Zootopia is a 2016 American 3D computer-animated buddy cop comedy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 55th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The film is directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, co-directed by Jared Bush, and stars the voices of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Tommy Chong, J. K. Simmons, Octavia Spencer, Alan Tudyk, and Shakira.

This is set in a world where all the animals have evolved to become anthropomorphic and civilized, living in mostly harmony. A young bunny girl named Judy Hopps dreams of becoming the first bunny to join the police course. Bullied by a bigger red fox kid named Gideon, Judy uses everyone’s doubt to spur herself on and be top of her class at the academy. Mayor Lionheart assigns her to a prescient in the big city, Zootopia. Judy is full of hope and wants to make a difference but excluded from handling the top-priority missing predator cases and assigned to parking duty by Chief Bogo, who doubts her potential. During one of her shifts, she meets Nick Wilde and Finnick, partners in crime, who con their way to get free Jumbo pop which they then melt down to sell as ice pops and make a huge profit. Judy abandons her shift to arrest Duke Weaselton, a thief who stole what appear only to be onion bulbs. Upon Weaselton’s apprehension, Judy is reprimanded by Bogo.

Bogo is however reluctantly forced to assign the case of the missing Bennett Otterton due to pressure from the assistant mayor Bellwether and the fact that Judy volunteers in front of Mrs. Otterton. She is given 47 hours by Bogo to solve the case or resign. Judy tricks Nick into assisting her by covertly recording his confession to tax evasion. Judy and Nick determine that Mr. Otterton was last seen entering a limousine, which is tracked to the Tundratown crime boss, Mr. Big. He informs the pair that Otterton, his florist, had “gone savage”—reverted to a feral state—and attacked his chauffeur, Manchas. Judy and Nick locate Manchas, who mentions Otterton had been yelling about “night howlers”. Soon after, Manchas himself goes savage and chases the pair out of his home. Judy calls ZPD for support but when the cops arrive Manchas is no where to be found. Nick defends Judy, reminding Bogo that they still have ten more hours to solve the case. As the pair leaves, Judy learns from Nick that as a child, he was bullied for being a fox and subsequently became a con artist, believing that he would be stereotyped regardless.

Judy and Nick consult Bellwether for access to the city’s traffic camera system and identify Manchas’ captors as wolves, which is what Judy believes Otterton had meant by “night howlers”. Judy and Nick locate Otterton and the missing predators at Cliffside Asylum. After the two witness Lionheart consulting about the predators’ condition, the pair escape with the evidence, and the police swarm the area, arresting Lionheart. Bellwether is sworn in as the new Mayor. However, during a press conference, Judy suggests a biological connection between savaged animals and predators, hurting Nick, who angrily walks out. Fear against predators spreads across Zootopia, protests spawn, and a guilt-ridden Judy resigns. She goes back home to help her parents sell their produce but while speaking to Gideon she realizes that “night howlers” are flowers that have a severe psychotropic effect on mammals. Judy returns to Zootopia, reconciles with Nick, and locates Weaselton, who confesses that the “onions” he had been collecting were night howler bulbs for a ram named Doug. The pair find Doug and his team of sheep at a secret laboratory creating a night howler serum which he has been injecting into predators via a dart gun.

Judy and Nick race to the ZPD with the evidence, but Bellwether (the mastermind behind this operation) intercepts them, attempting to take the evidence with her men. Bellwether shoots a dart at Nick, who seemingly becomes savage and attacks Judy, but it turns out the pair were acting, having swapped out the serum for blueberries, and recorded Bellwether’s confession. With enough evidence, the ZPD arrest Bellwether and her accomplices for their crimes. Upon being interviewed, Lionheart denies any knowledge of Bellwether’s plot, but asserts he imprisoned the savaged predators to protect the city. Later, Judy is reinstated into the ZPD, the savaged mammals, including Otterton and Manchas, are cured by an antidote, and Nick joins the ZPD as the first fox police officer and Judy’s partner.

