Dolphanatic
Member
Okay, I know I might kinda sound like a killjoy here, but I think what I'm about to say here needs to be said. So for those of you who who don't know, a couple months back, a YouTube user by the name of "Browntable" posted a video in which he discussed some ideas for what a possible sequel to Zootopia could be about. I 'll show you the video in a little bit, but basically, he said that Zootopia 2 should be about heterosexism under the guise of inserspecies relationships (specifically, romance between a certain rabbit and fox). Now don't get me wrong, I ship Judy and Nick as much as the next person, but this idea in particular sounds like slight overkill to me. I mean sure, there's a bit of truth to be told with that context in mind, but to have that as the only major conflict sounds rather uninteresting, especially for an entire feature-length movie.
While I didn't completely agree with all the ideas he discussed (and yes, I'll get to more on to that later), I found them relatively harmless at the time, as he seemed to just be pitching some ideas out of the blue to spark a discussion in the comments (which I've participated in, by the way). However, that all changed a few weeks ago when he posted a follow-up video titled "Zootopia 2 Fan-Film is Coming!".
As you can see, he hasn't learned a thing since his previous Zootopia video, as he's simply going to stand firm on what his initial ideas were. Not only is that naïve, but it also completely misses the point of his aforementioned sequel ideas video. Just to make matters worse, most of the top comments were from people who agreed with all his ideas, which certainly didn't help, since all he's been doing up to this point was going about cherrypicking the ideas that were compatible with his. Remember, that earlier video was supposed to be a venue for us fans to share our different ideas with each other, not a means to say his ideas were perfect. But now, he's shown that he really just wanted us to give him more ideas for his own fan-made sequel because apparently, he knows best. And chances are, we're not even going to be given any credit for it, anyway.
Since then, he's been making videos about it almost nonstop. I'm talking audition requests, voice reels, progress announcements, and various other kinds of pretentious content to get Zootopia fans like me hyped. As you can probably tell, I'm not buying into it at all. Just when it was all starting to get on my nerves, he went ahead and made his own trailer (and I'm warning you, it'll probably make you cringe)!
Now I'm really mad! For starters, he's been spending more effort on making hype-related content than on the actual project itself!
Secondly, like I said earlier, I didn't even agree with all his ideas to begin with, so of course it's going to drive me insane when I see that my feedback has done next to nothing! All he's done so far is state his ideas, ignore the opposing ideas from people like me, and cherrypick the ones that fit with his.
Those two things alone are already enough of a reason to cringe. But most prominently, the trailer reeks of in your face political correctness! I literally found myself struggling to keep a straight face while actively trying not to scroll down or just leave the video entirely! It's just that bad (at least for me, anyway). Look, I get it, Browntable. You're trying to parody the official first reveal trailer. The problem is, that trailer was all about introducing us to the basics of the Zootopia universe, focusing on the inherent hostility between predator and prey. It fit perfectly within the animal world being presented. That's where the fan-made trailer goes wrong. Right off the bat, it immediately throws around terms like "progressive" and addresses stereotypes way too blatantly. Not to mention, it's just not all that impressive to look at. Overall, it's just a rehash of the aforementioned official first reveal trailer, only with painfully obvious progressivism shoehorned into it in a pathetic attempt to try to be relevant, despite the fact that Zootopia was already as relevant as it needed to be. This whole politically correct "some animals are more progressive than others" concept is not only ludicrous when it comes to initially introducing people to a city full of animals, but it also completely misses the point of Zootopia to begin with!
Let me explain. Part of what made Zootopia so good was how it was not politically correct in a lot of ways. The story doesn't go out of its way to try to make real world comparisons because it can already do all that and more naturally by simply making sense and being relatable in its own right. That's why Zootopia's message about prejudice works so well. It never plays favorites and idealizes one side or demonizes the other. Instead, it acknowledges that both sides have their fair share of flaws to overcome. That's a realistic setup that's just as relevant and timely as it is politically incorrect. There was never one "over-privileged" majority oppressing an innocent minority. For example, when the manager of that ice cream shop denies service to a couple customers, it's later revealed that he had a good reason for doing so, since said customers went on to make an obscene profit after melting down and redistributing one of his Jumbo Pops that someone else had been tricked into buying for them. It's instances like this where the writing truly shines, since it gets the message across without preaching "love and tolerance" to the audience. The writers don't ever draw direct comparisons to the distrust between predator and prey and real life discrimination because there's no need to, they never once tell us that what's going on with the stereotyping is bad from the get-go because they know we can understand why it is, and they never state that Judy's noisy neighbors who share the same last name are gay because it just isn't that relevant to the story. In fact, for all we know, they could be brothers. It's never in your face about anything because it respects the audience enough to let them figure it out on their own. That's a sign of great storytelling.
