The truly interesting thing is that, for most of the world, it was a massive sleeper hit that kind of came out of nowhere. I mean, it was a Disney movie, so everybody probably figured it would make back its money and be decent (though, even that was up in the air, as The Good Dinosaur had just proven that not even Pixar was not infallible with their first box office flop, though I'm sure even that was made up in merchandising and home video and whatnot), but nobody really saw this coming, and I think that includes Disney. I've pointed out elsewhere, but Zootopia's release date is not exactly "this is where we put movies we are 100% confident about" territory. They didn't put it in either the summer "blockbuster" months or the winter "prestige" months; they put it four days after the winter "dump" months.
Yeah, I was excited when the movie was first announced, because I like cartoon foxes (in case you haven't noticed) and while the first trailer piqued a bunch more interest just by using the phrase "anthropomorphic animal" in the furry fandom, outside the fandom, it barely existed. The only mainstream magazine to show any kind of enthusiasm was Forbes, not exactly known for its insightful movie criticism, and even then, the point of the article is Disney is treating this movie like the proverbial red headed stepchild (which means it will maybe be a bit cooler than your average Disney fare; that, or suck). The second trailer didn't exactly take off at first either (being attached to the aforementioned movie no one saw in theaters, The Good Dinosaur, didn't help), but then things ... started to happen.
That second trailer, the one featuring the sloths (and pretty much nothing but the sloths) got a second chance when it was put before Star Wars. Everybody saw that movie, so everybody saw that trailer; plus, despite the fact that it was literally one extended joke, when compared to the other trailers coming out, it stood out in a good way. After a solid twenty minutes of superhero movie trailers and technically not superhero but might as well be superhero trailers, featuring attractive people with supernatural powers fighting giant CG threats while buildings ominously blow up in the background, a simple but funny joke about visiting the DMV felt like a lightning bolt of creativity. As I said in the review, this movie may be about animals, but it was the single most human movie advertised in front of one of the most anticipated movies of all time.
And then, a couple of months later, the movie finally started to actually get advertised; people finally started noticing (outside the fandom), and the guessing game for the Tomatometer began. Most of the guesses on the actual site were positive; low 80s at the worst, some even going as far as to suggest it might make the mid-90s! Then the actual reviews started coming in ... and, uh, well, speculation about the furry fandom kind of became beside the point. It was so amazing, I think if I get into an argument about religion with Rakuen again, I'll use it as proof of the existence of God. It was so amazing, I think he might cede the point. Suddenly, and without warning, this movie is not only the best reviewed movie of the (admittedly still young) year, it's one of the best reviewed movies in the history of the site. Turns out the Forbes, of all people, nailed it in one.
And the reason why is the most amazing part; not a week after Chris Rock became the first positively reviewed Oscar host of the decade by pointing out to the audience, hey, you guys are a bit more racist than you think you are, comes a movie about a character who learns she is a bit more racist(y) than she thinks she is. It's not just relevant to the here and now; it's so relevant it hurts a little. The freaking villain is Donald Trump, right down to the distracting hair!
So, the box office comes in, and, much like the predictions of how it would be reviewed, it over-performs. It's Disney's biggest movie, and one of the three biggest openings for an original movie (an original movie, you guys! Remember those!) of all time. It's a legitimate phenomenon. And, like I said, unless you were a furry, it kind of came out of nowhere. Nobody was anticipating this movie, except us; it wasn't on any of the "most anticipated movies of 2016" lists I read, with the exception of one that put it on it's "dishonorable mentions: movies we're not looking forward to" addendum. But it ended up being what it needed to be, and what I wanted it to be all along; not some kind of furry gateway drug.
The truly interesting thing is that, for most of the world, it was a massive sleeper hit that kind of came out of nowhere. I mean, it was a Disney movie, so everybody probably figured it would make back its money and be decent (though, even that was up in the air, as The Good Dinosaur had just proven that not even Pixar was not infallible with their first box office flop, though I'm sure even that was made up in merchandising and home video and whatnot), but nobody really saw this coming, and I think that includes Disney. I've pointed out elsewhere, but Zootopia's release date is not exactly "this is where we put movies we are 100% confident about" territory. They didn't put it in either the summer "blockbuster" months or the winter "prestige" months; they put it four days after the winter "dump" months.
Yeah, I was excited when the movie was first announced, because I like cartoon foxes (in case you haven't noticed) and while the first trailer piqued a bunch more interest just by using the phrase "anthropomorphic animal" in the furry fandom, outside the fandom, it barely existed. The only mainstream magazine to show any kind of enthusiasm was Forbes, not exactly known for its insightful movie criticism, and even then, the point of the article is Disney is treating this movie like the proverbial red headed stepchild (which means it will maybe be a bit cooler than your average Disney fare; that, or suck). The second trailer didn't exactly take off at first either (being attached to the aforementioned movie no one saw in theaters, The Good Dinosaur, didn't help), but then things ... started to happen.
That second trailer, the one featuring the sloths (and pretty much nothing but the sloths) got a second chance when it was put before Star Wars. Everybody saw that movie, so everybody saw that trailer; plus, despite the fact that it was literally one extended joke, when compared to the other trailers coming out, it stood out in a good way. After a solid twenty minutes of superhero movie trailers and technically not superhero but might as well be superhero trailers, featuring attractive people with supernatural powers fighting giant CG threats while buildings ominously blow up in the background, a simple but funny joke about visiting the DMV felt like a lightning bolt of creativity. As I said in the review, this movie may be about animals, but it was the single most human movie advertised in front of one of the most anticipated movies of all time.
And then, a couple of months later, the movie finally started to actually get advertised; people finally started noticing (outside the fandom), and the guessing game for the Tomatometer began. Most of the guesses on the actual site were positive; low 80s at the worst, some even going as far as to suggest it might make the mid-90s! Then the actual reviews started coming in ... and, uh, well, speculation about the furry fandom kind of became beside the point. It was so amazing, I think if I get into an argument about religion with Rakuen again, I'll use it as proof of the existence of God. It was so amazing, I think he might cede the point. Suddenly, and without warning, this movie is not only the best reviewed movie of the (admittedly still young) year, it's one of the best reviewed movies in the history of the site. Turns out the Forbes, of all people, nailed it in one.
And the reason why is the most amazing part; not a week after Chris Rock became the first positively reviewed Oscar host of the decade by pointing out to the audience, hey, you guys are a bit more racist than you think you are, comes a movie about a character who learns she is a bit more racist(y) than she thinks she is. It's not just relevant to the here and now; it's so relevant it hurts a little. The freaking villain is Donald Trump, right down to the distracting hair!
So, the box office comes in, and, much like the predictions of how it would be reviewed, it over-performs. It's Disney's biggest movie, and one of the three biggest openings for an original movie (an original movie, you guys! Remember those!) of all time. It's a legitimate phenomenon. And, like I said, unless you were a furry, it kind of came out of nowhere. Nobody was anticipating this movie, except us; it wasn't on any of the "most anticipated movies of 2016" lists I read, with the exception of one that put it on it's "dishonorable mentions: movies we're not looking forward to" addendum. But it ended up being what it needed to be, and what I wanted it to be all along; not some kind of furry gateway drug.
Just a really good movie.
One final link,from a sarcastic reaction to one of the only two "rotten" reviews counted, which just about sums my feelings up:
So, yeah, the furry thing kind of was beside the point. Oh, well.