" with a significantly lower budget is able to pay attention to details like that,
it really shows the difference in priorities between these two films.
It's not wrong to have different priorities, so just remember that it's also not wrong to acknowledge them.
And speaking of priorities, it's clear that Disney was well-aware of the furry demographic when making this film.
From the second the teaser trailer came out and they were using the word anthropomorphic, it was pretty fucking obvious.
And as more information kept coming out, it became harder and harder for people to deny.
Just recently one of the animators sent out some tweets asking furries to take pictures of themselves seeing the movie in costume,
and I couldn't help but feel as though there was some pandering going on in the actual film as well.
There's the tiger dancers, the nudist colony scene, the borderline food fetishist,
and they even had a macro scene where they're fighting in a super small town for rodents.
And the size differences between species all seemed to make sense up until that scene,
where I found myself wondering: "Would a bunny really be that much bigger?"
I don't know, maybe I'm just overinterpreting, but a few of those seemed kind of purposeless as though they were forced into the movie.
And speaking of forced into the movie, what the hell was up with Shakira?
[ ♪ Shakira - Hips Don't Lie ft. Wyclef Jean ♪ ]
[YMS] Literally the only reason her character exists is so that they can tie in a catchy song so that more people buy the soundtrack,
and I am not exaggerating at all when I say that.
Who knows, maybe this will get some crappy "Best original song" nomination at the Oscars next year.
What's particularly weird about them forcing that song into the film is that it's not really that good.
Like, if you're gonna force it in anyway, you'd think that it would at least be a more sellable song.
When's the last time Shakira's been relevant anyway? Anyway, I found that the movie's best parts were the action scenes.
It kept everything fun, upbeat and interesting and everything was really well-choreographed with both the characters and the camera.
The film had a good score with nothing particularly amazing about it,
and the story had some good things going for it and some kinda shitty things going for it.
Here were the good things: I liked how they introduced the world at the beginning of the film,
the social commentary, although obvious, didn't feel overbearing, and much of the film was genuinely funny.
Despite being a furry movie about animals, it never really felt dependent on the cute factor.
Sure, they used it here and there, but the film didn't rely on it.
And now for the not so great parts of the story where I'm forced to spoil bits of the movie in order to properly addres them.
If you wish to skip spoiler talk, please feel free to click to this point in the video. There's your warning. 3, 2, 1.
So I know that the movie really desperately wanted to touch on racial issues,
but would it not have been nice for the villain's motivation to be anything other than "Oh, I'm just really really racist."
They really did not spend any time developing on that at all,
and by that point in the movie, things really felt as though they were trying to wrap things up as quickly as possible.
I also really hate how they handled the bait-and-switch with the blueberry and the nighthowler.
They very clearly showed and talked about the blueberries on the car ride to that location.
Pretty sure they even waved them in front of the camera and it would have been totally fine if they had just left it at that,
but then as soon as they get in the museum where it's already excruciatingly obvious that there's going to be some sort of a showdown there,
all of the sudden, they're like: "Fuck! I dropped all of my blueberries in case you forgot that I had them."
And that's literally right before they decide to shoot him with that blue ball of nighthowler.
As soon as you see him dropping all those blueberries, it's impossible not to think:
"Oh, he's gonna swap it out, because the blueberry looks exactly like the nighthowler bullet. Whatever."
Now, I know what some of you are already thinking. You're thinking: "Adam, that's a stupid argument.
This movie's for kids, so they have to make it simple enough for a child to understand it. This is for children, Adam. This is not for you."
And that's exactly what you should be saying if I was complaining about how obvious the social commentary was.
I mean, the entire point of there being social commentary in the film is so that kids can relate to and understand those messages,
but since when is the point of a bait-and-switch scene so that you can call it beforehand?
The whole point of doing it is so that you think he get's show by the nighthowler
and then he reveals: "Oh, it was actually a blueberry. Tricked you!"
How does any demographic benefit from making the reveal more predictable before it happens?
Like, as long as you knew that he had blueberries at some point, then it's perfect and the car scene accomplished exactly that.
The fact that they felt as though they needed to emphasize the blueberries again just seems so counterintuitive.
"Adam, this movie's for kids, they have to dumb it down so that they won't get the intented effect of the scene either!"
Also, were the blueberries an hommage to "Fantastic Mr. Fox" or was that unintentional?
[clip] Beagles love blueberries.
And last but not least, how forced was that bit in the third act where they pretended to hate each other for, like, two minutes?
Why does every single buddy comedy movie feel as though they need to force that into the second half?
"What, so you think I'm gonna go crazy because I'm a predator species? Man, you've changed! I hate you now!"
This happens in so many movies and it's always so fucking forced. It's literally just an item on a checklist at this point.
"Well, the third act's coming up and we can't do that, unless the main characters hate each other
and then quickly make amends before taking on their greatest challenge."
Trust me, when you start seeing that shit in every movie, you'll be just as annoyed.
Every single time it's done, it comes out of fucking nowhere and disappears, like, two minutes later.
"Well, we checked that one off our list. Now we can wrap up the story."
It's like Hollywood thinks that you literally can't even release it unless it follows that specific formula.
Anyway, I thought this movie was good overall. It wasn't amazing, but its benefits definitely outweighed its flaws,
and as for Disney and their marketing choices, I don't really see any harm in that.
I mean, regardless of whether or not they try to market towards furries,
they've already got the family and children demographic pretty much guaranteed.
So there's no real harm in trying to capitalize on an extra demographic of adults who will buy your product pretty much no matter what,
and especially considering how incredibly formulated Disney movies have gotten, they're really not taking any risks whatsoever.
Anyway, despite it being incredibly formulated and unexceptional overall, I would still recommend it.
So if this looks like your thing, go check it out and I'm giving this one a six out of ten.
[Subtitles by Abel Boeschoten]