Zoomania - Blu-ray

Film: Little bunny Judy Hopps (voiced by Josefine Preuß) has big dreams: she wants to move to the metropolis of Zoomania and make a career as a police officer. Against all odds, she passes the entrance exam and is allowed to start her job in the city. But next to her big colleagues, the little bunny doesn't have it easy, especially since she is ordered by the chief of police to only write parking tickets. That's not really how she imagined her dream job. But then she gets the unique chance to prove what she is made of: together with a trickster, the charming but cunning fox Nick Wilde, she is supposed to solve the disappearance of some animals in Zoomania. In the process, she uncovers a huge conspiracy that could soon end the peaceful coexistence of the various animal species in Zoomania forever.

Zoomania is - apart from the incomprehensible change of title in Germany from the perfectly sensible Zootopia to the completely pointless Zoomania - damn close to being a perfect animated film for the whole family. The production is bursting with ingenuity that makes multiple viewings almost mandatory. The individual districts of the metropolis alone - from Sahara Square to the Amazon district, Nageria to Tundratown - offer so many endearing details that it's impossible to discover them all the first time around. Plus, there are so many delightfully quirky things that will make you tear up with laughter, which in turn will make you miss more trivia. So get ready to want to travel to Zoomania multiple times.

The story told in this colorful setting is, at its core, a classic buddy-cop comedy with some well-done moments of suspense. For very young viewers, these may be a little too dark and exciting, but animation fans young and old, ages 6 and up, are guaranteed to be swept away by the search for the missing animals. In addition to this somewhat conventional crime story, the creators around directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore have also woven a very nice message about tolerance into the plot, which gives the whole thing a special touch. Lovable characters, wonderful allusions to film classics and the funniest sloths in film history also lift the animated fun well above the crowd.

I can hardly remember another animated film in recent years where I laughed so often as heartily as I did with Zoomania. There may have been more dramatically complex works, perhaps more imaginative ones. But in terms of gag density, this animal family thriller is without a doubt in the premier league. In addition, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are a great duo, which you are only too happy to watch in their investigations. In doing so, the film offers its audience two levels: one with cute characters and very obvious gags for the kids and a slightly deeper level with more subtle, adult gags for adults. Thus, the whole thing works perfectly as an entertaining, funny and exciting entertainment for the whole family. For this, then, there is a very clear: Absolutely worth seeing!!!

Picture + Sound: The picture and sound quality of the Blu-ray is excellent. The absolutely clean picture shows off the film's many wonderful little details very well with its very high overall sharpness. Colors are warm and very powerfully mixed and there's nothing really wrong with the matching of contrasts and black levels either. The audio is available in the German version in a powerful DTS-HD HR 7.1 mix, which already fills the surround channels with such life that the comparison to the slightly livelier English DTS-HD MA 7.1 track doesn't really disappoint. Overall, a clear: very good!

Extras: The Blu-ray has some nice extras on offer. Starting off is a featurette that shows how the creators researched the behavior of their animal protagonists (approx. 9:58 min.). They got help from the experts at Disney's Animal Kingdom, but also traveled to Africa to observe the animals in the wild. Another featurette shows the different ideas the film was based on (approx. 9:15 min.) before the story developed that was finally realized. The creators then talk about how the characters, the environment and the animation were realised in a round table discussion (approx. 18:23 min.). And even the score gets its own short documentary (approx. 4:59 min.).

A look at the forensic files reveals what little references to other Disney films and characters are hidden in Zoomania (approx. 3:23 min.). It's very amusing to see where you can spot Mickey Mouse or references to The Ice Queen. In addition to the music video for Shakira's Try Everything (approx. 3:21 min.), there is then a look at characters that didn't make it into the finished film (approx. 3:16 min.), as well as 14 additional scenes in the very early animation stage (approx. 28:03 min.). It's extremely interesting to see how some moments in the film were actually planned quite differently, and what many other lovely and amusing ideas were also on the verge of making it into the film. Worth seeing!

Conclusion: Zoomania is one of the funniest and most inventive animated films in recent memory. The film is full of incredibly funny details and lovable characters, making it one to watch over and over again. The Blu-ray presents the blockbuster, which has grossed over $1 billion worldwide, in very good picture and sound quality and also has some very nice extras on board. For this there is from us quite clearly a: Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp