When I first caught a glimpse of Zootopia last summer, (I saw very early test footage, along with some sketches of the actual, literal, landscape) – I must say, out of all the Disney films lined up, this one looked the weakest. And after seeing the finished product, my thoughts have sort of been confirmed.

Okay, the “weakest” may not be a fair comparison, but the one with the most harrowing disappointment. I don’t know why, but for some reason I could not engulf myself into the picture like I did with Disney animations last three pictures Wreck It Ralph, Frozen and Big Hero 6. All of those films were terrific, had a formula, and found themselves within the typical niche of mouse-house offerings. They also benefited from having very recognizable characters (Olaf from Frozenand Baymax from Big Hero 6 respectively). Zootopia is at times a clever animated fable where animals of all species including predators and prey live in a metropolitan-esq world. Then other times most of the gags just don’t stick. There is humor here for the adults, as well as, the kiddos but most of the references are more political about social reform than one might expect.

Zootopia, as I mentioned above, is a place where every species of animal lives in harmony. There are some clever suburbs, like the frigid “Tundra Town” where it’s all iced over so those animals can live in their own climate. Then there is the upscale beverly hills of “Saraha Square”. And there are miniscule cities where rodents (like mice) live in peace, driving around their small (made for them) vehicles. The setting is brilliant, and follows the top notch brand that Disney always proceeds from film to film.

Que the young and hungry Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) a hot-shot bunny who has just finished top of her class at the police academy and is looking to leave her heritage of being a carrot farmer behind and move to the big city. That she does. Once she arrives in Zootopia she get’s slammed with meter maid duty. Does she let that stop her? Of course not!. She sets out to write 200 tickets within three hours, which she accomplishes. Yet as those fluffy bunny ears start to sag down Judy meets Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman). Nick is a sly-fox of trade, a con-artist, walking around with his co-companion that looks like a small child – but is really a grown adult. The initial scene where we meet the two, I could suspect something was going on, but I waited and watched as the scene unraveled and the payoff is hilarious.

The biggest issue in Zootopia right now is a crime spree of 14 missing mammals, ranging from Otters to Cheetahs. Rest assured, Hopps is on the case. With the help of her new side wrangling partner Nick (who she believes could be a key witness in the case) – they have 48 hours to crack the mystery.

From then on Zootopia turns into a fun buddy-cop film that offers more insight than most live-action films of the genre. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but the dynamics of a bunny and fox working together offers a lot of political commentary in today’s society. Not to mention that all of the powerful figures in Zootopia are all predators. Take for example, the Mayor of Zootopia (JK Simmons) is a beastly Lion that looks like Simba grew up to become an accountant. Then his assistant is small furry and powerless sheep the size of his toe. Then there is the raging bull Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) who just screams like any stereotypical police authoritative figure would.

The voice work is never an issue with these films, Ginnifer Goodwin breaths so much life in Judy as she runs around like a literal energizer bunny. While Jason Bateman is smooth as the wisecracking fox, Nick. No, the issues with this film is the premise not being used to it’s entire satisfaction. Perhaps, a tad more background into Nick’s life – (we see a glimpse towards the end of the film, but I felt it wasn’t enough) – would have been appreciated. A perfect example I could use here is Wreck It-Ralph. What a creative tour-de force that saw video games come to life in a big city much like that of Zootopia. Just by watching characters interact for five seconds we felt like we knew them. InZootopia I didn’t feel that same connection, or authenticity. Thus, resulting in a boggle down experience far from what I wanted.

The crime caper-plot serves as like a The Departed for the youngsters, who probably won’t guess the ending coming (although you probably will). Not to mention the biggest laugh in the film was revealed in the early promo materials for the film. I am talking about those ridiculous slow-talking sloths. Those sloths are a testament to the few times Zootopia dared to be creative and go for the easy laugh, if only that could have been accomplished more often.

Zootopia is not a bust nor is a terrible or awful film. In fact, if this was made by any other studio, for example Dreamworks Animation, Zootopia  would probably had exceeded expectations. But, it wasn’t. Zootopia was made by the same creators of Big Hero 6, Inside Out and Frozen, I understand that is some heavy baggage to carry, but if any studio could have pulled off a stronger more focused narrative, it should have been Disney. C+