This is why I disagree with so many of Browntable's ideas. They're mostly one-sided and cliché. We don't need another story about some couple in a "forbidden" romance facing discrimination, then deciding not to be together after being pressured by everyone else to break up, then changing their minds and getting back together after everyone else suddenly has a change of heart after seeing them in trouble and having pity for them, deciding that they were wrong to judge them and now embrace our protagonists' "special" relationship with open arms, apologizing last minute for being so "close-minded". That whole concept has already been done to death and it's not even that good of a story to begin with. There are so many better stories that could be told with this rich universe than something so one-dimensional and politically correct. If anything, Zootopia 2 should be more focused on breaking down political correctness, not reinforcing it. Having everyone be so opposed to interspecies romance for no reason other than to be jerks to our protagonists presents a very unrealistic representation of society. Not to mention, it also sends a very unhealthy message to kids: "If anyone ever says what you're doing is wrong, it's always their fault for being such intolerant bigots and they should check their privileges!"
However, despite all of this, what really brings my blood to a boil is the fact that Zootopia just came out! It's literally only been a few months and yet already, people like Browntable are impatiently demanding a sequel without thinking things through! Give the makers of the movie some time! The worst thing we fans of Zootopia can do right now is pressure the writers into rushing the sequel for the sake of getting the movie out as soon as possible, bogging down the movie in the process, which could in turn be ruinous to Zootopia's reputation. Do you guys really want Zootopia to be remembered as one of those movies with a horrible sequel that retroactively destroyed the franchise? I certainly don't. Listen, if you guys are really that worried about Zootopia not getting a sequel because there aren't any official trailers for it out yet, rest assured, it's already pretty much confirmed at this point. Just about all the writers and voice actors are totally on board with the idea, as can be seen in countless interviews. Byron Howard, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Jason Bateman, to name a few, have shown that they're all more than enthusiastic about the idea of a sequel on multiple occasions. In fact, Byron Howard even talked about the possibility of a subplot involving intersperses romance. He's even acknowledged the idea of Judy and Nick being together numerous times. It's really not a matter of if it will happen as much as it is a matter of when.
-Continued on the next post-
While I didn't completely agree with all the ideas he discussed (and yes, I'll get to more on to that later), I found them relatively harmless at the time, as he seemed to just be pitching some ideas out of the blue to spark a discussion in the comments (which I've participated in, by the way). However, that all changed a few weeks ago when he posted a follow-up video titled "Zootopia 2 Fan-Film is Coming!".
As you can see, he hasn't learned a thing since his previous Zootopia video, as he's simply going to stand firm on what his initial ideas were. Not only is that naïve, but it also completely misses the point of his aforementioned sequel ideas video. Just to make matters worse, most of the top comments were from people who agreed with all his ideas, which certainly didn't help, since all he's been doing up to this point was going about cherrypicking the ideas that were compatible with his. Remember, that earlier video was supposed to be a venue for us fans to share our different ideas with each other, not a means to say his ideas were perfect. But now, he's shown that he really just wanted us to give him more ideas for his own fan-made sequel because apparently, he knows best. And chances are, we're not even going to be given any credit for it, anyway.
Since then, he's been making videos about it almost nonstop. I'm talking audition requests, voice reels, progress announcements, and various other kinds of pretentious content to get Zootopia fans like me hyped. As you can probably tell, I'm not buying into it at all. Just when it was all starting to get on my nerves, he went ahead and made his own trailer (and I'm warning you, it'll probably make you cringe)!
Now I'm really mad! For starters, he's been spending more effort on making hype-related content than on the actual project itself!
Secondly, like I said earlier, I didn't even agree with all his ideas to begin with, so of course it's going to drive me insane when I see that my feedback has done next to nothing! All he's done so far is state his ideas, ignore the opposing ideas from people like me, and cherrypick the ones that fit with his.
