Which moral issue is being discussed? In ‘Zootopia’ the main moral issue is racism. Racism is a prejudice, discrimination or antagonism directed to someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. In this film predators are being discriminated by the preys because the preys belief that all predators are dangerous. Since about 1400 racism has been an issue. Today, racism is still an often-discussed moral issue. In the Netherlands racism is mostly linked to ‘Zwarte Piet’ because people belief that it is racist. However, in this film racism is not portrayed by someone being racist, but about the majority being racist against the minority. The discriminated group sees the racism as unfair and irritating. However, for the majority it is sometimes logical to discriminate a race if you can see that the group in question causes relatively more problems than the group you belong to. So to give such people a certain job or to trust those people carries in some cases a higher risk than trusting people who belong to a group which causes less problems. Unfortunately, racism causes division in society based on races. This also happens in the film when the preys discover that the predators cause more problems. I think Disney chose this issue because racism is a big problem in today’s society and people find it very interesting.
Description of the animals involved The main characters of ‘Zootopia’ are Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. Judy Hopps is a rabbit who is the first rabbit to complete the police academy. Judy comes from the farmland and is sent to the big city Zootopia. There she discovers that all the police officers are big strong animals like bison, elephants and hippos. The chief believes that she is just the result of the Mammal Inclusion Initiative, an organisation for the short and fluffy animals. Nick Wilde is a fox. At first Nick corresponds with the stereotype about foxes because he is a sly criminal. However, later in the story it is revealed that Nick wanted to be like a prey since he was a child. As a child he wanted to join the scouting, which existed of only preys, but he gets discriminated by the preys and is not allowed to join them. For that reason Nick chose to be like all the other foxes. A while after the first meeting of Nick and Judy she tries to convince Nick that he can be who he wants to be and they become friends. Judy even offers Nick to become her partner on the police force. Judy is a flat character because her characteristics do not develop throughout the story. She is during the whole film a rabbit with intense perseverance. Nick is a round character because his characters do develop throughout the story. First he is sly but later he is a friendly trustable fox. Between these two main characters there is racism on a small scale but later in the story there is on a group scale and the relation between Judy and Nick almost falls apart by the racism.
How the issue is dealt with The issue starts when different predators went suddenly crazy. When the city finds out that only predators tend to be able to go crazy, they discriminate all predators. All predators are for instance fired as police officers. Disney shows two perspectives of this issue. The perspective of a prey and of a predator. Disney emphasises the logic behind the racism. For a small prey like a bunny it must be terrifying to know that all the predators in the city can go crazy. Also it is shown how much impact the racism has on the discriminated group. This is for example shown by the tiger who is receptionist at the police office. He is portrayed as a kind character and he turns extremely sad when he is fired. When Nick and Judy solve the case and it turns out that the mayor, a fluffy sheep, drugged only predators to influence the majority and turning them into racists. Disney used this story to show that racism is bad but can be logical.
How the story could have been shown in different ways Disney showed this story about racism from two perspectives. However, this story could also have been shown from one perspective. In the first scenario the story could have been shown from the perspective of the discriminated group. If this was done, the film would emphasise on how much impact racism has on the animals. The creator would have portrayed the predators as emotionally unstable animals and would exaggerate the effect that racism has on the animals. The receptionist would have for instance been in a deep depression and all predators would be very poor. In the second scenario the story would have been shown from the perspective of the discriminating group. If this was done, the film would exaggerate the fear for the predators and emphasise on the reason behind the racism. They would show for example some predators threatening the preys. I think that if I was the creator I would have showed this story just as Disney did. I think it is the fairest way to show this from two perspectives because in this way you prevent influencing people badly. This film is made for the whole world so it is quite logical actually that this story is shown from two perspectives. However, when I would have to create this film in a country where the majority of the people is being discriminated I would maybe show this film from the perspective of the predators and if I would have to show this story in a country where a minority is discriminated I would maybe show it from the perspective of the preys to gain the most views and get as least criticism as possible.ier om te bewerken.