Netflix’s breakout animated series BoJack Horseman delights in its odd combination of pitch-black character work with deliriously inspired puns on its animal population. Animal humor has revealed itself to be a near-boundless well of hilarity, and now the upcoming computer-animated feature Zootopia will grab that baton and run with it. The newly unveiled trailer for the Walt Disney Studios-produced film abounds with animal visual gags, many of them flashing by for a moment before barreling into the next one. Giraffes are unquestioned champions of volleyball, sloths run the DMV (that is, the Department of Mammal Vehicles), and lemmings file out of pneumatic chutes in business suits in what feels like a pretty subtle dig for a kids’ movie.
The new trailer also affords a fuller understanding of the upcoming picture’s plot, and how the previously announced characters of bunny-cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and wily fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) fit into it. Something nasty is afoot in the bustling metropolis of Zootopia, where anthropomorphized animals live in relative harmony. Some strain of savagery has begun to possess the city’s denizens, and plucky Officer Hopps wants to get to the bottom of it. But her musk ox captain has little faith in the diminutive bunny, and she’ll have to defy prejudices if she wants to save the city. Nick, it appears, was a key witness and may be able to help her out, if he can surpass his own nature as a con man.
The first trailer was solidly funny, and this new spot confirms Zootopia as a film to keep an eye on in the new year. 2016 is shaping up to be a bumper-crop year for animation, with Disney also readying Moana, their first princess film in the South Pacific. Pixar will also throw their hat in the ring with Finding Dory, which will hopefully be more Toy Story 2 than Monsters University.
