I remember sitting in the theater a year ago seeing the very first teaser trailer for the movie Zootopia. “Oh, look– another animated movie about talking animals. How original,” I thought to myself sarcastically. My-less-than-positive attitude towards the film continued as the months went on, as most of the trailers made it look like something strictly for kids.

It wasn’t until a few weeks ago when I noticed that the movie had a whopping 99% positive rating on RottenTomatoes.com, a rating usually reserved for animated movies made by Pixar like Inside Out, Up, and Toy Story. Considering the extremely positive word of mouth, I finally decided to check out the movie for myself, and found out that not only is Zootopia good, it’s kind of amazing. In fact, it has already become one of my favorite movies of the year.

The movie takes place in a cartoon world where animals have evolved to coexist with one another. Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) becomes the very first rabbit police officer of Zootopia, a world inhabited completely by talking animals. However, due to her size and the fact that she is a rabbit, she is designated to only writing parking tickets. Meanwhile, a number of cases of missing animals have been reported across Zootopia. Due to a series of events, Hopps has 48 hours to solve the case with Nick Wild (voiced by Jason Bateman), a con man fox at her side.

Zootopia is the best kind of animated movie in that it can entertain both kids and adults. Zootopia isn’t like other animated films that rely on fart jokes and dated or soon-to-be-dated pop culture references to entertain people. Instead, Zootopia has a well-written script that keeps keep people of all ages entertained. As the film goes on, the mystery regarding the missing animals deepens, which will even have the adults at the edge of their seats.

Zootopia also dives into some deep adult subject matter. Believe it or not, the overarching theme of Zootopia is racism. Now, I know that that racism is a touchy subject, especially in today’s world. However, for the most part Zootopia handles this topic surprisingly well. This can be seen at the very start of the film as Hopps is designated to writing parking tickets due to the fact that she is “just” a rabbit. Another example of how the film deals with the topic of racism would be how though the course of the film many animals that were once considered prey, like rabbits, have a hard time trusting animals that were once considered predators, like foxes.

It’s hard to talk about Zootopia without talking about the amazing animation. We have come a long way since the early days of Toy Story, and Zootopia definitely proves that. This movie has an incredible attention to detail. I also love the setting of the film. You can tell that the animators spent time developing the world of Zootopia. I especially love how there are various sectors of Zootopia with the rain forest sector being my favorite thanks to impressively realistic rain effects.

Of course, no movie is perfect, and Zootopia is no different. While I like how the film addresses racism, after a while the whole theme becomes a little too obvious. A few cut lines of dialogue would have fixed this issue. Also, half-way though the film there is an annoying cliche where there is a misunderstanding between the two main characters causing them to temporarily part their separate ways. This sequence only lasts about 10 minutes which makes me question its role other than as an obligatory conflict scene.

That being said, Zootopia, is still an amazing film and one of the best animated movies I’ve seen in a long time. Despite its uninspiring trailers, Zootopia is one of the most creative movies in the last few years. Overall, I would give Zootopia a 9 out of 10, as I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes home the Oscar for best animated film at next year’s Academy Awards.