What's so good about zootopia?

Imagination is unrestrained, jokes are everywhere, the characters are delicate, the details are accurate to the hair, and there is a tribute to the godfather and the poison master ... Of course, the most worth seeing is still the story told by the movie.

In this movie, Disney is no longer satisfied with telling a silly and sweet dream story of "If you work hard, you can succeed" to coax children, but has evolved into a political fable that adults can understand:

How power is achieved through prejudice, and the potential danger of prejudice becoming "tyranny of the majority"

Personally, Zootopia will probably become an epoch-making work, which reminds me of Orwell's masterpiece Animal Farm.

This article has spoilers.

1.

This story takes place in zootopia. Here, carnivores (population 10%) strive to overcome the barbaric nature for thousands of years and coexist peacefully with herbivores (population 90%), creating a utopian animal paradise.

On the surface, this city is a place that animals yearn for. In the urban system, different kinds of doors, passages, houses and other living devices are carefully set according to the figure and habits of each animal, showing respect for different individuals everywhere.

But "the real world is not as beautiful as the slogan says, but complex and cruel."

Beneath the perfect surface, "zootopia" is surging with an undercurrent of prejudice. Herbivores are deeply afraid of the barbaric nature inherited in carnivorous DNA and think it is best to put a muzzle on them all; Carnivores are dissatisfied with the distrust of herbivores.

Judy, the protagonist of the story and a country rabbit girl, suffered from prejudice since she was a child. Judy's dream is to be the first rabbit policeman in history, but her parents think it seems more realistic for rabbits to "grow carrots".

The fox in the same town also laughed at Judy's dream of being a policeman and thought she was just a "stupid rabbit".

Later, Judy finally became a policeman through hard work, but she still had to face the double prejudice of race and workplace (there may even be gender prejudice here)-the boss director Niu thinks that policemen such as rhinoceros and elephants are more reliable, and as for rabbits, she can only post tickets on the street.

As a victim of prejudice, Judy tried to eliminate prejudice among animals in her work. In solving 14 cases of missing animals, Judy also became a partner with carnivore Nick Fox and established a relationship of mutual trust.

Unfortunately, prejudice, like violence, lies in people's minds. You think you are not a biased person, but you may not be.

Judy saved fourteen animals missing in the city and became a city hero. At the press conference, Judy talked about the fear and prejudice hidden in her heart as a herbivore-"Carnivores can be barbaric."

There was a commotion in the animal city, and the prejudice of herbivores broke out collectively. Carnivores are facing an extremely dangerous situation. Even good friend Nick Fox can't stand Judy and left her.

Judy realized that she had made a big mistake and regretted it. She quit her job as a policeman.

But behind the disappearance of animals, there is a huge conspiracy-it turns out that the barbarity of these carnivores is caused by humans-no, animals.

Vice Mayor Yang seems gentle, honest and helpful, but in fact he is a schemer with a black belly.

She first used the brutality of carnivores to get rid of her political enemy, the mayor lion, and planned to use the collective prejudice of herbivores to form a situation of "tyranny of the majority", drive all carnivores out of the animal city and establish a utopia of pure herbivores. ...

Does it look familiar? Similar to Hitler's method.

Of course, Judy finally fought back and saved the day, so I won't go into details.

Sheep are not as honest, rabbits are not as stupid and foxes are not as cunning as they think.

Honesty, stupidity and cunning often come from prejudice in your heart and mine.

2.

There are many American films that pay attention to prejudice (or discrimination) from the narrative perspective, and the most famous one is probably the best film in the 2004 Oscar, Crash.

Crash is set in Los Angeles, a multi-racial and multicultural city, and reflects on racial discrimination and cultural prejudice in people's daily life.

This deep-rooted irrational prejudice is often the bane of mutual hatred and even resort to violence among countries, groups and individuals.

In American history, it is not uncommon for social prejudice to be used by politicians to trigger violence (politicians usually use the three elements of "prejudice+misleading information+collective irrationality" to mobilize civil violence at the same time), the Civil War, the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), McCarthyism and explicit restrictions on Asian immigrants (1965). ...

In fact, the ghosts of racial discrimination and cultural prejudice have been lingering in American society and have never really dispersed. Fortunately, from the government to the people, from formal legislation to literary works, Americans are never afraid to reflect on prejudice and violence caused by prejudice.

This kind of reflection has reached a certain consensus in the society-whether you are a politician or a scholar, a writer or an actor, as long as you speak discriminatory language against ethnic minorities, women and minority groups (such as homosexuality), it will immediately attract the condemnation of the whole society.

This in-depth discussion and reflection has woven a safety net for the society-it is not easy to see a situation in which a political figure climbs to the heights and shouts, the masses respond, and the tyranny of the majority destroys the freedom of the minority.

Just like in Crash, the final individual's cognition will automatically correct the biased behavior.

Just as American society opposes the Arizona government's construction of a "wall" to exclude illegal immigrants from Mexico.

3.

What needs to be vigilant is that prejudice is also common in our society.

For example, regional prejudice.

City people and rural people, Shanghai people and foreigners, Beijing people, Henan people, Northeast people ... People in every region are uniformly labeled with a stigma, and then use this label to sum up all the problems without thinking.

The last time was an irrational attack on "Northeasters" by some netizens in the "Harbin Sky-high Fish" incident.

On the map of the world circulating on the Internet, jokes and prejudices coexist. There are many more vicious China prejudice maps on the Internet.

And professional prejudice.

In the past, it was generally said how migrant workers were, but now the professional prejudice is more detailed, such as how doctors are, how judges are, and how urban management is ... Every profession is guessed as a specific evil, judges are unfair, doctors receive red envelopes, and urban management beats people, and then everyone is treated rudely by the conclusion of speculation.

Recently, after Judge Ma Caiyun was shot, some netizens made personal attacks on her based on subjective speculation.

As for class prejudice, it is even more common, and the feelings of hating officials and hating the rich pervade the network.

What is more terrible than prejudice is refusing to reflect.

In fact, a biased mind is more likely to be misled by information and artificially. Because biased people "interpret a vague message, they only look at what they want."

Not only do they not reflect, but some people are proud of it. Once a hot event happens, immediately start from your prejudice, queue up quickly without thinking or analysis, and then show your verbal violence on the internet-don't underestimate cyber violence, it may be a preview of real-world violence.

Once prejudice becomes a social force, it contains some dangers. Just like the overthrown "black five", "intellectuals" and "Rightists" in history ... Of course, they are not all bad people, and many people have been rehabilitated later.

In a healthy society, the basic framework of public life should be "individual freedom+rule of law", not "prejudice+violence". If we can't learn to reflect, we can only learn to pray.

Pray for the prejudice and atrocities of the past, not the future.