A fun-filled ride

state is populated by a menagerie of talking mammals. Big and small, predator and prey, the different species have learnt to live together in relative harmony.

The 3D-enhanced storyline finds the metropolis’s first rabbit police officer (spunkily voiced by Goodwin) reluctantly teaming up with a scamartist fox (Bateman). They are given 48 hours to uncover a conspiracy involving a missing otter and a criminal conglomerate that transforms unsuspecting creatures into beastly baddies.

The animal kingdom is meticulously rendered into appropriately designated districts such as Tundra Town for the arctic community and Sahara Square for the desert dwellers characters includes a buffalo police chief (Elba) and a chirpy precinct receptionist (Nate Torrence), not to forget a slow-as-molasses sloth who provides a lot of laughs.

In addition, Colombian singing sensation, Shakira fetches up as the gazelle and does a rousing rendition of ‘Try everything’ over the end credits.

Among the film’s highlights is an early sequence in which the newly appointed bunny cop travels by bullet train through the various neighbourhoods of his new hometown.

Thankfully, the message about peaceful co-existence and unprejudiced social interaction never gets too preachy.

In sum, Zootopia is a funfilled ride for the proverbial