Zootopia

[Ben]

Gotcha. More than once the poster for that has popped up to illustrate the Chomet film!

[LotsoA113]

Let's end this year with one last trailer for Zootopia!

[EricJ]

It's starting to look pretty good--
This would be the "Explanation" trailer that follows after the "Out of context funny-bit" trailer: An actual outline of the plot and characters (showing us almost the whole darn thing, in fact), so now does all that Sloth stuff make sense?
Sort of like the later Tangled trailers showed us chase scenes to go with Flynn getting hit with the frying pan, and the later Wreck-It Ralph trailers showed us Vanellope along with the support-group scenes.

And while I usually facepalm at comedies still using Don Corleone parodies because they don't know why their parents did, even the "Molefather" scene looked funny.

[Bill1978]

The part of the trailer that impressed me is that the plot seems to revolve around the 'error' of herbivores and carnivores living peacefully together. It seems there is a reason why they are able to do that in this world, and savage beasts suddenly appearing is propelling the plot. The more that is released for the movie the more intrigued I am

[Ben]

I'm feeling Chicken Little (for obvious reasons) and The Wild (no bad thing) in this, but some of the gags are funny, though Bateman, whom I usually like okay, seems pretty lifeless in his voicing, and they do quite seem to know what a sloth is exactly.

Still...looks like this may be a fun, flippant comedy to cleanse the pallet before Moana...

[EricJ]

I'm feeling Chicken Little (for obvious reasons) and The Wild (no bad thing) in this, but some of the gags are funny, though Bateman, whom I usually like okay, seems pretty lifeless in his voicing, and they do quite seem to know what a sloth is exactly.

If you're going to do an animal-gag comedy, Chicken Little and Wild would be the touchstones for what to do wrong:
CL--like Dindal's Cats Don't Dance before it--HATED animals. Almost every gag would involve civilized animals doing what we hate or ridicule the real animals for: A dog in a bar would have his drink served in a little toilet, get it, get it?
(And it's hard to tell whether Secret Life of Pets also treads dangerously on the same territory, but we shall see.)

Although we can't judge yet from fast isolated trailer gags, Disney's animal-gag movie still has a bit of Pixar-short whimsy in it enough to keep the jokes lighter and amusing.
It's the Bolt director, so the humor might still be a little sitcom, but the current "Pixar-renaissance" WDFA has its new strength on character, and Judy & Nick are definitely characters. I'd say we can stand down on the CL/Madagascar storm warnings, unless you're intent on beating them into the ground every post without watching the trailers.

[Dacey]

Early reviews are coming in, and while I haven't read them (I learned my lesson after having Frozen spoiled for me!), they all seem very positive so far.

[Ben]

GLOWING review from THR:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review ... iew-863843

[Randall]

Huh. So.... it's actually pretty good? Nice to hear.

[James]

Rotten Tomatoes at 100% with 44 reviews in

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zootopia/

[EricJ]

With Disney/Pixar playing hide-and-seek with their plots, I always cheat and read the children's-books marketed early at Barnes & Noble--
The later official-trailers have finally gotten up off their sloth butts and revealed more of the true tone of the eventual storyline, in that Nick & Judy's buddy-cop case apparently starts wandering into the darker "backstreet" territories of what the predators do with their time, bringing up the issue of just how much of a utopia Zootopia is to begin with.

Which, yes, is a far cry from the wacky lion and wacky zebra of the other studio.

[Vernadyn]

All the trailers make Zootopia look like some wacky, frothy, but unsubstantial confection, so I'm pleased to see all the glowing reviews. I'm refraining from reading any of them, though, in hopes of being pleasantly surprised--as I have been with Disney Animation's last few films. I have read that Giacchino's score is Mickey-Mousey and one of his weaker efforts, but maybe it works better in the film. Inside Out was a great score on its own, but coupled with the film, it was sublime.

[Ben]

...bringing up the issue of just how much of a utopia Zootopia is to begin with.

At least it's a better title than the crappy Zootropolis that the rest of the world is getting it under...

[James]

I've been calling it Zow-uh-topia (like "zoology") around my kids. They thought it was hilarious... the first 5-10 times!

[Ben]

Hoo boy...that James. He ka-ray-zee!