Over spring break I went to see Disney’s Zootopia with my family at the theater.I already knew of its high rating from Rotten Tomatoes and the all around critical acclaim. Seeing it for myself of course was a different story.
Afterwards, while we were discussing how relevant the movie feels, I realized something interesting about the character choice for the two main leads.The leads in question in the movie are Judy Hopps a bunny who is a cop and a fox named Nick Wilde who develop a strong friendship as the movie’s plot unfolds.
A fox and a rabbit.
Where had I seen that before?
Oh, yes!
Disney has used these characters before, in fact, their names were Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox, most notable for Disney’s controversial film, Song of the South.
For context, Song of the South takes place in post-Civil War Georgia on a plantation where the former slaves are now working as sharecroppers. `As far as the scenes where the animated characters are depicted are concerned, from my first time viewing it online the Brer Rabbit stories seemed harmless enough. Of course that ended quickly with the scene depicting a story called the “Tar Baby”. I am going to safely assume that it will not be necessary to address the extremely evident elephant in the room.
Even so aside from that unlike the Zootopia leads, the dynamic between Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox (with Brer Bear in tow) is more akin to that of the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote (With more animosity I would argue) than anything resembling friendship.
The interesting thing about the racial controversy over Song of the South is that it is not the sole example of racism in Disney movies.From the portrayal of the Native Americans in the animated Peter Pan to the lead crow in Dumbo being named “Jim”, one could spend ages listing these examples (in fact I wouldn’t be the first and definitely wouldn’t be the last to do so). However, the setting and context behind Song of the South of the Old South that made the problematic elements hard to forget.Having a box office opening in 1946, one year after World War II did not go unnoticed by critics either.Releasing a film set in an incredibly problematic period of American history with just as problematic content one year after the defeat of fascism in Europe… to call it poor timing would be an understatement.
And on the subject of timing, I will bring this discussion back to Zootopia, which is also a polar opposite to Song of the South in the timing of its release.Without giving too much away the primary theme of Zootopia is systematic racism and how racism is not something that can be fixed overnight, but requires a long and thorough process of deconstruction when it was a foundational aspect of many early and modern societies.The movie does this with the concept of animals being traditionally labeled as “predator” or “prey.”
With racial profiling being one of, if not the most, contentious issues in our country, perhaps, maybe through works such as this people who are not affected by these tensions as personally or as deeply as their fellow Americans can continue to try to understand and do their part (as I try to work my best to do so as well) to be an ally.