Good solid fun and total enjoyment with a good story and theme. I enjoyed that a lot. 9 outta 10!

The Witch is a 2015 American–Canadian supernatural psychological horror film written and directed by Robert Eggers, in his directorial debut. The movie stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson,
Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger & Lucas Dawson.

Set in 17th century New England, the extremely fundamentalist (and newly arrived in the New World from England) man named William is banished from a Puritan plantation alongside his family for the crime of “prideful conceit.” They leave the community on a horse & cart with 4 kids in town and a baby on the way. They make a farm in a remote area near a brook and the woods where they dare not venture. The wife, Katherine, soon gives birth to her fifth child, Samuel. While being closely watched by eldest child Thomasin, Samuel vanishes, kidnapped by a witch in the woods, who kills him and uses his blood and fat to make a topical ointment for her body (in a creepy and dark scene). Needless to say, Thomasin is blamed for being negligent and the family believe that a wolf stole the child. A devastated Katherine spends his days either crying or praying. With failing crops, William takes his oldest son Caleb, into the woods to hunt. While relying on their dog’s tracking, Caleb confronts his father about his unbaptized fate. William, in turn, confides to his son that he traded Katherine’s prized silver cup for hunting supplies.

Later while at the brook the mischievous twins Jonas & Mercy, out playing with their black goat Black Philip, taunt Thomasin for losing Sam. Mercy, pretends to be a witch and says that the goat speaks but Thomasin scares her younger sister by claiming herself as the Witch of the Wood. That night, Katherine blames Thomasin for the disappearances of her silver cup – and hintingly, Samuel. As the children retire to bed, they overhear William and Katherine discussing sending Thomasin away to serve another family. The next morning Thomasin sees her brother sneaking out to go hunting and tags along on the horse. Their dog gives chase to a hare and Caleb follows, leaving Thomasin astride the horse, which throws her and knocks her unconscious. Caleb, now lost in the woods, finds the corpse of his now-disemboweled dog. Scared he is lured into the arms of a young woman deep in the forest. Thomasin awakens and guided by her father’s calls, finds her way home. As Katherine confronts Thomasin about going into the woods, William reluctantly admits that he stole her silver cup. Caleb returns to the house late at night, naked and wet in the rain and delirious.

Sure that he is befallen to the spells of a witch, Katherine prays over him. Caleb wakes up and rambles on his passion for Christ and dies (just before it seems as if he is being lifted up to awaiting arms) while the twins, who accuse Thomasin of being a witch and she in turns tells her parents of Mercy claiming that Black Philip talks, fall into a trance. An angered William boards up all three remaining children inside the stable with the goats. At night Katherine sees visions of Caleb and Sam and begins breastfeeding the infant, in actuality a raven pecking at her exposed breast. The witch is seen suckling the milk from a goat and scaring the children. William wakes up in the morning and goes outside to see the stable destroyed, the twins missing, the goats dead and only Thomasin alive. William is then gored to death by Black Phillip. Katherine, hysterical from her husband’s death and the twins’ disappearance, tries to strangle Thomasin, who kills her mother in self-defense.

A devastated Thomasin goes into her home and wraps a blanket around her and sleeps at the table. At night she is called to by Black Phillip, who answers in a human voice and appears as a man. He convinces her to sign a deal with the Devil, offering her the sights of the world and the life she wants to live. Thomasin walks naked into the forest where she finds a coven holding a Witches’ Sabbath. The witches begin to levitate and a cackling Thomasin joins them, rising into the trees and completing her transformation and identity as a witch.

The movie is dull and dragging at times. The main horror for me in the film is the fundamentalist Christianity spouting and babble about sinning, forgiveness, praying, hellfire and brimstone, sinners and all, born of sin, sin, sin, sin, making witches and Wiccans out to be the evil that they are not. Seriously the religious fervor in the family is beyond nuts! Sheesh! Top notch acting by the actors. I give this film a 7 outta 10!