This post is about the movie Zootopia. Directed by Rich Moore and Byron Howard. Starring Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman. You can watch the film here on Amazon Prime Video.
Fear Always Works
We are forwarded by our beliefs, and we all have them. For some, it’s the unquestionable conviction that you are what you’ve set out to be; others, the conformed conviction that you are what others have made you out to be. It’s a fight to be had, or a feeling that plunders. Knowing there’s a change that must be made is just as good as being forced into it. It’s at the heart of what makes the world a better place, it’s a nature to embrace.
In a broken world where we’re all so different, it’s a change that starts with you.
Prefer to listen? Hear my reading of the reflection aloud.
Where Anyone Can Be Anything
“It’s okay to have dreams just so long as you don’t believe in them too much”
There are forces that for long standing have ruled this world — fear, treachery, lust. A nature that does not roar life but screams death, where vicious predators cower the meek, cornered by land with no way to go. But in time there was light, in time, a new life. A movement beyond the ways of old to one of harmony. It’s true makings impossible for small minds to see, but a peace all can now cherish. With a world where anyone can be anything — good as much as bad.
For this very reason you can now hope where others may choose to concede. Seeing that things can be made better, rather than the confines of your own life being all there is to keep. Dreams are to be believed in full, even if it scares, you must venture no matter the cost, as for the alternative is the allowance of a joy soon lost.
So know not when to quit, it’s not time to go home. Take on what you’ve tried and try again, to not fail at anything you’re as good as dead. As you put forth the effort you reap what you sow, the first of your kind, a journey to a new home. It’s what you’ve worked for your whole life, a dream since you were a kid, so let there be nothing to fear but fear itself. Presumptions erode what it means to care, and you’ll do best to take heart to the joy set before you. In this, there is a knowing that you can try everything, even if you fail.
I’m Not Some Token Bunny
A metropolis filled with every walk of being, what’s not to love? It’s a task you know that you can do, but not the assignment for you to take. Be dutiful with the little you’ve been given, see there is much more to be made of it. Do all that you can to make things right despite, not knowing what remains untold. Innocence is the virtue when goodness is the hope, but not always does it work out — it’s called a hustle sweetheart.
A bickering worth it’s contention when you’ve been made the fool. You stood up for them and they lied to you! Has that more to say about them or you? Their seeing of the world, both jaded and bleak, not a shred of hope but doubt, when they speak. Angry does it make you, of how true it can seem. To be what you are — a dumb bunny, a sly fox. It’s everything you hoped for and more.
It can get you so down you forget to look up, but with the chase now on enough is enough. No need for backup, you’ve got dibs. It’s your calling in the running and you’re in pursuit. There’s danger in the chase, and a life to be saved. You got the bad guy, that’s your job. You don’t want to be the meter maid but a real cop. One who won’t just disappear — you will find him. Someone else’s anger won’t be what gets to you, and at least you meet someone’s agenda, so you stick like glue. It’s something of a chance you’re given, and it’s a chance you take. And what you’ve got, is a lead.
You Are So Much More
“My child, we may have evolved, but deep down, we are still animals”
What goes around comes around, one of life’s merry hustles. The unlikeliest of pairings set off to crack a case. Where anyone can be anything, it’s something of a new age, with resting’s collected by pools of pleasure. Not so much of a flash when you’re really in a hurry; now all jokes aside, it’s night! Off in a limo, over the gate, scratches the sign of a give and take.
Crafty schemes do you no good, where generosity is met with a rug from the butt of a skunk — a skunk butt rug. You even broke bread together, his mom even made you a cannoli. We do good to remember earnest valor, for in this you can do for others a great service. For as you show kindness, it’s taken and paid forward. You come to discover that he went crazy, not attacked, but he attacked.
How much of nature can you really escape? As it happens to them it happens to you, and you need to run! A panther gone savage but carrots there to save. You know what you saw but so long as they don’t see it they don’t believe it, and if they don’t believe it, you are as good as they say you are. But you don’t deserve that, and at least there’s somewhere there to stand up for you, because it doesn’t always play out that way.
Animals, people, are mean, and innocence isn’t enough to avoid that. All you wanted was to be part of a pack, yet you can’t because they don’t like you, and you are what they make you out to be. All you can make out is tears. On that day you learned two things:
“I was never gonna let anyone see that they got to me….If the world’s only gonna see a fox as shifty and untrustworthy, there’s no point in trying to be anything else.
