Zootopia is, as all the best children’s movies are, a light-hearted movie with some serious thinking going on just beneath the surface. Just as Inside Out presented a complicated and scientifically-based view of human thinking and emotionality, Zootopia offers a view of social control and consequences that is probably over the head of its youngest viewers. Though it’s indeed a cute story about a fox and a bunny teaming up, it also tackles heavy ideas about incarceration and the animal nature of its protagonists and the criminals they track down.
A deleted scene that was originally a DVD extra and is now online makes all these themes that much more explicit.
Officer Hopps and Nick Wilde escape capture and show up at what appears to be a Bear Mitzvah. Instead, it’s a taming ceremony. The father bear shows off his son in front of a huge, jubilant crowd. But something much, much darker is at play than the son realizes. The father’s face as he completes the ceremony is heartbreaking, and something every parent will recognize in some form or another.
Watch it below, but be prepared. It’s a heavy emotional experience.
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