Those two things alone are already enough of a reason to cringe. But most prominently, the trailer reeks of in your face political correctness! I literally found myself struggling to keep a straight face while actively trying not to scroll down or just leave the video entirely! It's just that bad (at least for me, anyway). Look, I get it, Browntable. You're trying to parody the official first reveal trailer. The problem is, that trailer was all about introducing us to the basics of the Zootopia universe, focusing on the inherent hostility between predator and prey. It fit perfectly within the animal world being presented. That's where the fan-made trailer goes wrong. Right off the bat, it immediately throws around terms like "progressive" and addresses stereotypes way too blatantly. Not to mention, it's just not all that impressive to look at. Overall, it's just a rehash of the aforementioned official first reveal trailer, only with painfully obvious progressivism shoehorned into it in a pathetic attempt to try to be relevant, despite the fact that Zootopia was already as relevant as it needed to be. This whole politically correct "some animals are more progressive than others" concept is not only ludicrous when it comes to initially introducing people to a city full of animals, but it also completely misses the point of Zootopia to begin with!
Let me explain. Part of what made Zootopia so good was how it was not politically correct in a lot of ways. The story doesn't go out of its way to try to make real world comparisons because it can already do all that and more naturally by simply making sense and being relatable in its own right. That's why Zootopia's message about prejudice works so well. It never plays favorites and idealizes one side or demonizes the other. Instead, it acknowledges that both sides have their fair share of flaws to overcome. That's a realistic setup that's just as relevant and timely as it is politically incorrect. There was never one "over-privileged" majority oppressing an innocent minority. For example, when the manager of that ice cream shop denies service to a couple customers, it's later revealed that he had a good reason for doing so, since said customers went on to make an obscene profit after melting down and redistributing one of his Jumbo Pops that someone else had been tricked into buying for them. It's instances like this where the writing truly shines, since it gets the message across without preaching "love and tolerance" to the audience. The writers don't ever draw direct comparisons to the distrust between predator and prey and real life discrimination because there's no need to, they never once tell us that what's going on with the stereotyping is bad from the get-go because they know we can understand why it is, and they never state that Judy's noisy neighbors who share the same last name are gay because it just isn't that relevant to the story. In fact, for all we know, they could be brothers. It's never in your face about anything because it respects the audience enough to let them figure it out on their own. That's a sign of great storytelling.
This is why I disagree with so many of Browntable's ideas. They're mostly one-sided and cliché. We don't need another story about some couple in a "forbidden" romance facing discrimination, then deciding not to be together after being pressured by everyone else to break up, then changing their minds and getting back together after everyone else suddenly has a change of heart after seeing them in trouble and having pity for them, deciding that they were wrong to judge them and now embrace our protagonists' "special" relationship with open arms, apologizing last minute for being so "close-minded". That whole concept has already been done to death and it's not even that good of a story to begin with. There are so many better stories that could be told with this rich universe than something so one-dimensional and politically correct. If anything, Zootopia 2 should be more focused on breaking down political correctness, not reinforcing it. Having everyone be so opposed to interspecies romance for no reason other than to be jerks to our protagonists presents a very unrealistic representation of society. Not to mention, it also sends a very unhealthy message to kids: "If anyone ever says what you're doing is wrong, it's always their fault for being such intolerant bigots and they should check their privileges!"
However, despite all of this, what really brings my blood to a boil is the fact that Zootopia just came out! It's literally only been a few months and yet already, people like Browntable are impatiently demanding a sequel without thinking things through! Give the makers of the movie some time! The worst thing we fans of Zootopia can do right now is pressure the writers into rushing the sequel for the sake of getting the movie out as soon as possible, bogging down the movie in the process, which could in turn be ruinous to Zootopia's reputation. Do you guys really want Zootopia to be remembered as one of those movies with a horrible sequel that retroactively destroyed the franchise? I certainly don't. Listen, if you guys are really that worried about Zootopia not getting a sequel because there aren't any official trailers for it out yet, rest assured, it's already pretty much confirmed at this point. Just about all the writers and voice actors are totally on board with the idea, as can be seen in countless interviews. Byron Howard, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Jason Bateman, to name a few, have shown that they're all more than enthusiastic about the idea of a sequel on multiple occasions. In fact, Byron Howard even talked about the possibility of a subplot involving intersperses romance. He's even acknowledged the idea of Judy and Nick being together numerous times. It's really not a matter of if it will happen as much as it is a matter of when.
-Continued on the next post-