We hold on to these things, but it’s times like this, where it’s nice to have a friend.
Are We Safe?
“For whatever reason, they seem to be reverting back to their primitive, savage ways”
Into the cams to see what’s what, to make way your leads, now it’s more than a hunch. Think on the fly, sneak your way in, into the lab, and they’re all there, all 14 of them. You make your way out, you call it in — were they really trying to protect the city, or just their job? There’s only a level of truth when you don’t know all the facts but at least you have something of a partner.
How easily you can be mistaken, when lacking the connection. What you call reason is really just offensive. “A biological component” their wickedness is just who they are, something in their DNA. Cliches, presumptions, stereotypes, and bigotry, all bring calls of vigilance. Why can’t the past be the past, or lies given no life to be? C an’t we see we are no different? It’s the facts as you see them, and “there’s a ‘them’ now.” With no left to believe in you, and a city gripped in fear.
Trying To Protect Yourself
“I’m not a hero. I came here to make the world a better place but I think I broke it…”
All that’s ever needed is someone to blame and a reason. Fear rallies division faster than our hearts can make way for something more unifying, than opposition. It is irresponsible to blindly assign blame, but the blind lead the blind, making all the lame.
Your actions have consequences, judgement brings pain. You’re the one who fits the image, so it’s your time now to take center stage. The world is a broken place, and it needs good people in it, like you. To serve and protect, to help people, not tear it apart. But here you are, putting forward ideas that should not even be a thought; it’s a badge you don’t deserve. You’ve worked so hard to get here, hopes that have lived since you were a kid. You can’t quit, but you have to. What good is to have the world, when you’ve lost the very thing worth fighting for?
Fear Always Works
There comes a grieving in losing what you had once hoped and you cower back to what was always there to settle for. “You’re fine” but you’re not, your ears are droopy. You couldn’t help it, you’re a trier and you try — how far did that get you? Well, further than you thought. People learn and can change, and goodness can come more often than you forgetting to be good yourself. We all know a thing or two about being a jerk. Then there you realize, bunnies can go savage!
“Night howlers aren’t wolves, they’re flowers. The flowers are making the predators go savage!”
It comes in an instant, the rushing wave of truth and understanding. You realize something, something you should have figured out long ago. You were ignorant and irresponsible and small minded; others, groups of whole human beings, should not suffer from your decisions. In your sorrow you feel as if you’re just some dumb bunny, but it’s okay. You’re forgiven, and now wholly responsible to make things right.
So you’re back at it, find the weasel, ice em, make him talk. It was the offer he couldn’t refuse — money. And it was from Doug, the guy opposite of friendly…he’s unfriendly. You find the entire operation, and you need evidence, all of it. A situation for you that gets better as things get worse, and it’s not quiet time for the victory toot-toot; everything’s ablaze, or so it seemed. Now you’ve got it figured out, it was the sheep right under your nose. They’re off to get what they can’t catch. Play out the play, oh so little do they know. It’s not your word against theirs, It’s their word against theirs; it’s called a hustle sweetheart.
Try Everything
It all comes down to doing the wrong things for the wrong reason, or the right thing for the right reason. There’s no in between. As children we see the makings of this world as a perfect place, where everyone gets along and anyone can be anything. As you live on and life unveils it’s being, you find your life is more complicated than a slogan on a bumper sticker — real life is messy. We all have limitations. We all make mistakes. In this, we have so much in common. The more we try to understand each other, the more exceptional each one of us will be.
We all have to try. Try to make the world a better place, do so by what proves to be true. Look inside yourself and recognize that change starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with all of us. In this there comes a new day, racing its way through and you’re on the chase. Classic! Flash flash hundred yard dash.
To The Believer
We all have been given this life. None better or worse. Each of its own kind, the goodness’s therein and the grievances too. A nature that we fight against, is one that perpetuates from within. Us versus them. Me for me. What should be uniting us against, stands in between. We the people, of all color and size, none such should matter when looking upon us through His eyes.
A world that’s perfect, that’s far from the case. Though from birth we have housed that which resides from a far better place. We are to make it as much as we try and believe. Truly it starts with you, carry forward the goodness you innately know, relinquish all ill conceived tenets you have been made to believe. Make the world a better place, by bringing forth a betterment through you.
“And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:2-4
Credit: Script and select images used in this post are from Zootopia (© Walt Disney Pictures). Included for reflective commentary and thematic analysis.
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This post was all about the movie Zootopia.
