At the beginning of March, Disney released its longest animated film ever. This could be just happenchance or possibly done purposefully. Amongst all the political ramblings, Disney shines a little hope-and hopefully, influence-to its audience.

With it being election season, we are witnesses to more and more slander amongst candidates and horrible things happening in our world. “Zootopia” serves in contrast to this. In the film we are introduced to rabbit Judy Hopps and fox named Nick Wilde. Judy, or should I say, Officer Hopps, is the first bunny police officer in the city of Zootopia. There she meets her co-protagonist, who is a con-artist. This unlikely duo team up and, well, you will have to watch the movie to find out. No spoilers here.

However, what will be talked about is the underlying modern day issue that “Zootopia” addresses. This issue just so happens to be one of the most pressing problems the United States is facing today. Racism is evident in our society and “Zootopia”, being a film that appeals to a younger and more easily influenced audience, shows examples of blatant racism by members of the society and prosecution of minorities based on stereotypes. These actions mirror our world in numerous instances.

As the plot develops one group is increasingly made to look bad and the majority of the anthropomorphic city-dwellers turn on a tenth of the population, due to extremely rare events. What is even better is how Disney indirectly addresses oppression in the United States today, being that key people with influence and hate in their hearts decide to attack a group of people for personal gain. Happily, the members of Zootopia end up being capable of dealing with this problem and live in peace happily ever after, as all Disney movies end. Maybe, we as a society can do the same. Hopefully.